A message from Nylas co-founder & CEO Gleb Polyakov

A message from Nylas co-founder & CEO Gleb Polyakov

4 min read

Here is an overview of what I said to the Nylas team:

Nylanauts,

I always strive to be transparent and candid with you, and this update I will share is a difficult one.

Based on market conditions and the need to ensure that Nylas has considerable runway and financial flexibility to navigate this economic downturn, I’ve made the decision to reduce our team by 80 people.

This is significant, and to those of you impacted, I am truly sorry.

In the spirit of transparency, I want to explain why this decision was made, how we plan to take care of those impacted, and where we go from here.

How we got here

It is no secret that in recent months, the economic dynamics have shifted. While our funding remains strong and trust and support from our board and our customers remains high, it is imperative that we assess how we can position Nylas with ample financial resources and flexibility during economic uncertainty. We’ve slowed hiring, reevaluated investments, and expenses, and while we’ve systematically focused on other areas first, it has become increasingly apparent that we needed to address our largest investment, the size of our team.

These decisions were not made in a vacuum and I know that for the amazing people we lost this does not make this any easier. However, this reduction was about realignment, not halting growth. 

It is my job to make sure this ship can weather any storm, and while no one has a crystal ball on how the next few years will go, I want us well positioned to take advantage of the recovery on the other side.

How we’re taking care of each other

It is important to me and the rest of the leadership team to take care of those who are leaving. We have looked across severance, healthcare, benefits, and job support and have done our best to treat everyone with compassion and thoughtfulness.

We value all our people, whether they are still employed by us or not, and want them to be taken care of during this transition. We built a package of benefits to help do that, which includes:

  • A severance of 2 months base pay
  • Extended health and dental coverage to help limit the burden of rising healthcare costs
  • Retained laptop and home office equipment provided by the company
  • Extended access to Assembly to cash out health and wellness gift cards
  • Job support to help those affected

Our leadership team and I will use our networks and relationships to help ensure that those leaving Nylas are set up for success in finding their next job opportunity and we encourage all Nylanauts to do the same. 

Where we go from here

This has been one of the most difficult decisions Nylas has ever had to make, and we recognize how difficult it is for all of those involved.

To our departing colleagues: I want to thank you for your hard work and dedication to this company and its success. Please know this is not your fault, and instead is mine as CEO. We fought hard to hire you because we believe in your potential, and that hasn’t changed. I hope that as we grow again, we have a chance to hire you back. 

To our team that is staying: This is going to be a difficult day for you as well. You will say goodbye to team members you’ve worked with and grown close to. I also expect you will feel some level of uncertainty about the future. The difficult decisions made are to ensure we’re aligned and set on a successful trajectory. I’ll share more on how we rally as a team in the next few days. Right now, let us honor those who are leaving by thanking them and letting them know their contributions mattered.

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