Airtable Cuts Executive Team and Staff by 20%, Shifts to Narrow Execution Strategy

Airtable has confirmed that three of its executive-level leaders have left the company amid the layoff of 254 employees, constituting a 20% reduction in staff. The departures include the chief revenue officer, chief people officer, and chief product officer. This strategic move is in correlation with the company's decision to concentrate on a more streamlined execution mode.

The chief revenue officer, Seth Shaw, joined Airtable in November 2020, shortly before Peter Deng had come on board as the chief product officer. Johanna Jackman assumed the role of the chief people officer in May 2021, aiming to double the company's headcount to 1,000 within the span of a year. The mutually agreed departure of all three executives will see them continuing to advise the company through the transition phase.

An official company spokesperson declined to comment on whether severance pay was offered to the executives, but it has been confirmed that internal employees will succeed the positions. Further details are to be disclosed during an upcoming all-hands meeting scheduled for Friday.

The exit of executives on this scale is a rare occurrence, especially when a company is undertaking substantial cuts. However, Airtable CEO and founder, Howie Liu, emphasized in an email to staff obtained by TechCrunch that this decision is a response to the company's shift toward a narrower focus. This is Airtable's first-ever layoff during its 10-year existence.

Liu's email reveals that Airtable's October announcement of its plan to capture enterprise clients with connected apps is at the forefront of this strategy. While Airtable's initial success was fueled by bottom-up adoption, it is now redirecting resources to pursue this path. The company plans to concentrate on targeting and expanding in large enterprise companies, which have at least 1,000 full-time employees, where its connected apps vision can provide the most differentiated value.

In addition to executive exits, the email also states that Airtable has reduced spending in several areas, including marketing media, real estate, business technology, and infrastructure. Liu's message describes how the company's rapid growth in recent years, driven by trying to accomplish too much at once, has left them stretched thin. The new approach emphasizes investing heavily in growth while allocating resources to areas with the greatest return on investment. The company reassures that its $735 million Series F funds are still intact, and a spokesperson clarified that Airtable remains ambitious and committed to executing its new direction. Furthermore, the spokesperson stated that the company's enterprise segment, which generates the majority of its revenue, is showing 100% YoY growth.

The shifting focus to large enterprise clients echoes the evolving trends in the tech industry towards low-code and no-code solutions such as AppMaster's platform, which expedites the development process and enables streamlined execution of business processes. AppMaster offers a customizable and comprehensive low-code, no-code solution for web, mobile, and backend applications, allowing businesses of all sizes to scale their operations efficiently.