Blog

Braintrust Network Update: June 2023

Adam Jackson
Adam Jackson

Co-founder

I indicated in our last monthly update that we’re seeing around 75% of our enterprise clients freeze all hiring (including usage of the Braintrust platform). In the last month we’ve only seen the slowdown get worse.  Earlier this year we had ramped up hiring in anticipation of more growth, not less, so this week we decided to reverse those bets in order to preserve cash and keep the business financially sustainable. That reversal involved a decision to lay off 40% of the Freelance Labs staff (~28 FTEs), institute a 10% pay cut across the board, and pause all paid marketing initiatives. We will remain focused on automation & GSV efficiency until demand returns, at which point we’ll expand back to hyper-growth mode.

 

These cuts, while painful in the short term, ensure that we will survive this downturn and will never need more outside capital as the balance sheet is strong.  This is not a change in strategy or a reflection of our business model viability.  We’ll continue to invest in self-serve on the product side (efficient client funnel), the Professional Network for low-CAC talent acquisition and sophisticated, AI-based automation in order to keep OpEx very low once the demand comes back to the network. 

 

Some good news in the last month:  

  • The Professional Network launched to the public (press release)  with a ton of interest from mentors and mentees and already has over 11k weekly active users (WAU).  Here is a video of the live launch event myself and our GM Elena did.
  • Despite the climate, we’re still adding new logos and managing to expand some existing accounts. We had the most new enterprise clients on platform since Dec 2022.  29 Ent clients posted jobs in May. 26% increase MoM. 100 enterprise jobs posted, highest since 1/23 (67% incr. MoM)
  • We also launched a partnership initiative with Deel which is already bearing fruit by bringing new clients onto the platform at $0 CAC.
  • The talent side of the network continues to explode - another record month of signups (very low CAC, approaching zero).

 

Other things we’re doing:

  • We’re keeping a close eye on the regulatory developments (attacks) and have daily communication with our legal partners at Fenwick, and close ties with our partners at Coinbase, participating in their Public Affairs Coalition. ICYMI, Jeff John Roberts at Fortune compiled research showing that Gary Gensler has been deliberately pre-empting congressional rulemaking
  • As I mentioned in the last update, we’re applying new, internal LLMs in every department of the core teams and back end network operations.  

 

Thank you to everyone who has reached out and offered to help. We are grateful as always for the support of this community.

 

Any questions, comments, concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

 

All the best,

 

Adam

@adamjacksonsf

Join Braintrust: https://app.usebraintrust.com/r/adam3/  

Braintrust dashboard:  https://info.braintrust.com 

Podcast: www.adamjacksonshow.xyz   

Subscribe to our newsletter

Hire Top Talent

iOS Developer UI/UX Designer Web Developer Software Developer React Native Developer React JS Developer Ruby on Rails Developer Node JS Developer Android Developer Mobile App Developer Java Developer PHP Developer Laravel Developer .NET Developer Full Stack Developer Python Developer Angular Developer AngularJS Developer Front End Developer Data Scientist App Developer iPhone App Developer Shopify Developer Drupal Developer Unity Developer Vue.js Developer Django Developer JavaScript Developer Backend Developer C++ Developer Web Designer eCommerce Developer SEO Xamarin Developer Magento Developer Blockchain Developer AWS Developer Solana Developer Crypto Developer AI Engineer Graphic Designer WordPress Developer Flutter Developer Dedicated Developer Game Developer Project Manager Salesforce Developer Programmer UI Designer WooCommerce Developer ASP.NET Developer WordPress Designer Freelance Developer Ruby Developer Golang Developer Swift Developer DevOps Engineer Web App Developer HTML5 Developer IoT Developer Kotlin Developer CodeIgniter Developer Brand Designer Product Designer API Developer Mobile App Designer SQL Developer QA Tester Database Developer Product Manager Data Analyst 3D Animator Power BI Developer Webflow Designer HubSpot Developer Data Engineer Technical Writer Chrome Extension Developer Cloud Engineer Network Engineer QA Engineer Video Game Developer Tableau Developer Discord Bot Developer GUI Designer Business Analyst UX Researcher Embedded Software Engineer Roku Developer Rust Developer Docker Developer Apple Developer Program Manager Creative Director IT Project Manager Go Engineer Sys Admin Growth Marketing Manager Growth Product Manager Algorithm Developer User Researcher Agile Product Manager Windows Developer Excel Developer Big Data Architect Scrum Product Manager Kubernetes Expert Usability Testing Expert Security Researcher Ethereum Developer Umbraco Developer Symfony Developer OpenCart Developer VR Developer PrestaShop Developer CSS Developer TypeScript Developer WordPress Theme Developer Shopify Web Designer Volusion Developer HTML Developer Yii Developer Chatbot Developer C Developer AI Artist AI Chatbot Developer AI Chatbot Specialist AI Content Creator AI Content Editor AI Designer AI Developer AI Researcher AI Specialist AI Writer Artificial Intelligence Engineer ChatGPT Specialist DALL-E Artist Data Annotator Data Modeler Deep Learning Engineer Generative AI Engineer Generative AI Specialist Google BERT Specialist GPT-3 Specialist Machine Learning Engineer Microsoft Azure AI Engineer Midjourney Artist ML Engineer Ontologist OpenAI Codex Specialist Prompt Engineer Stable Diffusion Artist 3D Artist 3D Modeler Animator Affiliate Marketing Manager Community Manager Content Marketer Content Strategist Copywriter Demand Generation Manager Digital Storyteller Email Marketer Event Marketing Manager Influencer Marketer Marketing Analyst Marketing Campaign Manager Marketing Researcher Marketing Strategist Performance Marketing Manager Product Marketer Social Media Marketer Art Director Blockchain Architect Blockchain Security Auditor DeFi Engineer Designer Digital Project Manager Engineering Manager Full Stack Engineer Illustrator Marketing Coordinator Motion Graphic Designer Product Marketing Manager Product Owner Software Engineer Solidity Developer Content Designer Technical Project Manager UX Writer Videographer Visual Designer Web3 Developer Website Designer Infrastructure Engineer Cloud Architect Network Administrator Database Administrator Scrum Master Content Creator IT Admin Financial Analyst Accountant Accounting Manager Finance Manager FP&A Manager Corporate Counsel Paralegal Corporate Attorney Lawyer Legal Counsel General Counsel Legal Assistant Legal Secretary