Silicon Valley based online TV startup MeeVee has laid off approximately 20% of its staff, including three executives. The cuts were primarily in finance, sales and marketing, and 27 employees remain with the company.
MeeVeee is an online TV guide that recently began to integrate video content directly into the site. They’ve raised $14.5 million in two rounds of venture capital.
CEO Michael Ranieri said this evening that the company is focusing on moving the product forward for now and is in the process of raising another round of financing. He also points to recent deals with Gemstar and CBS as signs of forward momentum for the company.
So lets throw some math at this.
20% layoff, 27 left. x* 0.2/100 = 27
x= 34
34 people company down to 27. Holly Sh*t! What is I gonna do?
The cuts were in finance, sales, and marketing?
Some old sayings just flashed into my brain:
“There’s no romance without finance”
and
“It’s the sizzle that sells the steak”
A small company should not be laying off people in sales or marketing. A small company should market itself aggressively. That’s what I think-
(I think)
This was such they can focus on the product which should be the priority for a start-up, not finance or marketing. I hear they are off to launching a new site next month, new features, etc. I think it was a smart move.
14 MUSD founding and still laying off?
looks like the bubble burst 2.0 is coming sooner than we thought.
Another round of venture capital after already taking 14.5 mill? Good God maybe they should fire their enron accountant and just use H&R Block to handle the finances.
“Another round of venture capital after already taking 14.5 mill?”
Definitely a case of throwing good money after bad.
Michael Ranieri is not the founder of Meevee, just the current inept head of state. Maybe they can get a refund on that ridiculous sign and save someone’s job. I mean honestly, where has all that money gone?
As dire as a 20% staff cut sounds, it doesn’t *necessarily* mean that Meevee is in its death throes. Maybe a caveat for locking down additional funding is that Meevee prove it’s uber-focused on creating a viable product (last I checked they weren’t terribly buzz-worthy) and not prone to capsizing due to its bulk.
In that vein, a sales team may have been premature. Maybe they found a more cost-effective (outsourced) solution for finance and marketing (which I’m assuming is not much more than SEO/SEM).
As Math Geek implied in the first post, 20% appeared to = 7 people; not an bone-chilling figure. Including 3 execs? Sounds like they may have been rather top-heavy.
This is old news! The layoffs happened over a month ago, sheesh!
yeah i disagree with the marketing layoffs;
– but to see a company trimming down is good.
27 Employees? 20% layoff…
last i count they were maybe 13 and the numbers keep on dropping…
So all that money for who??????
So is it the incompetent crowd shown the door steps ????
This is pretty straight-forward; their run-rate was too high for their current traction_level/ user_uptake. Now resources will be devoted to developing the product more fully.
I’m not a tv owner, but I would imagine someway to interact with a set-top box, pvr. wii, or appletv.
They compete with tivo and other bigger_hitters. Tough space.