Clearspring Lays Off 20%, President And COO Jay Rappaport Leaving

Seems like widget distribution startup Clearspring is another victim of the economic meltdown forced to make some tough decisions. We heard rumors floating that the company laid off about 20% of its staff in early December, and we’ve now confirmed with Clearspring that several people have in fact been let go, although they’re not sharing the exact amount of firings. CEO Homan Radfar says:

Late in Q4 last year, we decided to reduce our workforce. Even though we had a great year with tremendous growth, the economic uncertainties caused us to lay off colleagues. I am sad to part with them

Worse, the company has to find a replacement for President and COO Jay Rappaport, who joined the company in April 2007 and brought a lot of experience in-house as the ex-President of Vonage and former COO of AOL. We’ve added Clearspring to our Layoff Tracker.

There’s no doubt that Clearspring is being hit hard by the financial crisis, and since its business model is based primarily on online advertising its prospects are probably going to get worse before they get better.

Don’t count out Clearspring just yet though. They might be trimming down for tough times ahead, but with total venture investment in the startup at $36 million, with $18 million raised in a series C last May, they may very well have enough cash to weather the storm and come out stronger on the other end.