Polygon Labs Cuts Workforce to Create an “Efficient Surgical Team”

Reading Time: 2 minutes

• Polygon Labs has slashed its workforce to create a lean workforce
• It clarified that the move wasn’t due to weak financial muscles
• The decision will shrink Polygon Labs’ employees by 19%

Polygon Labs, the creator of Ethereum layer 2 Polygon, has disclosed that it’s reducing its workforce by 19% to create an “efficient surgical team.” The Polygon developers clarified that the decision wasn’t due to financial struggles, with its co-founder Sandeep Nailwal noting that it’s part of taking “Polygon Labs back to its ‘underdog’ roots.” Although the firm didn’t reveal which departments will be most affected by the cuts, its reasons for reducing employees are unconventional in the web3 world.

Optimizing for the Future

According to Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron, the move will send home 60 employees, adding that the decision was difficult but necessary. Boiron disclosed that the staff cuts were part of optimizing the organization for the future.

At Polygon Labs, we are on a mission to fundamentally change the Internet so that everyone in the world is empowered to equitably access its value. Building the infrastructure to make that happen is no easy feat. It requires executing ambitiously and nimbly with an efficient,…

— Marc Boiron (@0xMarcB) February 1, 2024

The executive noted that affected employees will be given two months of severance and that Polygon Labs is willing to recommend them to other web3 firms and hiring managers. Remaining employees will see their total compensation increased “by at least 15% effective retroactively on January 1, 2024.”

Apart from announcing the layoffs, Boiron revealed that Polygon ID will be spinning off as a standalone entity in “the coming months,” taking in the footsteps of Polygon Ventures. According to Nailwal, Polygon Labs employees will be 220 “after spin-offs and headcount reductions.”

Saying goodbye to friends and colleagues is always very painful, but this was a necessary step to take Polygon Labs back to its ‘underdog’ roots. This makes us lighter, nimbler and more mission focused.

Our relentless focus is to build the Planetary scale blockchain network for…

— Sandeep Nailwal | sandeep. polygon 💜 (@sandeepnailwal) February 1, 2024

The scaling layer is on a journey to welcome an enhanced version dubbed Polygon 2.0, an evolution that’s expected to happen this year. The platform has started the phased rollout of the new platform with the launch of the POL token contract meant to replace MATIC with POL as the protocol’s base token.

Although Polygon Labs said the headcount reduction isn’t influenced by financial struggles, the move is likely to reflect positively on its balance sheet.