Clubhouse to let go of more than half of its staff and start over

The app lost a lot of momentum when people realised that what Clubhouse was offering was just a feature that could be implemented into any social media app. (Image: Clubhouse app on iOS App Store)

Clubhouse, one of the industry darlings of the COVID-era, have announced that they are going to let go of more than half of their workforce.

The app grew in popularity as a place for social interaction during the lockdowns but the app's founders, Paul Davidson and Rohan Seth, admit in a post that as the, "world has opened up post-Covid, it’s become harder for many people to find their friends on Clubhouse and to fit long conversations into their daily lives. To find its role in the world, the product needs to evolve. This requires a period of change."

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Davidson and Seth clarified that they still, "have years of runway remaining and do not feel immediate pressure to reduce costs," but a smaller team would give them, "focus and speed, and help us launch the next evolution of the product."

The founders said it was difficult to communicate strategies to "cross-functional teams when it’s evolving by 1% each day, or to make quick changes when each surface is owned by a different product squad. Being remote has made this especially challenging for us. The end result is that it’s hard for teams to coordinate, people feel blocked by us, and brilliant, creative people are left underutilized."

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Clubhouse's immense popularity inspired a series of knock-off efforts by other social media giants like Twitter's Spaces. The app lost a lot of momentum when people realised that what Clubhouse was offering was just a feature that could be implemented into any social media app.