A day before 250 layoffs, what Unacademy CEO commented on post about startup failures

A day before Unacademy laid off 250 employees across various functions in a fresh round of layoffs, CEO Gaurav Munjal’s comment on a social media post about the pitfalls of start-up management has garnered attention.

On July 1, a day before the layoffs were announced, Munjal commented on a post by Bhavin Turakhia, founder of Zeta, on X. Turakhia's post delved into the concept of “premature founder boredom” as a major cause of startup failure. He argued that the ultimate goal for any startup is to evolve into a "boring" business, characterized by sustainable profitability, a growing market share, and well-established processes across functions.

"Founders fall in love with chaos, ambiguity, and uncertainty (because variable rewards release dopamine) and can begin to detach themselves from their core business prematurely before it becomes boring, resulting in distraction, lack of focus, inefficient use of capital, and inefficient use of the best people," Turakhia wrote.

Munjal's response to this was succinct: "Hits the right chords."
The latest round of job cuts at Unacademy were announced a day after his tweet.

The 250 job cuts affected 100 employees from core functions such as marketing, business, and product, with the remaining 150 from sales, sources said. In a statement, the company justified the decision as part of its ongoing efforts to streamline operations and focus on sustainable growth and profitability.