Koo, the indigenous microblogging platform, has disclosed its suspension of April’s salary payments due to financial challenges.
The decision, unveiled during an early April Zoom meeting with staff, stirred astonishment and apprehension, particularly as the company had purportedly not forewarned of such measures beforehand.
Co-founder Mayank Bidawatka shared a LinkedIn post saying, “I spoke about us looking for strategic partners that can help Koo with the needed distribution, amidst a funding winter.”
“Those talks are still ongoing but are delayed. We have done everything to extend our runway so that employees and vendors can get paid. We’ve also resorted to salary cuts. It’s painful to cut the salaries of people who’ve helped build the company. We had the option of either letting a good part of the workforce go or doing a haircut for everyone. We did the latter”, the post added.
The post further said, “This way everyone could sustain without having to look for a job at a time when hiring across startups is at its all-time low. The delay in the partnership hurts everyone without an exception but it’s a process that’s taken its own time.
“Given the cash constraint, we recently informed our colleagues that future salaries can only be paid out once the partnership is concluded. This transparency helps them resort to options that work best for them. We have encouraged people to consult or work full/part-time with others to meet their cash needs. They’ve all been extremely supportive and want to see the company do well. It’s the mark of a great team”, he added.
“Koo remains operational. It’s a very well-built and fully automated product that needs little manual intervention to function. There’s a proud team that stands behind it, irrespective of where they are today. They’ve all been proud parents to the little yellow bird at some point or another”, the post concluded.
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