Montreal Tech Watch is reporting that Montreal startup Xtranormal has cut 50% of their staff.
Xtranormal which launched with much fanfare a little over a month ago has laid off today 36, which is half of its staff.
Xtranormal invested heavily in research & development efforts in the past year, understandable since they were tackling a new challenge, user-produced videos, but this mass layoff shows lack of planning, focus & guidance from its CEO & founder, Richard Szalwinski, who also did previously Discreet Logic. Many at xtranormal expected him to lead product development but he didn’t. As sources of money & funding disappear, Xtranormal is now forced to downsize its staff. I guess xtranormal’s investors are defaulting on committed payments due to markets crashing left & right, although you have to take that with a grain of salt.
Layoffs are hard times for a company, with remaining staff having lower morale. My thoughts goes to existing and ex-employees, hoping they’ll bounce back.
Xtranormal was #12 on the Montreal Startup Index for November.
xtranormal is a web-based application that lets users manipulate avatars within pre-configured environments in order to create newscasts, movie... [more]
