The Vancouver-based online-course platform provider made the second major staff reduction in about a year partly to reduce expenses and help it achieve positive adjusted earnings before income, taxes, depreciation and amortization as it exits 2023. (The Logic)
Talking point: “I firmly believe that making the necessary changes to reach profitability by the end of 2023 was the right decision for us,” wrote CEO and co-founder Greg Smith in a letter to employees Tuesday, after hosting an all-hands meeting. Thinkific shares closed at $2 each on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company’s shares have mostly traded below $2 since mid-August, a big fall from its upsized IPO debut, which closed at $15.60 a share on April 27, 2021. Thinkific, which laid off roughly 20 per cent of its staff at the end of March, said it will provide further details and a business update when it reports its fourth-quarter results Feb. 22. “We got ahead of our skis,” COO Miranda Lievers told my colleague Murad at the SaaS North conference in November, as she spoke about last year’s round of cuts. “The pandemic was a tremendous driver of growth for us … and we had to crank up the engine on how quickly we were hiring.” Thinkific’s staff doubled in both 2020 and 2021, she noted.