Sharan Hegde of 1% Club lays off 15% of employees, cites AI-driven cost cuts

Sharan Hegde of 1% Club lays off 15% of employees, cites AI-driven cost cuts

The 1% Club, a financial education platform founded by Sharan Hegde, recently reduced its workforce by about 15%, or around 30 employees. This happened because the company had to cut down on its expenditure and AI was increasingly getting involved in the company's operations. This was disclosed through a post on LinkedIn by Hegde, co-founder of the company that he and Raghav Gupta started just two years back.

This is the company's first cost-cutting exercise since the firm was instituted. Hegde adds that as it scaled up in a very rapid manner-from a handful of five interns to almost 200 employees-many roles became redundant, including content creation, research, and marketing, due to the advanced AI technology available. "AI tools, such as Perplexity, are so efficient now that many human hours aren't needed," Hegde explained.

In his post, Hegde acknowledged the irony of being a finance influencer and having such a cut. He wrote, "I got many messages from my friends and the media saying I'm going bankrupt. Needless to say, if you grow at this pace, mistakes are bound to happen" . He assured that this step was taken with all precautions and care towards those employees and the company has treated them with good severance packages based on their tenure".

Company Performance

The 1% Club still appears to be working on the financial front even after all these lay-offs. The company claims to have an annualized revenue of about $8 million with an EBITDA margin of 35-40%. Hegde asserted that they come close to 85,000 active paying customers, and their lifetime membership plan is increasingly in vogue. He further elaborated that so far, most of the growth money that was raised came from profit rather than from drawing huge investments from elsewhere. Growth Prospect

Looking ahead, The 1% Club plans to "leverage AI-driven efficiencies" to enhance profitability and invest in business growth. Hegde sounds optimistic about the company's future as they will "make sure to commit to helping the laid-off employees find new job opportunities within their network".

Overall, even though layoffs are a fantastic transition to The 1% Club, they indicate bigger industry trends by which job roles and operational structures are shifting with AI.