Online banker Simple laid off nearly 10 percent of its workforce Wednesday, the Portland-based company’s second round of cuts this year. Additionally, Simple is parting with five members of its executive team.
“We have been focused on growth instead of innovation. We have been acting like a bank instead of a technology company. And that changes today,” Simple chief executive and co-founder Josh Reich wrote in a blog post announcing the restructuring.
Simple said it will focus on updating elements of its technology, including its “Goals” feature, which helps clients track their spending to meet financial targets. The company said it’s eliminating 33 of its 350 jobs, but plans to offset some of the cuts with additional hiring in other areas.
Executive departures included in Wednesday’s shakeup include Simple’s chief marketing officer, its chief people officer, its vice president of operations and the vice president of engineering.
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Additionally, chief operating officer Matt Compton said he plans to leave the executive team when its restructuring is complete, though he will remain an advisor and member of its board. A former venture capitalist and Yahoo executive and startup CEO, Compton joined Simple in 2015.
“The changes for the company are really about focusing on building our product as a lean organization,” Compton said in an interview. “Once we’re done with that I’ll be transitioning out of my day-to-day role.”
One of Portland’s largest tech employers, Simple has been among the most successful of a generation of tech startups that emerged in the city after the Great Recession. It sold in 2014 to Spanish bank BBVA for $117 million and has nearly quadrupled in size since the deal.
For much of the past three years Simple has been focused on technical work including a transition from former banking partner Bancorp to BBVA. During that time, Simple’s basic services have remained unchanged as established banks and more upstarts jumped into the online banking market.
“Our focus on infrastructure and supporting customer growth means we haven’t been fully invested in building new technology that helps people feel confident that they’re doing money right,” Reich wrote in Wednesday’s blog post. “We have not made good on our promise to change an industry that is failing them.”
About two-thirds of Simple’s employees work in the company’s headquarters in inner Southeast Portland. In March it shed close to 5 percent of its staff, cuts Simple said applied to customer service workers no longer needed after it completed a change in its banking partners.
Simple still plans to move into a second building in Southeast Portland next year, which is now under construction across the street from its current headquarters. Spokeswoman Shauna Causey said the new building includes a “usability lab,” which will be a key part of Simple’s new push in improving its product.
“This was really just very simply a decision to refocus the company on product and moving fast and going back to our startup roots,” Causey said.
Overall, growth in Oregon tech employment has stalled after several years of growth. Simple is the latest of several Oregon tech employers to cut back this summer, despite a robust overall economy.
SureID, which provides identification verification technology, has laid off nearly 300 people after losing its main client; Microsoft is closing its Wilsonville computer factory, laying off 124 employees and sending the work overseas; and Jive Software has scaled back its Portland presence significantly after selling to a tech company in Texas.
Date:Aug 17, 2017