Initialized Capital is restructuring its team to “keep up with the times” in the venture market, according to a blog post from Brett Gibson, the firm's managing partner.
The San Francisco-based venture capital firm originally founded by Alexis Ohanian, Garry Tan and Harjeet Tagger yesterday laid off several people who have been with the company in various roles since 2016. announced that they had specifically nominated Jennifer Wolf. Most recently, I was appointed as Managing Partner.
Cyndi Reseburg, Inialized's head of communications, declined to say how many people were laid off, adding that the company does not comment on specific departures.
The company also appears to have parted ways with former Rent the Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss, who joined the company as a partner last fall. The company declined to confirm Fleiss' departure, but she has been removed from its website. SF Standard also reported that she was one of those who “departed” from Initialized.
The company has not confirmed the exact number of layoffs, but changes to the team page on the company's website from October 1st to today indicate that it appears to have reduced its workforce from 33 to 21 employees, which is 36 %. Reduction in personnel. Other positions likely to be affected include Initialized's Director of Administration, Director of Capital and Partner Solutions, and Director of Product.
The role of Parul Singh, who was appointed partner of the firm in 2021, has been recast from partner to director partner on the website.
It's not all downsizing. Amidst the departures, Initialized announced the promotion of three principals to partner: Abdul Lee, Andrew Sather and Zoe Perrett. Interestingly, Wolf previously worked at Adjacency, a company co-founded by Sather in the '90s.
Gibson's memo says the company started out lean and behaved like a startup, but expanded over time as it found success with investments. In the process, he wrote, he added “too many layers” that he is now trying to shed.
“It's time to get back to basics,” his memo said. “Now, more than ever, we need to follow talent, not just by subject matter, but by embracing their practices. The faster the world moves, the faster we need to move, too. ”
Initialized Capital is not the only company to reorganize over the past few years in response to current market conditions. Last fall, Greycroft let go of five investors after failing to meet its funding goal. Sequoia also cut a third of its human resources team last year.
Initialized was founded in 2012. The company focuses on various categories of seed trading and has over $3 billion in assets under management. Initialized has backed notable companies such as Coinbase, Ripling, and Flexport.
This article has been updated to correct Wolf's latest position and title affected by the reorganization.