Original author: Alex G. ( , ∆)
Original translation: TechFlow
I just sent a message to the Matter Labs team:
Today, I’m announcing the most difficult change at Matter Labs in its six years. We are restructuring our organization and have to say goodbye to many of our amazing team members (about 16% of the team). We have communicated individually with each impacted employee.
As founder and CEO, I take full responsibility for this decision and all the ones that came before it. To those of you who are leaving: I’m sorry we have to take this step. It hurts to say goodbye to talented employees for reasons unrelated to performance. I’ll explain why we made this decision, how we will care for the team members who are leaving, and what this means for the future of Matter Labs.
Why we made this decision
Since its inception, Matter Labs has insisted on building a lean and focused team, focusing on a core mission - promoting the mass adoption of cryptocurrency in the field of personal sovereignty. A small and efficient team allows us to steadily advance influential innovations and constantly adapt to external changes.
Since this year, our market environment and business needs have changed significantly. We've noticed that many teams developing on the zkSync Era now require different technology and support than they did in the past. At the same time, the demand for ZK chain has also increased significantly.
Matter Labs’ role in the decentralized zkSync ecosystem is also evolving. The launch of Elastic Chain and ZK Nation was an opportunity to reevaluate our strategy, goals, and team composition. We conducted a comprehensive organizational planning and found that the current talent and position configuration did not fully meet our needs. As a result, we reviewed every role in the company to ensure that the right people are in the right positions to keep the team agile and efficient.
How we place departing employees
For employees leaving today, we have developed a comprehensive severance package, including:
Basic salary: Ensure 3 months of basic salary.
Medical and mental health support: 4 months of continuous coverage.
Vesting of Options: Options will be fully vested prior to the official separation date, and the vesting period will be waived for employees who have served the company for more than 6 months.
Career Support:
There is an option to share the list of affected employees with investors.
Provide one-on-one career support sessions with leadership team members to help plan career development.
Provides suggestions for optimizing your resume and LinkedIn profile.
Equipment: Employees can keep company-provided laptops and other equipment purchased through company allowances.
Immigration: Assistance with immigration will be provided over the next 4 months.
Looking ahead
As CEO, it is my responsibility to continually simplify the organization to avoid similar painful adjustments in the future. I will ensure that all new functions and positions are aligned with our long-term strategy and maintain the highest performance standards.
While today’s transformation is painful, I am confident about the future. Demand for our technology is growing, with about a dozen chains launching on Elastic Chain this year alone, and many more teams building on zkSync Era. We are also fortunate to have the financial resources to thrive even in a multi-year bear market. We will continue to grow and recruit the talent that will be critical to the next phase of Matter Labs.
Finally, I want to express my deep gratitude to every team member, both those leaving and those who continue with us, for your invaluable contributions to our journey. It is because of your efforts that Matter Labs is what it is today: a transformative force for freedom around the world.
I will be providing more details to the teams about today’s decision so you can hear directly from me. In addition, your team leaders will be organizing team-specific forums and meetings throughout the week.
