Berlin-based startup Pitch, which develops alternative products to Powerpoint and Google Slides, today announced that it is laying off two-thirds of its team. The news will mean that 69 people will lose their jobs and will receive at least three months severance pay, the company tells Sifted.
After six years at the helm, CEO Christian Reber is also stepping down, he announced Monday morning on LinkedIn.
“Instead of pushing harder and harder to turn Pitch into a hyper-growth company with venture funding, we concluded it was better to build a profitable company and grow Pitch organically from here,” reads Reber’s LinkedIn post.
“Going forward, we’ll be a significantly smaller team focused on creating maximum value for our customers and driving sustainable growth,” Reber added. “I am very sorry that this happened and I take full responsibility for leading Pitch up to this point.”
Reber, a serial entrepreneur who previously cofounded productivity app Wunderlist, will stay on at Pitch as a member of the board while Pitch’s cofounder and CTO, Adam Renklint, will take over as CEO immediately.
To date, Pitch has raised $136m from well-known investors including Index, Lakestar and Tiger. Its last funding round was an $85m Series B in May 2021.
In September 2022, Pitch laid off 30% of its workforce, roughly 59 individuals at the time of writing. The company cited a scarcity of VC funding and a need to drastically cut costs as a reason for the 2022 layoffs.
In response to questions on whether Pitch will need fresh funding soon to guarantee its future, Reber told Sifted that company won't need "to fundraise anytime soon," and that it has "almost two years of runway going forward and we are aiming to make the company profitable during that time."
He added that Pitch still has a "strong team left" and that he's personally willing to reinvest in the business, but that "restructuring was necessary."
