DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Tesla ≠ Apple. Elon Musk ≠ Steve Jobs. Cars ≠ iPhones.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and today, we're looking at where tech workers are getting hired. Startups and Big Tech have major cultural differences, according to some startup founders. My colleague Rebecca Knight and I found that tech jobs remain abundant — they just aren't necessarily in the tech industry. Elon Musk ≠ Steve Jobs. Many industry experts are quick to compare Tesla to Apple and Musk to Jobs.

☆ Read the memo Compass CEO Robert Reffkin sent staff about the third round of layoffs since June
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Read the email Robert Reffkin, Compass' CEO, sent to staff announcing the layoffs Thursday morning. Robert Reffkin, the CEO of Compass, told staff on Thursday that the brokerage would be laying off more people. In an early-morning email, he said that the latest staff reduction comes amid "difficult economic times." The size of the layoff appears to amount to around 350 workers, or roughly 10% of the company's remaining staff, though Compass would not confirm a specific number. RobertRobert Reffkin | Founder & CEO

☆ Compass is laying off more staff as it races to cut expenses to cope with a cooling housing market
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Compass is laying off more people after two rounds of job cuts in the past eight months. The firm, which went public at an $8 billion valuation in 2021, now has a $1 billion market cap. The real-estate brokerage Compass told its staff on Thursday that it would be conducting another round of layoffs, with the money-losing firm seeking to further cut costs amid a weakening housing market. These layoffs follow rounds in June and OctoberAt the end of 2021, Compass had about 4,500 employees. In June, Compass let go of 450 employees across corporate departments, including administrative, marketing, and other support staff.

You can get the latest on that and much more from our finance newsletter, 10 Things on Wall Street. It's a snappy weekday read with the biggest stories on the Street, plus the latest on hot-spot restaurants, industry parties, and so much more. On the agenda today:Up first: Senior real-estate correspondent Daniel Geiger is giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the recent turmoil at Compass. With home sales dipping amid rising interest rates, Compass has cut workers and bled cash. In June, it laid off about 450 corporate staff, and in October, it let go of about half its 1,500-person tech team.

☆ Compass CEO Robert Reffkin's memo on how to dump poor performers was good, but here's how it could have been better
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Shana Lebowitz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Robert Reffkin, the CEO of Compass, asked his leadership team to help root out underperformers. The message is compelling but doesn't tell leaders what employees must do to succeed at the company. The memo arrived after two rounds of layoffs, in June and October, at Compass, which has been struggling financially. But the Compass memo, while giving strong examples of what workers shouldn't be doing, didn't offer as much guidance about what the company needs from employees right now. But Galinsky said the memo lacked details about what exactly employees need to do in order to succeed at Compass right now.

☆ US lawmakers want answers on FTX's collapse. Sam Bankman-Fried may not have them.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But first, we are going to hear more from Sam Bankman-Fried this week, even if you think we've already heard quite enough from him. Sam Bankman-Fried testifies during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on December 8, 2021 in Washington, DC. Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who said he once considered himself a "model CEO," tweeted last week that he would testify before tomorrow's House Financial Services committee hearing focused on his firm's blowup. FTX's new CEO, John J. Ray III, who oversaw the bankruptcy of Enron, will testify in the first part of the hearing. A private lunch with the billionaire is on the table if you're willing to pony up the cash.

☆ Compass CEO Robert Reffkin told his leadership team to step up managing out low-performing employees, as the company racks up losses and is forced to cut costs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Compass CEO Robert Reffkin sent an email to his leadership team on "managing out poor performers." Compass employees were disheartened. "It's also your responsibility to manage out employees who can't, or aren't, performing at that level," Reffkin wrote in the Sunday afternoon message. The full text of the memo was shared with Insider, and a Compass spokesman confirmed Reffkin sent the email. In June, Compass let go of about 450 corporate workers across departments.

☆ Read the memo Compass CEO Robert Reffkin sent his leadership team, telling them to crack down on 'managing out poor performers' and quiet quitters
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Compass CEO Robert Reffkin sent a memo to managers Sunday telling them to target poor performers. In the December 4 email, which has the subject line "managing out poor performers," Reffkin said to identify underachieving employees and to "move them out." "If you see evidence that someone doesn't want to stay at Compass and help us weather this storm, say something," Reffkin wrote. Compass needs you to know your employees and their work habits and results. I hold myself and my leadership team to this same standard.

☆ 'Selling Sunset' broker Jason Oppenheim says 'Compass basically destroyed the brokerage model for the entire industry'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Jason Oppenheim, who runs The Oppenheim Group, said the rival brokerage Compass is "unfixable." Compass told Insider its current cost-cutting plan includes "no change in our split policy." "There's no fixing Compass," Oppenheim, best known from the Netflix reality show "Selling Sunset," told the real-estate news outlet Inman. "There are other brokerages out there offering 90-10 and 85-15 splits because they had to in order to compete with Compass," Oppenheim told Insider. Oppenheim told Insider he's not rooting for the downfall of Compass.

☆ Real-estate tech firms are getting hammered by a cataclysmic reckoning that one VC called a cross between the 2001 dot-com bust and the 2008 market crash
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

The proptech sector is battling two challenges at once: a slowing housing market and a tech bust. For almost a decade, a growing group of companies have thrived by introducing tech innovations to a stubbornly analog real-estate industry. "Now we're seeing something that feels like a confluence between the 2001 dot-com bust in the venture-capital world and the 2008 market crash in real estate. Shares of both Opendoor and Redfin, which once drew investor attention to the soaring proptech industry, are worth roughly one-tenth what where they were a year ago. The company hasn't laid off any of its 300-person staff — including a roughly 50-person tech team — and doesn't plan to, Matthews said.

☆ Insiders say Elemy often couldn't deliver on its promise to provide quick access to autism care
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | Spriha Srivastava | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

On the agenda today:But first: Senior healthcare reporter Shelby Livingston is giving us a behind-the-scenes look at her reporting on Elemy, a startup that insiders say often failed to provide the quick access to autism care that it had promised. This week, I reported how SoftBank-backed Elemy aimed to transform autism care — but insiders say the $1.15 billion startup overpromised on its capacity to treat kids. More than 20 former and current employees spoke with me for this story. After an initial assessment, Elemy told them they'd be in therapy in no more than eight weeks. Here's what Compass insiders told us.

☆ Compass is in a precarious position. It's worth a fraction of its IPO valuation, it's never turned a profit, and employees say the former centerpiece of the business — its vaunted tech tools for agent
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Reffkin (left) and Compass cofounder Ori Allon. Tech had been central to Compass' original missionFor years, Compass executives, including Reffkin, credited the company's tech with its meteoric rise in the residential-real-estate business. Though Compass' tech team still has 700 people, many more than any rival brokerage, the September layoffs seemed to initiate what insiders expect to be continuing cuts to the unit. "Robert is like Steve Jobs but without the insight," the veteran engineer who left Compass earlier this year said. Reffkin (left) and Allon ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

☆ Compass employees question the real-estate brokerage's cost cutting, saying it threatens the startup's tech ambitions
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Kaja Whitehouse | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

This is Kaja Whitehouse reporting to you from New York City, where real estate isn't just a profession — it's an obsession. But you don't have to be preoccupied with real estate, or located in the Big Apple, to known about Compass, the fast-rising real-estate brokerage that IPOed last year. When Compass IPOed in April 2021, it garnered a $7 billion valuation — the highest price ever for a residential real estate brokerage. In other news:Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon moonlights as a DJ, and is now set to play at the Lollapalooza music festival in July. It's no secret that Goldman Sachs' CEO David Solomon has been under pressure over his burgeoning consumer banking division Marcus.

☆ Vista Equity Partners is exploring a deal to take Compass private, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-05 | by ( Ben Bergman | Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Vista Equity Partners is exploring taking the real-estate brokerage private, sources say. A Compass rep said "no private-equity firm has contacted Compass expressing any interest in taking the company private." Vista Equity Partners is exploring a deal to take the residential real-estate brokerage Compass private, according to three people familiar with the discussions. The chief technology officer Joseph Sirosh, who left Microsoft to run Compass' tech operations, was let go shortly after the call. Vista has taken numerous tech companies private this year, including an $8.4 billion deal for the tax-software company Avalara and a $16.4 billion deal for Citrix.

☆ Compass CFO Kristen Ankerbrandt explains how the fast-growing brokerage company can reap profits
▼ + stars: | 2021-12-07 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The CFO of Compass believes profits will catch up to the real-estate brokerage's rapid growth. The conversation took a turn when Compass' CEO and cofounder, Robert Reffkin, suggested instead that Ankerbrandt join as its chief financial officer. Earlier this year, Ankerbrandt helped steward Compass' much-anticipated initial public offering that valued the firm at about $7 billion. "We had $370 million in revenue in 2017, and we did $3.7 billion in 2020, which is pretty incredible," Ankerbrandt said. For years, upstarts in the residential real-estate business have sought to displace or deprioritize the role of the broker.

Search resuls for: "Robert Reffkin"

15 mentions found