Linktree moves on from ‘difficult’ lay-offs, makes key US hires

The unicorn start-up, most recently valued at nearly $2bn, has poached executives from Snap and Headspace after a challenging past 12 months.

Linktree co-founders Alex Zaccaria, Anthnoy Zaccaria and Nick Humphreys. Source: Supplied.

Melbourne-based social media start-up Linktree has landed three new US executives, appointing a chief technology officer, chief product officer and chief marketing officer as it further expands from its roots as a small start-up to a global tech company with more than 30 million users.

Linktree chief executive Alex Zaccaria, who co-founded the start-up with brother Anthony and their friend Nick Humphreys, said in an interview that the hires were each ‘industry heavyweights’ and come amid an aggressive US expansion for the company.

Farnaz Azmoodeh, Linktree‘s new chief technology officer, joins the start-up from Snap where she served most recently as vice president of engineering, following a decade at Google.

Sam Rogoway, Linktree’s new chief product officer, most recently served as chief product and content officer at Headspace, while chief marketing officer Monica Austin joins Linktree from fellow mindfulness app Calm, following stints at Netflix and Facebook parent company Meta.

The company has expanded its technology over the past year from offering a simple ‘link-in-bio’ tool for social media users, to a broader platform for online creators, allowing them to connect TikTok, Instagram, blogs, stores and podcasts on one landing page.

“With Linktree being in a global growth phase, it was time to bring on industry heavyweights to help evolve and lead our marketing, product and engineering initiatives. These are key pillars to Linktree’s success, and I wanted to ensure we had the best of the best leading these areas of the business,” Mr Zaccaria told The Australian.

“Monica, Sam and Farnaz are all heavyweights in their respective fields. They’ve worked for some of the best technology companies in the world, and they have the right skills and vision to help us take Linktree to that next level. You’ve seen this before from other Aussie tech start-ups that succeed on the world stage — hiring people who have been there and done that in scaling a global tech company. We’re looking at these hires the same way.

“Monica, Sam and Farnaz are all based in the US as well, which is where a lot of our growth will come.”

The Melbourne-based start-up last year hit ‘unicorn’ status, raising a $150m funding round in March that valued it at $1.78bn, landing capital from Index Ventures, Coatue Management, AirTree Ventures, Insight Partners and Greenoaks.

“We’re the link-in-bio category creator and leader, and now a key player in the creator economy now,” Mr Zaccaria said.

“Linktree is in a growth stage and investing in itself: in our people, product and marketing. We’re really excited for the year ahead and to have Farnaz, Sam and Monica on board. I know they’re each going to have a massive impact on Linktree as we continue on this strong trajectory of growth.

“We now have over 33 million global users and counting, and we’re keen to continue building the product the next generation of creators will need to curate and grow their digital universe.”

Despite the growth in users the start-up laid off nearly 20 per cent of its staff last August, one of many local technology companies forced to reduce headcount in order to conserve cash, amid deteroriating macroeconomic conditions.

“The opportunity for Linktree is immense and I have no doubt we’ll achieve everything we intend to and more for our creators. The right path is rarely the easy path. Today’s change to our team is the hard path, but it puts us in a strong position to deliver on the opportunity we have in front of us,” Mr Zaccaria said at the time.

He told The Australian on Thursday that his start-up is now well-positioned financially, with plenty of cash on hand. Documents filed in December with corporate regulator ASIC show Linktree lost $49.2m last financial year and generated $25m in revenue, and had $110m in cash and equivalents.

Linktree’s co-founders. Photo by Sarah Chavdaroska

“It was incredibly difficult news for us to share, and it was by far the hardest decision we’ve had to make at Linktree,” Mr Zaccaria said of the lay-offs.

“While we assumed the favourable economic environment would persist last year, conditions changed faster than expected. Anthony, Nick and I have taken many learnings from this into the next phase of building Linktree in 2023 and beyond.

“We’re still adding more and making strategic hires as we double down on our vision and progress our road map.”

Ms Austin, Linktree’s new chief marketing officer, said Linktree’s journey to date had been “inspiring” to watch from afar.

“Watching Linktree create and grow the link-in-bio market, and reach the global scale that it did organically was incredibly impressive and inspiring for me,” she said.

“Linktree is now synonymous with link-in-bio, and having established that sort of presence organically is incredibly exciting for me as a marketer. Joining Linktree and getting to help Alex, Anthony and Nick grow Linktree to our next phase of growth was a no-brainer for me.

“I met the guys in person for the first time in Los Angeles when they were in town on business, and my first impression was exactly what I anticipated … They’re incredibly smart, passionate, and kind people. They strive to not only do what’s best for their team and 33-million global Linkers, but also the broader creator economy and world, had a really lasting impact on me.

“They are such great guys with a shared vision and so far, they’ve lived up to my expectations.”