Mr Yum ‘consolidates management’, slashes a further 40 roles

Melbourne tech start-up Mr Yum offers ‘hugs not handshakes’ to axed workers after the QR-code company revealed a second round of lay-offs.

Mr Yum chief executive Kim Teo has announced her business will cut a further 40 roles. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Melbourne tech start-up Mr Yum has slashed a further 40 roles overnight, in the second round of redundancies to hit the QR-code business in less than 12 months.

Co-founder Kim Teo took to LinkedIn to publicly announce the cuts, noting that its team is “more creative and move faster when we are lean”.

“Today we shared with our team that we’re making the strategic decision to get to profitability with our current cash reserves and control our destiny – however, we’ve needed to reduce our global headcount by approximately 40 roles to get there,” her post read.

Like many tech CEOs announcing cuts, Ms Teo took a transparent approach, sharing a two-page document which contained an email sent to staff on Tuesday around 1pm.

“Before markets changed, start-ups fell into the trap of thinking revenue growth required headcount growth, and we’ve proven the opposite to be true,” it read

“Markets will always go up and down; we’re here to build a company that’s resilient to external conditions.

“Having a path to profitability gives us optionality to use external investment to add fuel to the fire, on our terms, and only when the timing is right.”

The email noted four principles were considered when making the decision to cut roles, which included minimal impact on customers, consolidation of management roles, the right-sizing of regions and the de-prioritisation of “low confidence projects”.

The email, which was signed off with “hugs not handshakes”, noted that affected staff would have been notified within 10 minutes of receiving the notice.

Laid off staff would receive a lay-off package including six weeks’ pay on top of notice periods, accelerated stock options, career and mental health support and the option to keep their laptop.

Notice periods varied between roles but typically were four weeks, meaning staff were paid about 10 weeks of pay, not including leave.

Mr Yum grew new revenue 35 per cent following the first round of lay-offs which hit the business in August last year, Ms Teo noted in her email.

The first round of lay-offs, which affected 17 per cent of staff, arrived after Mr Yum had been “overly bullish” in 2021, Ms Teo had said at the time.

The start-up has also grown overall revenue 2.7 times following the acquisition of Sprout.

All staff would be given a mental health day off on Monday, March 27, and a list of staff seeking new roles would be published.