TinyOwl CEO bares his soul on coping with the pain of layoffs

Harshvardhan Mandad, CEO and cofounder TinyOwl. Photo credit: Super Personal Recruiter via YouTube image grab.

At 26, Harshvardhan Mandad, CEO of food tech startup TinyOwl sometimes feels very lonely.

When the rumors of layoffs at TinyOwl appeared in Hindi newspapers of Rajasthan, Harsh’s parents called him up for the first time to check if everything was okay. Until then they had little idea of what Harsh was doing in Powai, far from his native village near Pilani.

In the last six months, this Indian startup has let go of over 400 employees. The latest restructuring round in November brought down the employee count to 218 from over 600 employees in August.

“It’s a tough call. But there are no right or wrong answers. Either we save the ship by asking some people to go or we all sink,” he says.

“Each delay in de-boarding would have reduced cash in bank and with it the chances of survival.”

TinyOwl raised about US$14.7 million in February last year, followed by US$7.4 million in October, which gave it a lifeline.

Dealing with nasty emails

Staff affected by the first round of layoffs just before the festival of Diwali should’ve been given an earlier notice, and a slightly longer one, Harsh admits.

Often he receives nasty emails from employees who are irked by late salaries or severance packages. “People don’t realize that it’s not because of their performance but the company’s overall vision that such tough calls are taken,” he adds.

“It’s great to have co-founders in the startup journey, but it’s the CEO who has to take the brunt,” he adds. TinyOwl was founded by five co-founders in 2014.

He believes an entrepreneur should still jump into it fearlessly. “If you accept the worst possible outcome, nothing will scare you then,” he adds.

If you accept the worst possible outcome, nothing will scare you then.

Most of his batch mates from IIT-Bombay’s class of 2012 flew off to the US to join multi-national companies. Only a few stayed back in India.

“The learning after two years in a startup is what will last a lifetime for anyone,” he tells me, pointing out a building where once he had knocked on every door requesting its occupants to order food online through his TinyOwl app.

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