Happy Monday, readers! Today we're taking you inside the tech industry's once-in-a-generation downturn, and giving you an inside look at Meta's first physical store.
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1. The tech industry is bracing for a historic slump. While the industry enjoyed an extraordinary boom during the pandemic, rising interest rates, supply chain snares, and rampant inflation suggest the good times are rapidly coming to a close.
- Some investors warn that ugly layoffs may be brewing across the board, from public tech giants to scrappy startups — and even traditionally layoff-resistant companies, like Netflix and Meta, are facing contractions.
- In the private markets, high-flying startups are similarly starting to feel the crunch, with VCs showing more caution, and funding drying up.
- David Sacks, cofounder and partner at Craft Ventures, said the industry is looking at what will be in the top three corrections of the last 20 years — "joining the 2008/2009 Great Recession and the 2000 dot-com crash."
Why we could be facing a once-in-a-generation down-cycle.
In other news:
2. Military spouses describe pay disparities while working for Amazon. During a pandemic recruitment drive, Amazon targeted military spouses — two of whom said they worked grueling hours before having their wages cut and discovering they were paid 33% less than non-military coworkers. Here, they share their experiences.
3. Elon Musk's Twitter takeover may mean less money for workers who quit. Severance for fired workers is being considered, but payouts are expected to be relatively meager, an employee said — and those who are let go or choose to leave are likely to forfeit the value of all unvested stock. What could happen to employees who don't want to work for Musk.
4. Amazon fired managers at a newly unionized warehouse. The New York Times first reported that more than six senior managers at the warehouse in Staten Island were fired, a move workers saw as a response to the warehouse's successful unionization. Get the latest on the "organizational change."
5. In a leaked memo, Reef said it will lay off 5% of its employees. According to insiders, the Softbank-backed ghost kitchen is also delaying bonuses, and documents show it owes vendors millions in outstanding payments. More on the latest setbacks for the company.
6. "The office as we know it, is over": After Airbnb said employees could live and work anywhere without taking a paycut — an announcement that drew more than 800,000 jobseekers to its career page — CEO Brian Chesky said he believes the office is "an anachronistic form." Read his predictions on the future of work.
7. Cameo insiders offer an inside look at its brutal layoffs. Laid-off employees who spoke with Insider detailed seemingly extravagant spending, mixed with slowing growth and internal dissent, before the company laid off 25% of staff. They reveal the warning signs that Cameo was struggling.
8. With the virtual-assistant space expanding, we detail how to break in. Insider spoke with four virtual assistants and compiled a list of stories, strategies, and daily schedules that helped them build their businesses — and that you can use to pull in six figures in revenue.
Odds and ends:
9. So you want Ford's new electric F-150. Which model should you get? The truck starts at around $40,000 for the Pro model, but fancier editions, like the Lariat, can stretch past $90,000 — so we helped break down which model is best for different budgets. See the differences between the basic Lightning Pro and the upscale Lariat.
10. We toured Meta's new store — and it didn't live up to the hype. The company's first physical store, which opens to the public today, offers a sea of virtual reality and wearable tech for customers to test out. This writer explains the underwhelming experience.
What we're watching today:
- Palantir, Groupon, and others are reporting earnings today. Keep up with earnings here.
- The Financial Times is hosting its "Future of the Car" event, where Elon Musk will be a keynote speaker.
- The Meta Store opens today in California.
- LA Games Conference starts today.
Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. Listen here.
Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email [email protected] or tweet @jordanparkererb.) Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.