Business

Helium Raises $17 Million, Fires 30 Percent of Staff

The layoffs just keep coming, even for companies bringing in funding. User-generated How-To site Helium raised $17 million in Series A this month and used the opportunity to layoff 30 percent of the company’s employees. CEO Mark Ranalli tells TechCrunch that laying off 18 people will help make his company profitable: We expect a deterioration […]

Helium
The layoffs just keep coming, even for companies bringing in funding. User-generated How-To site Helium raised $17 million in Series A this month and used the opportunity to layoff 30 percent of the company's employees.

CEO Mark Ranalli tells TechCrunch that laying off 18 people will help make his company profitable:

We expect a deterioration of overall ad rates, and a slowing of the economy in general. Our approach was to take a third of every group across engineering, customer service, and sales.

Members of Helium's community write the general information and How-To posts that populate the site. Content is evaluated by users to determine the best quality posts. Helium relies on advertising dollars and its growing writer's marketplace for revenue. Writers who acquire freelance jobs through the marketplace pay Helium a 20 percent cut of their wages, a six-month old revenue stream that has recently eclipsed advertising income for Helium, according to Ranalli.