Jagged news for Jimdo – a wave of layoffs on the Hamburg startup scene

The brutal news was revealed yesterday by our peers from the Gründerszene. Jimdo, one of Hamburg’s biggest employers, had to introduce a drastic plan to reduce its human resources. According to the Gründerszene, 70 people were dismissed, representing close to 25% of Jimdo’s total workforce.

A leading start-up in Hamburg

Founded in 2007 in Hamburg by Matthias Henze, Christian Springub, and Fridtjof Detzner, Jimdo experienced a steady and healthy growth over the last few years, becoming a prominent employer in Hamburg, especially for many expats. The site-maker holds its international customer support, localization, international marketing and sales teams in Hamburg, generating a need for native speakers from all over the world. Jimdo even came across as a straight-A start-up with black figures, high investment and a strong reputation as a good employer.

Source: monitor-hamburg-startups.net

One of the co-founders and current managing director, Matthias Henze, explains to the Gründerszene: „We did not manage to introduce an efficient management structure and our amount of personnel grew too fast.“ A vague explanation, not dissimilar to Goodgames Studio story, only a few months old. The gaming startup was compelled to let go hundreds of employees (out of 1200) for „restructuring motives.“ Back to Jimdo, the company has not yet communicated if a particular department was closed down or delocalised.

Twitter reactions with #jimdoquit

The sudden news quickly turned into a trend on Twitter. A lot of kind messages were shared from ex-Jimdos and other startupers.

Sorry to hear about #jimdoquit. Good luck for everyone! Companies in HH: Hurry to catch all those nice people left going!

— Tobias Schlitt (@tobySen) 26 octobre 2016

Sad news about #jimdo. Best wishes to my former-colleagues. #jimdoquit https://t.co/6b4Fs28Rkv

— michi lehr (@michilehr) 26 octobre 2016

Others saw the opportunities to recruit talented and skilled people, especially in the IT field

Hey, we also have several open job positions! 🙂 Looking forward hearing from you <3 https://t.co/g2xdoWY9z8 #jimdoquit #cellular

— Joshua Buttkus (@Captain_Hirni) 27 octobre 2016

The most fun startup in Hamburg is looking for skilled developers (front end/eCommerce) #jimdoquit

— Tastillery (@tastillery) 27 octobre 2016

The Hamburg Startups Team wishes all the best for the ex-jimdos!