All startups must grow, but as markets contract, conserving resources is a higher short-term priority.

Crypto exchange Coinbase is in the headlines this morning after news broke that it is rescinding some candidates' outstanding job offers.

Yesterday, we reported that IRL, a social app, was laying off 25% of its staff a year after raising a $170 million Series A, even though it has enough cash to operate for another two years.

I don't have any insight into IRL or Coinbase's financials, but I can say with certainty that these companies will have a harder time hiring talented employees from now on.

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Tech isn't like other industries: workers can explore uniquely personal interests while earning a sliver of equity in a potential unicorn.

But they also have options. If you've ghosted someone after extending a verbal offer of employment, that's going to be a consideration for future candidates. People talk!

At this point, most tech workers are likely wondering when layoffs are coming to their company. To build trust and keep employees engaged, managers should optimize existing engineering resources, says Ammar Bandukwala, co-founder and CEO at Coder.

"High-performing IT teams — which could deploy and push code to production faster than their peers — experienced 60 times fewer failures and recovered from them 168 times faster," he writes in TechCrunch+.

If you manage a software engineering team, I hope you'll read and share.

Have an excellent weekend,

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch+
@yourprotagonist

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After helping someone prepare dinner, I was aghast when they informed me that the broccoli stalks I'd just tossed into the compost were excellent for making vegetable stock, as a pizza topping, or adding to a stir-fry.