A leaked email from Jellysmack’s CEO explains the creator startup’s new structure as it lays off 30 staffers

Jellysmack works with creators on distributing their content across platforms like Facebook and Snapchat to earn additional ad revenue, among other initiatives.

In an email sent to employees on the cuts, Jellysmack’s cofounder and CEO Michael Philippe cited “a contraction of monetization across platforms” as one reason behind the cuts and added that this decline was due to “volatility in the digital ad market and a decrease in long-form distribution.”

Philippe also broke down a new company structure, which will include a focus on the company’s technology and Al product offerings for creators.

“To preserve the long-term health of Jellysmack, we made some team changes to restructure our business around areas of traction and growth,” a Jellysmack spokesperson told BI. “As a result, some roles in the US and internationally were impacted. We continue to have ambitious plans for Jellysmack and will invest further in areas of success.”

Read the exact email Jellysmack’s CEO sent to employees in December detailing the layoffs, viewed by BI:

From: Michael Philippe, Co-Founder & CEO

Dear Team,

We are reaching out with some difficult news. We have to realign our resources around areas of the business where Jellysmack is seeing the most success. Unfortunately, this means our team will get smaller.

If you’re impacted by this announcement, you will receive a meeting invitation shortly. We take full responsibility for today’s decision, which was not taken lightly. However, it is the right step to preserve the long-term success of Jellysmack.

We’d like to provide you all with clarity on what led us to our choices.

We entered this year with four key objectives:

• Initiate market consolidation through M&A

• Accelerate our technology and Al platforms

• Become profitable on our Creator Services

• Grow our Jellysmack Originals channels

While we have successfully delivered on our M&A strategy and are building promising new Al technologies, we have also experienced a contraction of monetization across platforms, due to volatility in the digital ad market and a decrease in long-form distribution.

Though many of our creators and original shows remain successful, heading into 2024, we have to realign our resources to better serve our key objectives. We will focus our efforts and investments on our most promising creators; continue to scale owned creator IP and original shows, and develop new technology products for creators. This focus will result in changes to our current corporate structure to prioritize areas of traction and growth.

Next steps

As this plan affects employees based in different territories, the workforce reduction will comply with the laws of each geographical location. We have taken steps to ensure that departing team members are treated with a level of respect that reflects the meaningful impact they’ve had on the company.

For our impacted US employees

• Employment Status: You will remain on our payroll until December 15th, 2023

• Severance Pay: We will pay 3 months of severance to departing employees

• PTO: We will pay for all unused PTO time

• Healthcare: We will pay to cover 3 months of COBRA

• Career support: We will connect you with an outplacement agency for career support as well as give you the option to receive support from our in-house People team

For our employees in France

We have presented to our “Comite Social et Economique” (the CSE is the equivalent of a Works Council and includes the employee representatives that you have elected) our proposed “Plan de sauvegarde de l’emploi”, that, if homologated by the appropriate French authorities, would impact a number of permanent roles in France. If you are a French permanent employee, you will receive an invitation later today for an All-Hands Meeting on Monday where we will present you with an overview of the plan.

For our impacted employees in other geographies

We will handle terminations in other geographies in accordance with local labor laws, and with the same level of support as in each of our main geographies.

We encourage everyone to support impacted employees by reaching out to your networks to help our colleagues find their next opportunities.

What’s next for Jellysmack

Our North Star remains unchanged: We still believe that creators are the IP of the century and the future of entertainment. Our mission is to develop and scale the most engaging creator brands of today into the digital media empires of tomorrow.

Moving forward, we will operate under a new corporate structure comprised of three business units each, fully focused on specific objectives:

• Jellysmack Entertainment – Led by Sean, this unit will include existing and future acquisitions as well as Jellysmack Originals. The unit’s objective will be centered around owned-creator IP expansion and monetization opportunities.

• Jellysmack Services – Led by Axel, this group will manage all activities and growth programs for our highest-performing creator partners and Network Media. The team’s objective is to maximize the value we bring to creators.

• Jellysmack Technologies – Led by Robin (interim), this unit will continue to develop self-serve tech solutions that solve the pain points of creators. The group’s objective is to accelerate our technology and Al products for both creator partners and our owned IP.

Next week, senior leaders will hold meetings to share and discuss the vision and strategy for each team.

We would like to thank you all for your commitment to Jellysmack. Our collective strength lies in the talented and passionate individuals who make up our team.

To those who may leave, we thank you for playing such a crucial role in our collective journey. We are extremely appreciative and grateful for your contribution to Jellysmack and we wish you continued success.

Michael, Robin and Swann