Social network Ello, which has raised $10.5 million from investors, laid off five people from its Colorado staff in an attempt to make better use of its resources and save money, Ello’s CEO Paul Budnitz confirmed Monday.
“As you know, Ello grew very fast and we recently made some adjustments to gain efficiency and cohesion for our team,” said Budnitz, who co-founded the company with six others. Budnitz, who lives in Vermont, said the bulk of the team remains in Denver and Boulder.
In Colorado, Ello currently employs 19 people, down from 24. Gone from its is Rene Alegria, Ello’s Chief Marketing Officer, who joined the company in February.
“We removed a couple of organizational layers to speed up communication and be more nimble. We’re learning a lot quickly — we’re more flexible, making better use of our resources, and saving money,” Budnitz said.
He added that he and Alegria have been friends for 15 years. They mutually decided this wasn’t the right fit, partly because business is based in Denver and Alegria is in New York. Suttida Yang is now Ello’s director of marketing.
Within a few months last year, the minimalist-designed Ello went from a very small private network of friends to one that became a . Its unusual take on privacy and advertising — the ad-free social network vowed never sell a user’s information — had skeptics .
In October, ., which made it illegal for it or investors to show ads, sell user data or sell to a company that would make Ello violate those terms. Ello then picked up $5.5 million from investors like Boulder’s The Foundry Group. A was raised in April 2015.
Many of the recent site updates are technology improvements, including a , ability to integrate Youtube videos and an .
Budnitz said that the core mission hasn’t changed. The job cuts are to help it focus on “our creative core,” he said.
“Ello evolves more and more as a place for creative people of all kinds to post awesome stuff they make, and for interacting with the and discovering new creations. This includes artists and storytellers and enthusiasts. That’s always been our core community, and we’re doubling down on it,” he said.
