San Francisco, California-based Grammarly, a cloud-based typing assistant that reviews spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement, and delivery mistakes, detects plagiarism, and suggests replacements for the identified errors, has announced a restructuring initiative that includes a cost-cutting initiative and a reduction in its workforce.
The reduction in force will impact approximately 230 employees.
CEO, Rahul Roy-Chowdhury noted...
Dear Grammarlians,
Today, I announced the difficult decision to lay off part of our global team as we restructure for continued success in the future. I recognize the impact of this decision, particularly on those who will no longer be working with Grammarly. I want to share some details on how we got here, the support we’re providing for those who are leaving, and what comes next for us as a company.
Restructuring Grammarly for continued success
Grammarly has spent the last 15 years building and improving our AI-powered writing assistance for millions of people around the world. Over the past five years, we’ve grown our team from 200 to 1,000 team members while running a profitable business.
In that time, Grammarly has also seen—and weathered—changes in our industry and the global environment, including a global pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and a new age of AI. Changes like these have challenged us to be more strategic and focused on the opportunities ahead—and they’ve also propelled our mission and product forward.
To arrive at today’s decision, we took a look at our organizational design and the current skillsets of our teams through the lens of our company strategy. As we strengthen our focus toward driving the AI-enabled workplace and deepen our technical investments in AI, we will need a different mix of capabilities and skillsets. We also need to redesign our organization to improve the quality and speed of collaboration — and that means, among other things, restructuring roles and co-locating certain teams. This is not a cost-cutting exercise. Grammarly’s financial position is, and remains, strong.
Support for our departing team members
This layoff affects most Grammarly functions and geographies. It’s of the utmost importance to me that we treat our departing team members respectfully and in ways that reflect Grammarly’s EAGER values.
As for Grammarly’s future: We see massive opportunity as every individual and business begins to harness the power of AI. For nearly 15 years, we’ve been building a product that helps millions of people every day, makes teams measurably more productive, and is already used by employees in 96% of the Fortune 500. We’ll build on this foundation to bring even more value to our customers. AI will fundamentally change the workplace for the better—and Grammarly will play a leading role in driving that change.
Thank you to all departing Grammarlians who’ve invested their time and energy into this company. And thank you to our entire team for your extended empathy and consideration of one another as we work through this change.
-Rahul
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?