Dapper Labs lays off 51 employees to make business ‘leaner,’ says CEO

Dapper Labs laid off dozens more employees to make the business leaner, but its CEO stressed that both the company and Flow, its blockchain, are well capitalized.

Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou tweeted Thursday that the company parted ways with 51 employees, including full-time staff members and C1 contractors.

The cuts comes after the NFT company let go 20% of its staff in February. In November 2022, the company also laid off 22% of its employees.

“This decision was incredibly difficult because of the amazing people affected but it is necessary and the right thing to do to ensure a lean and efficient Dapper Labs,” Gharegozlou wrote in an internal note that he also shared on Twitter.

Gharegozlou said Dapepr Labs and Flow, its NFT-focused blockchain, are “well capitalized to pursue our mission.”

“Flow is also funded with a separate pool of capital, so that team also has several years of cash runway with no need to sell tokens to fund short-term operations,” he added.

Toxic culture

Dapper Labs, known for its early NFT success with NBA Top Shot, previously boasted a valuation of $7.6 billion when it raised money in September 2021.

At its peak in February 2021, NBA Top Shot once generated sales revenues of $224 million, compared with just $1.93 million in revenues last month, according to CryptoSlam data. 

Gharegozlou’s decadent lifestyle and pursuit of celebrity partnerships has in the past called his priorities into question, according to several former employees, as The Block previously reported. The CEO’s “bullying” and “public shaming” of employees also stoked a toxic company culture, they said.