Both "we overhired" and "it's because of the market" can be true at the same time.
You get a $335 million in Feb with a common understanding with current investors that you are going to raise $ XXX in roughly 24 month, depending on results compared to an agreed upon business plan. You thus plan for a roughly 24 month runway. 4 month later (now) you get a call from your investors that your planned next series is going to be significantly lower/harder. You now need to stretch your 24 month runway to at least 36 month. SO you have to adjust plans.
They didn't overhire compared to the initial plan, but overhired compared to the current situation, where basically all rounds are 50% lower and many are just not happening at all.
> The safe move is to plan for the worst. If the current situation is as bad as the last two economic downturns, the best way to prepare is to cut costs and extend your runway within the next 30 days. Your goal should be to get to Default Alive.
You get a $335 million in Feb with a common understanding with current investors that you are going to raise $ XXX in roughly 24 month, depending on results compared to an agreed upon business plan. You thus plan for a roughly 24 month runway. 4 month later (now) you get a call from your investors that your planned next series is going to be significantly lower/harder. You now need to stretch your 24 month runway to at least 36 month. SO you have to adjust plans.
They didn't overhire compared to the initial plan, but overhired compared to the current situation, where basically all rounds are 50% lower and many are just not happening at all.
The ycombinator downturn letter (https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/19/yc-advises-founders-to-pla...) just says something like this:
> The safe move is to plan for the worst. If the current situation is as bad as the last two economic downturns, the best way to prepare is to cut costs and extend your runway within the next 30 days. Your goal should be to get to Default Alive.
That sounds exactly like what Bolt is doing.