WTF Just Happened at Heidi Health and Safety Culture Death March
It's been a brutal week for Australia's tech sector. Just days after Canva announced a major restructure affecting 22% of its workforce, AI healthcare unicorn Heidi Health has revealed plans to cut 18% of its staff, following the departure of two co-founders. All this shortly after a major capital raise that valued the business at more than $1 billion. Adam and Adir unpack what's going wrong at Australia's most celebrated startups, whether the venture capital industry encouraged unsustainable growth, and why mass redundancies can permanently damage the relationship between companies and their employees. They also revisit Canva's controversial return-to-office changes, debate whether founders should be blamed for overhiring, and question whether the optimism surrounding Australia's tech unicorns is finally coming back to earth. Plus, SafetyCulture, now known as Mitti, has reported slowing growth and another substantial loss. With a previous valuation of $2.4 billion, can the business make the numbers stack up? CHAPTERS 01:26 - Heidi Health's shock layoffs and the Australian tech reckoning 06:46 - Blackbird, startup valuations and the cost of overhiring 19:37 - Canva's redundancies, return-to-office controversy and employee trust 27:15 - SafetyCulture's $2.4 billion valuation problem Thanks for listening!
