Christian P. Pewitt Blogs: All Laid-Off SoundCloud Staffers Are Being Offered $10,000 From WeTransfer "To Start Something"

Sunday, July 30, 2017

All Laid-Off SoundCloud Staffers Are Being Offered $10,000 From WeTransfer "To Start Something"

After 173 SoundCloud employees were laid off a few weeks ago, the outpouring of support led to a “Hire a SoundClouder” Google doc to connect them with new jobs. Now, WeTransfer has shown their respect for the laid-off innovators with the offer of a $10,000 check, with almost no strings attached.

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In an open letter, Damian Bradfield, the president of WeTransfer, shared the genesis of his offer of $10,000 to each of the 173 people just recently laid off from SoundCloud.

“What if,” Bradfield told the journalist, “each and every one of [the former SoundClouders] had been offered ten thousand dollars to refrain from getting a job? To leave and start something. To leave and start working on the new future of music, whatever that might be.”

These former SoundClouder staffers have a unique skill set that combined music, tech and innovation to create a hugely popular site. It would be “sacrilegious to just let them go out and get regular jobs,” said Brafield, instead of encouraging them to continue to innovate.

“Companies like SoundCloud and Medium have tried to ease the pain of layoffs by sharing contact details,” the letter says. “We admire this attempt to get you employed again but we’d like to prevent you from just simply ‘getting a job.’”

His offer: “$10,000 to start something.” In return, WeTransfer just wants to see “a proposal for something you could design, build, or manage.”