Sharan Hegde’s 1% Club lays off 15% employees

Nikhil Kamath-backed 1% Club, the personal finance platform co-founded by Sharan Hegde and Raghav Gupta, has laid off 15% of its total workforce as part of an AI-led cost-saving initiative to streamline operations.

The layoffs stemmed from rapid scaling, as the company grew from a five-person team to nearly 200 in just two years, Hegde said in a social media post. “When you grow at such lightning speed, you are bound to make some mistakes with hiring and redundant expenses,” Hegde said in a post on LinkedIn. 

"This is our first cost cutting excercise since inception. We have identified significant AI driven cost savings that can boost profitability and efficiency which can be reinvested in the business growth. Raghav Gupta and I have been running this company bootstrapped without ever using investor capital because we are super strict with our financial planning and diligence," he said.

Hegde also claimed that the affected employees have been given "healthy severance package depending on the tenure" and provided assistance in securing new job opportunities.

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"Everyone who has been part of our journey will always be family, but with the business landscape evolving rapidly, especially with AI advancing so quickly, we have to make choices that keep us competitive and efficient," Co-founder Raghav Gupta said in a reply to the post.

Hegde claimed that despite recent layoffs impacting 15% of the workforce, the company remains financially strong, with annualised revenue of $8 million and an EBITDA of 35-40%. Hegde emphasised that "our investor's money of Rs 10 crore is currently invested in an FD earning 8.5% interest,"

The 1% Club, founded in 2022, is a personal finance education and social platform. It was created to help individuals learn and manage their finances independently through accessible masterclasses and bootcamps on topics like personal finance, insurance, taxation, and credit management. These sessions range from two-hour classes to comprehensive six-hour bootcamps, designed to break down complex financial concepts for a wide audience.