This JUST in!
Helium.com had let go about 1/2 it’s staff. Helium.com is a web 2.0 meets citizen journalism experiment, laid off 30% of their workforce on Friday, including their VP of Development and their Director of Sales for Helium Marketplace.
They has about 110 employees before the layoff.
Here is more info on them.
Helium is simultaneously an online community for writers and a directory for user-generated articles. Writers can submit articles to 24 different channels (business, entertainment, travel, etc.), write for the side of a heated debate, try to capture publisher writing assignments bounties or win user-voted Helium writing contests. Users get to rate submitted articles so the best writing rises to the top.
Community writers can also get paid for their work. Helium shares ad revenues with popular writers and the site has an extensive network of publishers that pay for specific articles that meet their criteria. Payments per article range from $20 to over $100, with 20% transaction fee going to Helium.
Helium also has a partner program where partners can create their own branded Helium page with topics and debates that they choose. Partners are given co-branded advertisements to include on their sites and receive small donations for every visitor they send to the Helium site.
UPDATE:
The CEO gave us an update on this situation. Thank you Mark.
Mark Ranalli
http://www.helium.com
Just a clarification. Helium cut it’s organization by 30%. We are sad that we needed to take this action, but we did so for the ongoing health of our business. Helium remains well financed and is enjoying its best quarter ever. The current financial market conditions are causing us (and most well run start-ups) to revisit our expenses.
Mark Ranalli
CEO, Helium Inc.
TechCrunch finally reported here.
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Just a clarification. Helium cut it’s organization by 30%. We are sad that we needed to take this action, but we did so for the ongoing health of our business. Helium remains well financed and is enjoying its best quarter ever. The current financial market conditions are causing us (and most well run start-ups) to revisit our expenses.
Mark Ranalli
CEO, Helium Inc.
110 employees, what the heck do they all do? They are getting their lunch handed to them by sites like HubPages (where I work) and Squidoo that are operating with fewer staff than Helium has Vice Presidents!
I would have been one of the 30%. Whew glad I missed that bullet.
When did helium layoff all those people?
I write for them daily and I thought they had too many people working for them. I even asked on community boards if they laid people off, and got no answer.
Go figure!
Good post, I like your writing style! I’ve added http://fuckedstartups.com/ to my feed reader, and will be reading your posts from now on. Just a quick question - did you design your header image yourself, or have it done professionally? If you had it done by a professional, who was it?
Helium is a great site. I have faith this company will have a successful and ongoing network of wealth, no matter how many employees it takes.
It’s always sad when company’s have to lay off or let their employees go for any reason. Remember, as a rule of thumb, most companies do not prosper within its newlywed years. It’s after that second year that a business will establish itself and know where it’s going in the future. It takes that long to work out the kinks so to speak.
I’ve added this feed to my homepage.
I think that Helium is a good place for writer’s to gather and meet and write. I must say though that they really do not pay very well. Just a few pennies a day. For the most part, I have to say it is positive. I have met many great people. If you are looking for a career and high payment, don’t look here. It is a great place to get some writing experience and exposure though.