Important changes to our business

After a company-wide all hands meeting earlier today, Wealthsimple cofounder and CEO Michael Katchen sent the following note to Wealthsimple employees.

Dear team,

I’ve had the opportunity to make a lot of company-wide announcements, and it’s almost always been to share good news. Today, the news at our all hands meeting was a lot harder to deliver. For those who weren’t in the meeting, I announced that because of changes to market conditions, we’ve made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Wealthsimple’s workforce. Of the 1,262 people who work for Wealthsimple today, 159 will be leaving the company.

One of Wealthsimple’s core principles is transparency, and that’s especially important right now. In that spirit, I’m going to share as much as I can about why we made this decision, who will be affected, how we plan to take care of those who are leaving, and where we go from here.

Why this is happening

If you’ve been with us over the past two years, you know it’s been a time of immense volatility. Just about anyone who made predictions about how the pandemic would affect the economy was wrong about one thing or another. The markets crashed. Then they soared. Our business grew at an unprecedented rate, and we have been aggressively building to meet the needs of a wave of new clients since then.

Of course volatility works both ways, and we’re seeing the other side of it now as the pandemic market conditions unwind. Many of our clients are living through a period of market uncertainty they’ve never experienced before. Our first priority has always been to take care of our clients and make sure they’re in the best position for the future, and that’s more vital than ever. It also means we need to concentrate our resources on what’s most important in today’s environment.

What that means for our team

Practically speaking, this means that we are going to be laser focused on our core businesses, like investing and banking, and the products that will power financial innovation, like crypto. And that we’re going to reduce our investment in other areas like peer-to-peer payments, tax, and merchant services. We’ll also be restructuring teams that were expanded for conditions that have changed, including Recruiting, Marketing, Client Success, and Research.

It’s important to note that these decisions are a reflection of changing business priorities. It does not mean everyone on these teams will be leaving us.

How we’re taking care of each other

As you know, another core principle at Wealthsimple is to take care of each other. And it’s our responsibility to our colleagues to do that as best we can now — to let people know that they are valued, that they will be missed, and that they matter to us. But it’s especially incumbent upon us as a company to take care of those who are leaving in concrete, practical ways.

If you’re one of the people who will be affected by these changes, we know that nothing can fully protect you from the blow of losing your job. But we are making it a priority to put you in the best position possible, and we’ve built a package of benefits to help do that. We’ll be in touch individually with more details, but this package includes:

• Generous severance, with additional considerations based on how long you’ve been part of the company
• Extended health and dental coverage, as well as wellness and learning benefits
• Employees may keep their laptop and home office equipment provided by the company
• Accelerated vesting on equity for employees who have not reached their cliff
• A host of programs to help you find your next job, including personal reference letters as well as résumé and interviewing workshops. We’ve also consulted with IGM and Canada Life (two of our leading investors), and they’ve guaranteed interviews to anyone interested in working at those companies.

What happens now

Our objective is to provide clarity to all of you as soon as possible. In the next few minutes, team members who will be leaving Wealthsimple will receive a calendar invite for a departure meeting scheduled for today. These meetings will be private, one-on-one conversations. After getting the email for departures conversations, people who will be leaving the company will notice that they no longer have access to sensitive company information. This is not the experience we want for people who are leaving their jobs, but millions of people trust Wealthsimple with their money, and we have a strict policy to protect personal information.

After we’ve contacted those who will be leaving, the rest of the company will get emails letting them know that their roles haven’t been affected by the reduction. For some, your role, your focus area, or your manager will change because of business needs. If that’s the case, a team leader will follow up with you in the coming days to talk about the changes.

All of this is a lot to process, and I’m sure you’ll have questions. I will answer as many of them as I can tomorrow at an “ask me anything” session.

On behalf of everyone at Wealthsimple, I’d like to express that we owe a debt of gratitude to all those who are leaving: We are so thankful to have worked with you. You have been our colleagues and our friends, and the imprint you’ve left will be with us for a long time. Thank you for helping to make Wealthsimple a great place to work and for helping make a difference in the lives of millions of Canadians.

The future

Today is going to be hard — there’s no getting around it. But our mission has never been more important. We want to guide the next generations of Canadians on their path to financial freedom. We want to build ambitious, world-changing products that can transform the financial industry to make it more human, more accessible, simpler. And that’s a mission worth sticking to.

Sincerely,
Mike