The Human State of Startup in 2024

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2024 has been a hard year for startup companies. Access to investment has been lower compared to prior years and many companies have buckled down to try to preserve their cashflow in anticipation of further dry spells. 2024 began with massive layoffs in the larger tech organizations and in Canada we’ve been left with a glut of highly skilled tech workers with little employment opportunities.

In this episode, we tackled the human state of the startup company – and the state of founders and employees in 2024.

Here are some facts that summarize the events of this past year:

• The total net headcount across the startup ecosystem has remained flat, with only a few sectors, such as energy and medical devices, showing any significant employment growth.
• January 2024 saw a significant decline in new hires, down 29% from January 2023. This trend continued into the following months, with February through to April all recording lower hiring numbers compared to previous years.
• Inflation has compounded issues as business deal with higher business costs and reduced profit margins: The EDC came out with a report recently indicating that in Canada’s unemployment rate continues to rise, and with slumping global demand the global growth is expected to rise 3% in 2025. Canada’s anticipated growth is just 1.6%, which is constrained with one factor being weakened labour markets.

Glenn Nishimura is a Startup HR & Workplace Culture Expert, and Chief People Strategist at Nishimura Consulting. According to Glenn, “overhiring is now dead.”

First time or inexperienced founders have had a very difficult time navigating and communicating these headcount changes to their teams. Discussions about pay freezes, layoffs, the impact on equity, and the resulting cultural shifts have soured the experiences of many startup employees, grappling with a future startup.

Glenn works with startups and employees from the brightest startups and scaleups across Canada, the U.S., Europe and Asia. Glenn counsels cofounders, and helps them build the right teams, and cultivate a resilient and scalable culture, which he coins a startup’s “immune system”.

We dove into the trials and tribulations this year for the startup employee, the implications on founder and their culture and discuss what is next on the horizon in the coming year.

Watch the video!

Ask a Founder: Founder's Journey from Vision to Investor-Ready Venture

Save the date for our virtual-only event: Thursday, December 5th, 2024!

Meet Mehdi Rahman, MBA, Founder of TALENT SAMURAI!

Mehdi has extensive knowledge in scaling enterprise platforms, leading transformative results, and facilitating award-winning cultures within regulated industries. As the founder of Talent Samurai, Mehdi is innovating with a responsible HR platform dedicated to maximizing human potential while eliminating bias.

Date: Thursday, December 5, 2024

Time: 11:00am-12:00pm (Virtual Event)

Register here: https://hubs.ly/Q02Y-BcN0

We are now accepting applications for our next winter cohort in February 2025. Find out more. Ready to apply? Click here! 

#Champion Panel Day Investment Review Panel - In Partnership with IDEA Mississauga

Altitude Accelerator is please to announce Champion Panel Day Investment Review Panel hosted in collaboration with IDEA Mississauga to expose early stage founders to a network of investors. This event brings together ambitious entrepreneurs and investors in a Shark Tank-inspired forum to transform innovative ideas into fundable ventures. This event will take place on December 3rd, 2024 at Idea Mississauga.

Startup founders will have the chance to pitch their ideas directly to investors, receive immediate feedback, and have the potential for further investor discussions. This direct interaction is invaluable for refining business strategies and understanding investor expectations.

This environment fosters collaboration and can lead to valuable connections that extend beyond the pitch. Thank you to Donna Heslin, Sneha Punwani, MBA and Alieu Jallow, PMP®, CSBS.D for working with Altitude Accelerator to bring this opportunity to founders.

ICYMI - The Latest in Tech News

• Following the US elections, the exodus from Twitter to Bluesky is significant: "The site's user base has added over 8 million users since the election on Nov. 5, pushing it to over 22 million users by Nov. 25."
• Recently, we replayed an episode of Tech Uncensored from November 2022 following Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter. At that time we witnessed a series of tumultuous events from massive layoffs, to significant changes in policy that impacted the Twitter communities that sustained for many years. This public square was in dire straits and led to the first massive exodus to places like Mastadon. Today, we are witnessing a deja vu with Bluesky. Communities today are fragile. How do businesses rebuild?
• Trump's proposed 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports are causing significant concern among small businesses. Small and mid-sized manufacturers are particularly vulnerable to steep tariffs, as many have become tightly integrated with the US market over three decades of free trade, which depends on the U.S. for 75 per cent of its exports.
• The resignation of Carlos Tavares as CEO of Stellantis marks a significant turning point for the automaker. His departure, effective immediately, indicates a major shift in the company's leadership structure. Stellantis has been grappling with performance issues, reporting a 27% decline in net revenues for its third quarter and a 20% drop in global shipments of new vehicles.
• Australia has recently passed groundbreaking legislation to ban social media for children under 16 years old. The Australian parliament approved this world-first social media ban on November 28, 2024, putting tech companies on notice to implement stricter security measures

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BLAST FROM THE PAST: STARTUPS TRANSFORMED

We launched Startups Transformed Podcast which explored how Canadian tech startups have climbed their way to success. We revist these episodes from 2022.

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Small, green, no noise, easy to use. Hybrid Power Solution’s portable power box does not use fuel, and the only work customers need to do is to wire up and turn it on. Moreover, the power box can be used in any outdoor condition, even under a -30 Celsius degree temperature. This is the innovative product that Hybrid Power Solution brings to the market.

A brilliant product must come together with a suitable marketing strategy. Francois first sold his products to businesses, especially the mining industry. Nevertheless, Francois lost almost all of his customers due to the pandemic and the company was in a financial crisis. Francois saw an opportunity and changed the strategy — now they are just trying to keep up with the demand! Listen to the episode and see how Francois changed the strategy, and his thoughts about entrepreneurship.

Please check out our series!