COVID and Minted

To all of the Minted community,

I’ve started and stopped this post several times, wishing that the COVID-19 nightmare we find ourselves in at this moment were something we could wake up from, and grappling to find the words to adequately say everything I’d like to say to you.

COVID-19 has so suddenly devastated our world. It has affected our livelihoods and mental health. It has affected our children’s education and the little daily things they love. It has made us sick. And worst of all, it has and will continue to take the lives of our loved ones.

First and foremost, I hope that all of you — our employees, independent artist community, customers, and business partners — are staying safe and healthy. From the beginning of this crisis (for us, the March 4 shutdown of the Minted HQ) until now, my thoughts are focused on your physical health.

Second, I’m thinking of the social and economic effects of COVID-19. One of the cruelest impacts of COVID-19 is that it has deprived us of what is so precious to us as humans — gathering in person and celebrating moments like birthdays, graduations, new babies, showers, and weddings, and the lives of people who have passed. For these same reasons, the public health crisis has had a devastating impact on Minted’s business. Weddings and other event invitations make up a large portion of Minted’s business and our revenue has fallen significantly.

The past few weeks have been a desperate scramble among many of us at Minted — to significantly cut operating, marketing, and other costs, to reorient the company’s products to what our customers might want from us now, and to treat our customers, employees, our community of independent artists and our global partners with honor throughout. We have paused hiring, and have asked everyone, including the senior management team and me, to temporarily reduce their time at work and, proportionately, their pay.

Despite these cuts, Minted cannot withstand the size and potentially prolonged loss of revenue without making more drastic changes. After doing everything else we can, we have made the incredibly difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by 147 of our Minted colleagues across our corporate and customer service teams today. As the various shelter-in-place orders are lifted and the Minted business recovers, we very much hope that we can re-hire some of our team members. That said, we cannot guarantee if or when that will happen.

We are supporting those impacted with 1 month’s salary as severance and 3 months of health insurance benefits, comprised of one month of our company health plan plus two months of fully-paid COBRA premiums. We’re also doing what we can to help them find new jobs. If you are hiring, please let me know.

I’ve been through three recessions and the bursting of the dot-com bubble, but today is the most painful day of my career. Minted is not just a business to me, but an extension of my own family. It’s not a job, but a passion. I have prided myself on trying to anticipate and create a buffer for every potential business event over the past 13 years to protect our employees from layoffs. I am so disappointed and sorry that I cannot protect everyone this time. I will deeply miss those leaving Minted.

Our core mission remains what it has always been since our founding: to bring the work of independent artists to the world. We help them earn income while following their true, creative passion, and at the same time allow customers to access and enjoy great design.

For all of you who are affected today, the rest of the company and I are truly grateful for the passion and dedication you have brought to fulfilling this mission.

(Update / clarification on Saturday 4/4: we announced that we would be making layoffs yesterday morning via a company videoconference call, and then had heartbreaking 1:1 meetings with every single of our 147 cherished colleagues to lay them off in person. This post was not sent to employees by email, but instead was an announcement to the public published after the layoff meetings happened.)