Bending Spoons Product Head Federico Simionato Announces Airtable is Laying Off Most of Its Team
Bending Spoons Product Head Federico Simionato announced that Airtable is laying off most of its team. This decision is not based on employee performance, but rather on the company's belief that smaller teams can deliver products faster and better.
The acquirer, Bending Spoons, is making this adjustment after completing an all-cash acquisition of approximately $1.28 billion. Airtable previously had a workforce of about 800 to 930 employees, and the company did not disclose the specific number of layoffs; affected employees will leave by the end of this week and receive substantial severance compensation.
The new structure includes forming a Core team to deliver high-frequency user demands monthly, which has completed over 30 updates in three weeks; it also involves upgrading Omni, Airtable Canvas, enhancing MCP support, and introducing BYO agents functionality.
The company will also establish Performance and Infra teams focused on accelerating foundational operational speed and increasing the capacity limits for records, fields, and synchronization, with the overall goal of enhancing product reliability and AI capabilities.
Bending Spoons is known for operating products like Evernote, Vimeo, and Eventbrite with a small team model, and it is introducing a similar organizational approach to Airtable, emphasizing streamlined responsibilities and faster decision-making.
In market mechanisms, the buyer is Bending Spoons' small team operational model and AI efficiency improvements, while the seller is the original larger team structure; the event is driven by post-acquisition organizational restructuring, reallocating resources from headcount to higher delivery density and AI functionalities, benefiting the new core team pursuing speed while putting pressure on the laid-off original employees and processes reliant on large-scale collaboration.
The announcement has sparked extensive discussion on social media, with some comments questioning the lack of empathy in the wording. Simionato responded that it was a difficult day and preferred to state the reasons directly rather than being vague.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Bending Spoons has previously acquired products like Evernote, Vimeo, and AOL, and after completing these acquisitions, it operates with a small team model, aiming for an IPO in July 2026; after acquiring Airtable for approximately $1.28 billion, it quickly applied the same organizational logic to the new asset, reflecting its repetitive path from acquisition to efficiency restructuring.
The capital path reflects a shift from the labor costs of the original larger team to streamlined teams like Core, Performance, and Infra, while reallocating resources to AI-related upgrades such as Omni, Canvas, MCP, and BYO agents, changing the delivery cycle from traditional rhythms to monthly high-frequency updates, achieving over 30 demands launched within three weeks.
This is similar to the approach of many SaaS companies reducing headcount and relying on smaller teams and automation after the proliferation of AI tools, akin to the efficiency improvements made by some private equity or acquirers on mature software products; it is currently in a transition phase from large-scale collaboration to AI-assisted high-density delivery by small teams.
Essentially, this represents technological substitution: AI capabilities and the decision-making speed of small teams are beginning to replace the collaborative model of traditional large teams, shifting product iteration from being driven by headcount to being driven by tools and streamlined structures, with post-acquisition control concentrated on the efficiency model of the new operators.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
Small teams deliver at a higher density than headcount scale
The first cut after an acquisition is often headcount
The stronger the tools, the fewer people are needed to move faster