Updates to the Faithlife Team
Today is a significant day at Faithlife, and I want to share some news directly with you all and explain what’s happening and why.
We’ve made the difficult decision to downsize our workforce and part ways with a number of Faithlife employees. We’re very sad to see these colleagues and friends go, and we’ll be supporting them as they find their next employer.
Faithlife is not in financial trouble, and we are committed to serving and supporting you, our users - and are confident in our ability to do so for decades to come.
2020 and 2021 (especially the first half) were strong growth years for us, as we added more new users than in any comparable period. We now realize that much of that growth was fueled by what’s been referred to as the “COVID bump,” the growth in consumer eCommerce spending due to economic stimulus and extra time and occasion to study the Bible. We didn’t sufficiently appreciate that some of this growth was temporary and would slow after things started getting back to normal and the stimulus funds ended. Nor did we anticipate the current economic slowdown and the impact that it would have on spending.
Our cost structure has been growing faster than revenue for a few years now, and we’ve accepted this as a worthy tradeoff as we invest in the future of our business and the furtherance of our mission. Unfortunately the current economic climate has exposed the limits of this model, and made clear that we cannot continue investing at this rate. While we’re still growing, are financially stable and are very optimistic about our future, we’ve chosen to take action now to provide breathing room to weather changes in the global economy, and to give us the flexibility to invest more intentionally in future growth opportunities.
While this is incredibly painful, we believe it’s the right decision to ensure we’re around for decades to come as we steward our responsibility to “use technology to equip the Church to grow in the light of the Bible” and “increase biblical literacy and accessibility for every Christian around the world.”
We invite you to join us in praying for those who are no longer with us that God would be their strength and provide for them and their families.
Vik
Comments
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Tough decision. Thanks for communicating this with us. My prayers are for the employees and families impacted. May God continue to provide for them in new ways that they couldn't have otherwise imagined. My prayers are also for wisdom for Faithlife leaders to make sound decisions to continue to take Faithlife into a sustainable future.
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Well, about every 6 years or so.
https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article53186915.html
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Vik Rajagopal said:
While this is incredibly painful,
In deed, and very sad for us as well. You all are as friends in many ways
Vik Rajagopal said:We invite you to join us in praying for those who are no longer with us that God would be their strength and provide for them and their families.
Absolutely, many here will be praying, I will be for sure.
Too soon old. Too late smart.
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DMB said:
Well, about every 6 years or so.
https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article53186915.html
Paywall. [:(]
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Thank you for communicating, Vik.
I pray for all that are affected by this decision.
Dave
===Windows 11 & Android 13
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Fire someone while it is called "Today"!
ASUS ProArt x570s Creator, AMD R9 5950x, HyperX 64gb 3600 RAM, ASUS Strix RTX 2080 ti
"The Unbelievable Work...believe it or not." Little children...Biblical prophecy is not Christianity's friend.
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Prayers for those that had to be let go and for Faithlife to continue to grow and prosper as a company.
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I am sure this tough for everyone. Looking for a new job, Losing a great one. Taking on other work. Missing friends and co-workers. Readjusting. Prayers for all.
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May the Lord give solution to all including us.
Blessings in Christ.
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While it is sad to let people go, I would think it would look good on any resume to say "Worked or programmed for Logos/FaithLife". I do wish all well...
I do pray the right decisions are made that Logos can continue to be a viable entity.
xn = Christan man=man -- Acts 11:26 "....and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch".
Barney Fife is my hero! He only uses an abacus with 14 rows!
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So, who'd we lose?
Some of those folks have been very helpful to me; I'd like to pray for them by name.
Surely a still-profitable company gave them generous severance and didn't just put them out on the street, right? I'd kinda like to know this if I'm going to continue sending you money on occasion.
(On a side note, not meaning to be overtly political but simply factual, if you didn't anticipate what the stimulus payments and gross printing of funny-money would do to the economy, you haven't been paying attention for the last 50 years. That theoretical notion comes home to roost when it costs good people (and not just at FL!) their jobs.)
Eating a steady diet of government cheese, and living in a van down by the river.
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Doc B said:
So, who'd we lose?
I wouldn't expect Faithlife to say who was let go, but I would be interested to know which departments were cut. It seems that if the point of this post is to get out in front of the news in order to provide comfort and reassurance to Faithlife's customers, then knowing what departments were cut would help in that regard.
Disclaimer: I hate using messaging, texting, and email for real communication. If anything that I type to you seems like anything other than humble and respectful, then I have not done a good job typing my thoughts.
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Well, if FL's sextuple-year (had to see if that word would pass) layoffs are any guide, you find out 'who' or 'what' when 'oh, he's gone' drips .... and drips.
I agree with Doc ... and also not political, but fake money disappears. I know FL tries to be forward thinking, but they do have a habit of dumping (customers, along with employees).
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Does anyone know if is Mark Barnes still with Faithlife?
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Mark is still with Faithlife.
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DMB said:
Well, if FL's sextuple-year (had to see if that word would pass) layoffs are any guide, you find out 'who' or 'what' when 'oh, he's gone' drips .... and drips.
I agree with Doc ... and also not political, but fake money disappears. I know FL tries to be forward thinking, but they do have a habit of dumping (customers, along with employees).
Dumping customers? YIKES! Hope I don't get dumped.... [8-|]
xn = Christan man=man -- Acts 11:26 "....and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch".
Barney Fife is my hero! He only uses an abacus with 14 rows!
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Kiyah said:
...My prayers are for the employees and families impacted. May God continue to provide for them in new ways that they couldn't have otherwise imagined. My prayers are also for wisdom for Faithlife leaders to make sound decisions to continue to take Faithlife into a sustainable future.
Amen
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For our friends whom we are accustomed to see here on the forums, a profile picture gone generic can be a clue.
Joseph Turner said:Doc B said:So, who'd we lose?
I wouldn't expect Faithlife to say who was let go, but I would be interested to know which departments were cut. It seems that if the point of this post is to get out in front of the news in order to provide comfort and reassurance to Faithlife's customers, then knowing what departments were cut would help in that regard.
macOS (Logos Pro - Beta) | Android 13 (Logos Stable)
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copied from facebook:
PhilanaCrouch said:Well this has been a very challenging week. Wednesday was my last day at Faithlife, after 9 years due to the company restructuring I along with about 40 other amazing co-workers were let go. I am still kind of processing everything, but I know the Lord has a plan for what happens next and will be with me and my family on this next step of our journey. Please pray for me and the others who were let go.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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MJ. Smith said:
copied from facebook:
PhilanaCrouch said:Well this has been a very challenging week. Wednesday was my last day at Faithlife, after 9 years due to the company restructuring I along with about 40 other amazing co-workers were let go. I am still kind of processing everything, but I know the Lord has a plan for what happens next and will be with me and my family on this next step of our journey. Please pray for me and the others who were let go.
This makes me sad.
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Kiyah said:MJ. Smith said:
copied from facebook:
PhilanaCrouch said:Well this has been a very challenging week. Wednesday was my last day at Faithlife, after 9 years due to the company restructuring I along with about 40 other amazing co-workers were let go. I am still kind of processing everything, but I know the Lord has a plan for what happens next and will be with me and my family on this next step of our journey. Please pray for me and the others who were let go.
This makes me sad.
Really sad. Especially when it's usually preventable.
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Blessings in Christ.
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MJ. Smith said:
copied from facebook:
PhilanaCrouch said:Well this has been a very challenging week. Wednesday was my last day at Faithlife, after 9 years due to the company restructuring I along with about 40 other amazing co-workers were let go. I am still kind of processing everything, but I know the Lord has a plan for what happens next and will be with me and my family on this next step of our journey. Please pray for me and the others who were let go.
May the Lord guide you to the right way he has plan for you Philana. And thanks for the good time we had with you and all others may the Lord help them in finding a new job..
Blessings in Christ.
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MJ. Smith said:
copied from facebook:
PhilanaCrouch said:Well this has been a very challenging week. Wednesday was my last day at Faithlife, after 9 years due to the company restructuring I along with about 40 other amazing co-workers were let go. I am still kind of processing everything, but I know the Lord has a plan for what happens next and will be with me and my family on this next step of our journey. Please pray for me and the others who were let go.
To me, this seems an incredible blunder on FL's part. Sorry to see Philana go.
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I know from experience that companies are absolutely blind as to the value of their people. This is the equivalent of bloodletting. There are usually better ways to manage things but you have to plan it forward not backstep.
The mind of man is the mill of God, not to grind chaff, but wheat. Thomas Manton | Study hard, for the well is deep, and our brains are shallow. Richard Baxter
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Jack Caviness said:
along with about 40 other amazing co-workers were let go
Anyone has any idea what's the total workforce size of Faithlife?
As sad as this is, I hope this meant the shutting down of some unprofitable / unrealistic / distractive projects at FL and a refocusing on its core strength (and hopefully main income source): Bible software...
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According to this article about the acquistion of WordSearch in 2020 there were 373 employees.
https://www.geekwire.com/2020/faithlife-acquires-lifeways-wordsearch-product-bolster-bible-software/
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It's a common thing...... seems that physical end of year for all companies is in the last quarter of the year.... so how to best and fastest way to affect end of the year budget? Get rid of employees.... Immediate results....
Any more, employees are looked on as a liability instead of an asset.... sad to say!
xn = Christan man=man -- Acts 11:26 "....and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch".
Barney Fife is my hero! He only uses an abacus with 14 rows!
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Bruce Roth said:
According to this article about the acquistion of WordSearch in 2020 there were 373 employees.
Note that Servant Keeper is the most recent acquisition which added a physical site to Faithlife so I would assume some employees.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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Interesting... didn't hear about this Service Keeper acquisition (or didn't register), and not sure how many employees were added to FL.
But pre-SK, there were about 400+ FL staff and so this is approx a 10% reduction. Quite typical.
Also stumbled upon FL's hiring page and there're currently only 7 open positions and they're almost all sales/marketing related positions. Interesting. Zero development positions. Not sure what this says about this software company...
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PL said:
Interesting... didn't hear about this Service Keeper acquisition (or didn't register),
IIRC Phil Gons relocation from Bellingham and the hiring of Mark Barnes were directly related to the purchase of Servant Keeper. Welcome Servant Keeper to the Faithlife Family!
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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PL said:
Also stumbled upon FL's hiring page and there're currently only 7 open positions and they're almost all sales/marketing related positions
I've got the feeling that the best employees in the Customer Service have disappeared
Gold package, and original language material and ancient text material, SIL and UBS books, discourse Hebrew OT and Greek NT. PC with Windows 11
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Veli Voipio said:
I've got the feeling that the best employees in the Customer Service have disappeared
Very sad if it is so.
Blessings in Christ.
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Hi everyone – I just want to provide some brief feedback based on the questions and comments in this thread. For privacy reasons I can’t share names of impacted employees – but many have already updated their public social media information. These changes were painful for us as leaders, and we had to make some difficult decisions along the way. However I’m confident the changes we made were necessary, will position us to continue delivering a fantastic experience with our core Bible software tools, and will allow us to continue serving our users at a high level for decades to come.
And to a specific question in this thread on open roles – we have just about 100 employees within our engineering/development department today, and software/technology continue to be our focus (as we use technology to equip the Church to grow in the light of the Bible).
Best,
Vik
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Doc B said:
So, who'd we lose?
i just had a search on “Faithlife” on LinkedIn and then looked at the people showing “Past” in their FL experience. Quite a few of these show them having left in September 2022. There are also some showing green #OpentoWork emblems on their profile pictures who left in September 2022. Apart from Philana, there wasn’t anyone I’ve seen who frequents the forums. I did learn, however, that Steven Runge left a while ago.
If you have a paid-for LinkedIn account you can probably do a more sophisticated search. I don’t!
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Vik Rajagopal said:
Hi everyone – I just want to provide some brief feedback based on the questions and comments in this thread. For privacy reasons I can’t share names of impacted employees – but many have already updated their public social media information. These changes were painful for us as leaders, and we had to make some difficult decisions along the way. However I’m confident the changes we made were necessary, will position us to continue delivering a fantastic experience with our core Bible software tools, and will allow us to continue serving our users at a high level for decades to come.
And to a specific question in this thread on open roles – we have just about 100 employees within our engineering/development department today, and software/technology continue to be our focus (as we use technology to equip the Church to grow in the light of the Bible).
Best,
Vik
Thanks Vic. Been there done that and I know the task of letting people go is heart wrenching for any good manager. As for me... I pray FL will continue to be a viable entity and pray doors will open for all that was let go.
xn = Christan man=man -- Acts 11:26 "....and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch".
Barney Fife is my hero! He only uses an abacus with 14 rows!
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Mark Ward?
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Faithlife is a great company, I'm so thankful for my time there. As hard as it was for me to leave just a few months ago by my own choice, I can only imagine where the hearts of many of my former team members are at. Thanks for praying for them. Some of the former Faithlifer's have chosen to share their information as they are re-entering the job market. You'll find the link in this public post from Andrew.
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brian kent said:
Faithlife is a great company, I'm so thankful for my time there. As hard as it was for me to leave just a few months ago by my own choice, I can only imagine where the hearts of many of my former team members are at. Thanks for praying for them. Some of the former Faithlifer's have chosen to share their information as they are re-entering the job market. You'll find the link in this public post from Andrew.
In the post linked, Andrew states, "An entire team of very talented first party content creators, the Instructional Media Team, had also been eliminated. Their work over the last decade, creating over 600 amazing seminary level 2-12 hour video courses will live on as royalty free high margin products in the expansive SKU library, but no new courses will likely be produced."
Does this mean no more Mobile Ed courses will be produced?
Disclaimer: I hate using messaging, texting, and email for real communication. If anything that I type to you seems like anything other than humble and respectful, then I have not done a good job typing my thoughts.
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Jack Caviness said:MJ. Smith said:
copied from facebook:
PhilanaCrouch said:Well this has been a very challenging week. Wednesday was my last day at Faithlife, after 9 years due to the company restructuring I along with about 40 other amazing co-workers were let go. I am still kind of processing everything, but I know the Lord has a plan for what happens next and will be with me and my family on this next step of our journey. Please pray for me and the others who were let go.
To me, this seems an incredible blunder on FL's part. Sorry to see Philana go.
What! Wonderful lady. Personally met her in 2015.
Mission: To serve God as He desires.
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Joseph Turner said:
In the post linked, Andrew states, "An entire team of very talented first party content creators, the Instructional Media Team, had also been eliminated. Their work over the last decade, creating over 600 amazing seminary level 2-12 hour video courses will live on as royalty free high margin products in the expansive SKU library, but no new courses will likely be produced."
Does this mean no more Mobile Ed courses will be produced?
I noticed that too. That's definitely what it sounds like. I wonder if they're shifting toward selling other people's courses rather than producing their own, or are they moving away from selling courses altogether?
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HansK said:
Mark Ward?
As MJ mentioned elsewhere, he's still with FL. See his LinkedIn Page.
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I also noticed that Bob has started a new firm.
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Vik Rajagopal said:
We invite you to join us in praying for those who are no longer with us that God would be their strength and provide for them and their families.
Will do.
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
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I did a search on Pre-pub resources that are courses and filtered by those that are from courses.faithlife.com and see that there are 45 courses; 43 in production and two gathering interest.
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brian kent said:
Faithlife is a great company, I'm so thankful for my time there. As hard as it was for me to leave just a few months ago by my own choice, I can only imagine where the hearts of many of my former team members are at. Thanks for praying for them. Some of the former Faithlifer's have chosen to share their information as they are re-entering the job market. You'll find the link in this public post from Andrew.
Wow, this layoff seems really brutal! Even Sean Boisen has been eliminated!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d3znRXx9AWQxpgnFcyP5V9UFoe5RI-hFl3wtcPqMFGY/edit#gid=0
The new CEO shows his true colors. Firing the entire Mobile Ed team, plus the Senior Information Architect.
Perhaps the CEO or Executive Chairman (Bob) can explain what's the strategy / strategic shift behind all this (e.g. exiting x market or product type; doubling down investment in y market or product line, etc)?
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