Fair ($PRIVATE:FAIR) raised $400 million dollars from boldface backers like Softbank and G Squared, and partnered with Uber. It was valued at $1 billion dollars, but the data shows it could be part of a number of growing companies that recalibrated their plans in a more difficult market reality than founders envisioned.
There was a healthy amount of employees a few months ago, and it was going up for a while. That is, until late October, where the total headcount dropped by 15%. That's all thanks to the reports of the founder leaving along with layoffs, and we can see how that's impacted the company since.
The other thing to worry about is not just to staff, but the inventory. Since July, it's down a whopping 78%.
Hiring has been at a standstill since late October, when those layoffs went into effect. For the summer and into fall, Fair was averaging over 100 job openings a day. Then that fell 86%, down to just 16 jobs. We haven't been able to find any active listings since in our data. We know the website, Fair.com, still has some up, but applying there might be a gamble right now.
Finally, their Twitter following has flatlined, which is never a great sign. It had been going up all summer, just like the rest of Fair's data, but then it just stagnated once the bad press started rolling out.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.