Inside the ExpressVPN Layoffs: Taking a Page Out of Elon Musk's Playbook?

pcmag.com:

ExpressVPN has been telling users that recent layoffs are all about removing redundant roles to position the company for future growth. But insiders tell PCMag the job cuts could hurt the popular VPN service, including its ability to bypass government blocking attempts. 

"The culture of the company was to deliver value to the customer, and then the money follows. Now they're cutting all the operating costs. It’s become 100% focused on profit,” according to a former ExpressVPN employee.

The job cuts come several months after ExpressVPN’s parent company, Kape Technologies, delisted itself from the London Stock Exchange and took itself private. Some top executives, including an ExpressVPN co-founder and Kape’s own CEO, have since left. Meanwhile, an executive from the company’s notorious past, former Crossrider CEO Koby Menachemi, has returned in a management role. 

Sources familiar with the layoffs—which involved around 200 people—say much of the staff at ExpressVPN’s main Singapore office is now gone, including talented software engineers, quality assurance specialists, and executives. Which is why those sources believe the job cuts will take a toll on VPN’s quality in the coming months and years. 

For example, ExpressVPN was in the midst of addressing all the technical debt it had accumulated over the years in an effort to streamline IT operations. But the job cuts have dissolved the entire undertaking, meaning it’ll be harder and more time-consuming for ExpressVPN to roll out changes and enhancements in the future. 

Other sources say Kape “basically massacred” ExpressVPN’s whole quality assurance team and gutted the operations department. As a result, ExpressVPN could struggle to circumvent internet-blocking attempts