Simply Measured was the winner of the 2012 "Startup of the Year" at the GeekWire Awards.
Simply Measured founders Adam Schoenfeld, Aviel Ginzburg and Damon Cortesi won Startup of the Year at the 2013 GeekWire Awards.

Seattle social media analytics startup Simply Measured cut 15 employees, or 10 percent of its workforce, as part of a restructuring that occurred this week, GeekWire has learned.

The cutbacks come five months after the company raised $20 million in venture funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Four Rivers Group, Trinity Ventures and others.

Simply Measured CEO Adam Schoenfeld said that the company continues to grow and win new customers, noting that the cutbacks were not spawned by a “pivot” in the business direction.

“We are definitely focused on growing the business that we have — a massive market opportunity still exists. We are seeing really great growth,” Schoenfeld told GeekWire. “This is really kind of a restructuring or reallocation of our investments.”

Schoenfeld said that they still believe they have the best product offering in the social media analytics arena, adding that the cutbacks will allow them to focus on key areas and implement the “right structure for the long-term.”

Simply Measured has grown incredibly fast in the past nine months, adding 75 new employees. With the layoffs, the company’s headcount will drop to about 135 staffers. The company — which provides brands such as Pepsi, American Express and Samsung with tools that analyze social media traffic — also is trying to fill nine new positions right now.

SimplyMeasured_horz_rgbWhile Simply Measured is unprofitable at the moment, Schoenfeld said that is by design as they try to take advantage of the opportunity. Revenue is growing by 100 percent year-over-year, and the company is coming off a record month in July. He added that the layoffs are not connected to a slump in business or a lack of capital, adding that the company still has $19 million in the bank.

“There are basically two flavors of these types of things, one is where a company is making the change because the market is not there or they are getting their butts kicked by competitors or they stopped growing or they are out of money,” said Schoenfeld. “The second flavor is they are making a course correction in their growth path, which is definitely what this is. Adding 75 people to the team in a 9 month period is a lot, and sometimes we need to make some course corrections and realize that some of the investments we were making weren’t the best ones for our future.”

Schoenfeld said that the layoffs were extremely painful because Simply Measured — originally started by developers Aviel Ginzburg and Damon Cortesi under the name Untitled Startup — attempted to build a family-oriented culture.

“I’ll tell you we have had a lot of hard decisions since the Untitled Startup days, but this was definitely the toughest,” said Schoenfeld, adding that there are now some very good people on the market.

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