This week’s guest is Ayal Yogev, co-founder and CEO of Anjuna Security, who has experienced both sides of the startup journey: scaling quickly during the boom years and then making the incredibly difficult decision to lay off a significant portion of his team when the market shifted.

From growing to 75 employees to scaling back and rebuilding, Yogev learned firsthand that the hardest part of leadership isn’t hiring fast, it’s making tough decisions with care, transparency, and integrity.

In this episode, Isabelle Johannessen and Yogev unpack what it really means to lead through layoffs with compassion and how founders can support their teams even in the most challenging moments. They also explore the lessons learned from scaling too quickly and how to build a more resilient company the second time around.

They discuss:

How to approach layoffs with empathy and transparency
Ways to support employees beyond financial compensation
What founders get wrong about scaling and hiring
Why culture matters most during difficult moments
Lessons from rebuilding after layoffs

Apply to Startup Battlefield: We are looking for early-stage companies that have an MVP. So nominate a founder (or yourself): techcrunch.com/apply. Be sure to say you heard about Startup Battlefield from the Build Mode podcast.

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New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday. Hosted by Isabelle Johannessen. Produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience development led by Morgan Little. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.

Chapters:

00:00 We grew too fast

02:30 What Anjuna actually does

04:45 Scaling the team quickly

06:10 The market crash hits

09:40 Handling layoffs with empathy

12:10 Supporting employees the right way

15:30 Why culture matters in crisis

20:50 The hiring mistake founders make

27:40 When to scale your sales team

34:40 Rebuilding after layoffs