Webflow, the San Francisco website-building startup, abruptly announced a round of layoffs yesterday, leaving stunned employees scrambling to figure out what had just happened. Several workers say they were locked out of company systems before they even knew they were being let go, and one former developer described the whole episode as it was a bloodbath. The cuts arrive as Webflow races to reposition itself around AI-powered tools for marketing teams.
How the cuts landed
Employees told the San Francisco Chronicle they woke up to a rush of messages from colleagues, then discovered they could no longer get into Slack or work email. Minutes later, termination notices showed up in their personal inboxes. One former developer said they realized something was wrong when Slack access vanished before any official email arrived. Another worker said she discovered she had been logged out of her work email while she was at the gym.
A Webflow spokesperson told the paper that access restrictions were put in place "a few minutes before notifications were sent" in order to protect customer data, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Company explanation and severance
In a post on the company blog, CEO Linda Tong wrote that Webflow had reached "an inflection point" and argued that AI is "rewriting the rules" for how marketing teams build and optimize digital experiences. Tong said the company had made "the difficult decision to restructure" and outlined a separation package that includes 16 weeks of severance, plus one extra week of pay for every completed year of service. Webflow is also offering six months of COBRA coverage for U.S. teammates, continued benefits where legally allowed, and the option for employees to keep their company laptops. The company framed the move as a strategic shift toward an "agentic web marketing platform," according to Webflow.
Where this fits into the Bay Area picture
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Webflow was valued at about $4 billion in 2022 and lists the company’s headcount on LinkedIn as between 500 and 1,000 employees. The outlet also reported that Webflow cut roughly 8% of its staff in a separate reduction in 2024.
The latest round of layoffs lands as San Francisco and San Mateo counties recorded about 1,900 information-sector job losses between March and April, part of a broader wave of AI-driven restructuring across the tech industry, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Reaction and next steps
Reaction was swift on social media. A widely shared LinkedIn post from a Webflow staffer, which tagged the CEO, asked why he had been locked out before receiving any formal notice. In the comments, several customers and partners openly debated whether they should move their sites off the platform. The LinkedIn post circulated while the company worked to explain its thinking on its blog.
Webflow told employees it is financially strong and said the restructuring will allow it to invest more in the products and teams aligned with its new strategy, a point echoed on the company blog.
Investors and customers are now watching to see whether the company’s AI push, including smaller acquisitions earlier this year to expand its content and marketing tools, delivers results. In March, Webflow acquired AI content generation platform Vidoso to bolster its marketing automation and AI tooling, a move covered by TechCrunch.
