@theventure: Jonathan Ross read Groq's layoff list and said no. A few years in, Groq was running out of money, and his leadership team drew up a list of people to let go. When he read it, he saw that the people on it were the ones building the software the chip needed. "It became very clear to me that if we did that layoff, we were dead." So he called the whole company together and put up posters of World War II war bonds, with "Groq Bonds" written over them. Instead of cutting jobs, he asked people to swap salary for shares. About 80% signed up, and around half took the lowest salary the law allowed. "Rather than trying to pretend to be strong, we were vulnerable with our employees," he said later. When the next funding round came in, Groq had three weeks of money left. Follow @theventure for the greatest founder stories ever told!

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Sunday 11 October 2026 17:43:28 GMT