Pivotal, the flying-car company that Larry Page, a cofounder of Google, backs, announced this week it had laid off nine employees, or 10% of its staff, according to the company and a memo seen by Business Insider.
In an internal note sent Thursday, Ken Karklin, the CEO of Pivotal, told staff that the company made cuts following an internal workforce review and that it needed to “make room for different skill sets and competencies.”
Karklin said the cuts were not related to individual performance or cost reduction, adding that the company plans to replace most of the eliminated positions “with significantly varied requirements for individual knowledge, skills, and experience.”
“The ultimate need is to transform Pivotal into a customer-serving, production-capable, product-generating business, building upon the value, know-how and intellectual property created in the first phases of the company’s history,” he wrote.
He later added in the memo: “As trusted stewards of our investor’s resources, it was clear what needed to be done, however difficult it may feel.” Karklin also said there are “no additional reductions planned or contemplated.”
“Pivotal is making the journey from being a company focused on serial prototyping and testing to an organization that delivers products and services to customers at scale,” Karklin said in a statement to BI. “Therefore, the mix of competencies required of our workforce continues to evolve.”
“We are continuing to aggressively hire talent,” Karklin added in his statement. “We have 25 open positions in manufacturing, engineering, test, and customer support, focused on candidates with relevant product development, automotive, aviation, and manufacturing experience.”
Pivotal is best known for its BlackFly eVTOL, or electric vertical take-off and landing, vehicle. The company unveiled an updated version of the aircraft last year, named Helix, which has a range of about 20 miles and a cruise speed of 55 knots, or 63 mph. It went on sale in January starting at $190,000, and the company says the units will ship in June.
Many of the staff laid off this week worked on manufacturing, a person familiar with the matter, whose identity BI has confirmed but who asked to remain anonymous so they could speak freely, said. That same person said the company had struggled with a disappointing number of Helix preorders.
Marcus Leng, a Canadian engineer, founded Pivotal, then known as Opener, in 2011. His early prototyping caught Page’s attention, and he agreed to financially back the company and move it to Palo Alto, California, in 2014.
Page initially planned to merge Opener with Kittyhawk, his other flying-car venture, but tensions between leaders kept the two operations apart. In 2022, Leng stepped down as the CEO of Opener, and Karklin replaced him.
Page pulled the plug on Kittyhawk later in 2022. The company also rebranded from Opener to Pivotal in October 2023, and Page no longer holds a stake in Wisk, a joint venture Kittyhawk and Boeing launched, a Boeing spokesperson told BI.
It’s unclear how involved Page is at Pivotal. He has turned more of his attention to exploring novel types of aerospace manufacturing that could dramatically reduce the cost of producing eVTOLs, people who know him have said.
Are you a current or former Pivotal employee? Got something to share? You can reach reporter Hugh Langley via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 628-228-1836) or email ([email protected])
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