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A startup valued at $4 billion unexpectedly cuts staff in order to pay the remaining employees a million each. CEO Zeb Evans explains this as a shift toward AI. What is behind this strategy and how can it be repeated?
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What happened
ClickUp — a project management platform valued at $4 billion — announced a 22% reduction in employees. The reason is not typical for mass layoffs: the freed-up money will go toward paying the remaining top employees a salary of $1 million per year. CEO Zeb Evans calls this part of a strategic restructuring aimed at integrating artificial intelligence into the product. Instead of a team of 200 mid-level people, the company prefers to have 50 highly effective specialists capable of covering functions that hundreds previously performed. This is not cost-cutting for survival — it is a deliberate bet on quality over quantity.
How this is useful for business
The ClickUp model breaks the familiar idea of how to scale a team. Instead of hiring dozens of juniors and mid-level employees, companies are starting to pay above market for people who replace entire departments. For business, this means reduced overhead: fewer HR processes, fewer managers, less bureaucracy. At the same time, decision-making speed increases — when there are 50 people on the team instead of 200, approvals take hours instead of weeks. Companies that master this approach first will gain a competitive advantage in development speed and reduced operating costs.
How to make money from this
The HR-tech sector is undergoing a transformation. Recruitment tools become obsolete when the labor market splits into two poles: ultra-cheap freelancers and ultra-expensive professionals. Intermediaries that help businesses find and retain specialists worth $500K+ become critically important. Demand is emerging for platforms that evaluate productivity not by time in the office, but by results — and rank candidates accordingly. The commission from placing one top specialist can amount to $50-100K, which makes this market extremely attractive for entrepreneurs.
Business ideas
1. A platform for recruiting “million-dollar” specialists — an aggregator of top-level profiles with automatic skill verification through AI testing. Monetization through a recruiting commission of 15-20% of annual salary.
2. A productivity assessment service — SaaS that tracks team work results and forms an efficiency rating. Subscription $50-200 per user per month.
3. An aggregator of remote top workers — a marketplace for companies willing to pay $500K+, with verification and scoring. Commission for successful hiring.
4. Team restructuring consulting — helping businesses transition from the “many people” model to “few, but expensive.” Contracts from $30K per project.
5. An educational platform for reskilling — courses that prepare specialists for roles worth $300K+. Subscription $500-2000 per month or one-time packages for $5-15K.
Risks and limitations
The ClickUp model works only in certain contexts. Not every business can replace 10 mid-level specialists with one top performer — there are areas where mass manual labor is exactly what is required. The risk of burnout among highly paid specialists increases many times over: one person instead of ten is enormous pressure. The company becomes vulnerable to the departure of a key employee. In addition, not all markets are ready for such salaries: in some countries, legislation limits pay gaps. Competition for top talent is growing quickly, and the strategy may lose effectiveness when most companies start copying it.
7-day action plan
Day 1-2: Study the job market with salaries from $300K — identify niches with the highest demand and the least recruiter competition. Day 3: Compile a list of 20 companies that are already cutting staff in order to hire top talent — these are potential clients. Day 4: Create a landing page with the positioning “we find specialists who replace teams.” Day 5: Conduct 10 calls with HR directors from the companies on the list — collect feedback about pain points. Day 6: Adjust the offer based on feedback, prepare a commercial proposal. Day 7: Close the first paying client or sign a contract for a trial period.
Original news: Entrepreneur · See other news in the news section.
