Get All Access for $5/mo

Silicon Valley Workers Are Using This App to Share Their Layoff Speculations and Woes in Secret Blind's anonymity means verified employees can be more honest than ever before.

By Amanda Breen

NurPhoto | Getty Images

There's an increasingly popular professional networking site on the scene — and it's not LinkedIn.

Silicon Valley employees have signed up for Blind, an anonymous community app for the workplace, by the thousands amid recent layoffs, using the service to speculate about job cuts and offer words of comfort, CNN reported.

Related: Tech CEO Apologizes After 'Tone Deaf' Layoff Email Quoting MLK Jr.

Roughly 6,000 Microsoft employees signed up for the app in the week before the company publicly announced it would slash 10,000 jobs, and Meta and Google each have tens of thousands of verified workers on the app, per internal data shared with the outlet by Blind.

As of April 2022, Blind, which launched in the U.S. in 2014, already had more than 5 million verified employees discussing their employers and policies, according to CNBC. Paul Wolfe, former CHRO of Indeed, told the outlet Blind was "more conversational" than Indeed or Glassdoor — which can result in more "bashing of companies."

"We just all realized that there's a need for communication that is kind of independent of company control," Kyum Kim, Blind's co-founder and chief business officer, told CNN. "Because when employees talk to each other in a work setting, they can't be honest – and they have to always kind of be self conscious about what the boss is going to think, or what other people are going to think."

Related: Layoffs Affecting 1,600 Tech Workers A Day on Average In 2023

A recent post on the app from someone claiming to be a current Amazon employee delves into the lessons learned when they were laid off from Uber at the onset of the pandemic — and how they overcame feelings of failure. It has nearly 100,000 views.

Amanda Breen

Entrepreneur Staff

Senior Features Writer

Amanda Breen is a senior features writer at Entrepreneur.com. She is a graduate of Barnard College and received an MFA in writing at Columbia University, where she was a news fellow for the School of the Arts.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Starting a Business

He Started a Business That Surpassed $100 Million in Under 3 Years: 'Consistent Revenue Right Out of the Gate'

Ryan Close, founder and CEO of Bartesian, had run a few small businesses on the side — but none of them excited him as much as the idea for a home cocktail machine.

Franchise

The Top 10 Coffee Franchises in 2024

From a classic cup of joe to a creamy latte, grab your favorite mug and get ready to brew up success with the best coffee franchises.

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

Marketing

How Small Businesses Can Leverage Dark Social to Drive Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Dark social accounts for 70% of social media shares and is crucial for small businesses. Here's how you can tap into this hidden marketing opportunity.

Business News

'Jaw-Dropping Performance in 2024,' Says a Senior Analyst as Nvidia Reports Earnings

Nvidia reported its highly-anticipated third-quarter earnings on Wednesday.

Business News

'Do You Sell Cars?': Tesla CEO Elon Musk Trolls Jaguar Rebrand on X

The team running Jaguar's X account was working hard on social media this week.