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Plunk, a real estate valuation and advisory start-up, has opted for a strategic pivot towards automation after encountering funding obstacles and layoffs
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David Bluhm, President and co-founder of Plunk, cited various factors for the change, including economic difficulties, dwindling industry interest for conventional methods, and a need to ensure the company’s sustainability
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As a result of this decision, three employees have been let go so far, and there could potentially be more layoffs in the future
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While this pivot might raise concerns among employees, Bluhm remains confident about Plunk’s direction
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Despite the turn towards automation, Bluhm emphasizes that human judgement, intuition, and expertise will remain crucial elements in the industry
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Bluhm also believes this transition will make the company more efficient and would attract more investors in the long run
Hot Take
Oh, Plunk, you startup heartbreaker, you. In an all-too-familiar story, economic troubles and waning industry interest (AKA the grown-up words for “We’re running out of money, guys!”) have forced the founder to bang the ‘automate-everything’ drum. Three employees have already been shown the ‘stage left,’ and there might just be encores.
While the pledge to stop short of replacing human judgement and intuition with robo-consultants is commendable, the smog of job insecurity will likely hover over Plunktown for quite some time. Perhaps they will manage to create a transformer-like creature, perfectly blending man and machine. Or is it going to be more Wall-E meets The Office?
We don’t know for sure, but here’s to hope that their swing towards automation doesn’t end up making their valuation more “plunk” than profitable. Because David Bluhm and Co, just remember this: in this game of startup survival, pivoting too many times may turn you into a whirligig, and flying in circles rarely gets you forward. Happy automating!
Original article: https://www.inman.com/2023/12/14/industry-headwinds-push-plunk-in-new-direction/
