Bending Spoons announced it is laying off most of the Airtable team as part of a strategy to operate with smaller, more efficient teams. The company highlighted that a new Core team has already shipped over 30 top customer requests in three weeks. This move was shared by Federico Simionato on October 12, 2026, emphasizing that the layoffs reflect a belief that small teams deliver better results, not a reflection on the Airtable staff's performance.
The decision follows a trend among B2B companies to reduce team sizes while maintaining or improving output. Bending Spoons explained that the new Core team will focus on shipping top customer requests monthly, supported by new Performance and Infrastructure teams. This approach aligns with similar cuts at Cloudflare and Atlassian, which trimmed staff but saw growth acceleration afterward. Bending Spoons itself runs at $2.57 million in revenue per employee with a 51% operating margin, illustrating the financial benefits of leaner teams.
This strategy highlights a broader industry shift toward leaner B2B operations, where companies aim to optimize productivity by cutting non-essential roles and focusing on core functions. Cloudflare cut 20% of its workforce mostly in back-office roles during its best quarter, resulting in accelerated growth. Atlassian cut 10% mainly in R&D amid stock price declines but saw cloud growth accelerate and its stock jump 35% in a day. These examples demonstrate how targeted layoffs can improve operational efficiency and financial performance in the SaaS sector.
Bending Spoons’ move to reduce Airtable’s team size is part of a wider pattern of lean restructuring in 2026, with Cloudflare cutting 1,100 people and shifting to an AI-first operating model. The company’s public data shows growth improved from 34% to 36% two quarters after the cuts, underscoring the potential benefits of such strategies.