In early March, after two ultra-fast delivery startups shut down in New York City in a single week, a self-proclaimed pioneer in the space appeared to see an opportunity for some media attention.
Getir, a Turkish startup founded in 2015, had recently raised $768 million in funding valuing it at $11.8 billion, "cementing its position as a decacorn" even in the face of a "volatile" market, according to a representative for the company at the time. The representative suggested a reporter discuss with Getir's CEO the future of the industry amid the "disappearance" of two smaller competitors.
Two months later, Getir slashed 14% of its global workforce, or nearly 4,500 employees, according to multiple reports at the time.

This $15 billion startup promises 30-minute deliveries. Now it's facing a worker backlash
The sudden shift reflected the broader turbulence in this sector. Buoyed by billions in venture capital and a surge in demand earlier in the pandemic, a long list of on-demand companies promised to deliver ice cream, toilet paper, vodka or even a single apple in as little as 10 minutes. These startups opened offices and micro-fulfillment centers in cities across the country and rapidly recruited couriers.
Then the music stopped. Soaring inflation, rising interest rates, fears of a looming recession and a war in Ukraine forced much of the tech industry to rethink expenses. Perhaps nowhere was that pullback as severe as this flashy, and very costly, corner of the on-demand industry — an industry which was born out of the Great Recession of 2008 and had never experienced a prolonged downturn.
"It's the model we saw with Uber a decade ago of heavily prioritizing growth over profits to be able to rapidly seize first-mover advantage," said Alex Frederick, a senior analyst focused on emerging technology at PitchBook, a data analytics company. This model "requires high burn, high capital investments to continually expand into new markets, attract customers and retain them," he said. Now, investors may have less appetite for it.

Gorillas, an ultra-fast delivery startup founded in Germany, launched in the US in May 2021.
This year, Fridge No More and Buyk have shut down operations completely; Jokr said it would shut down its US operations and hone in on its Latin America business; and Gopuff, Gorillas and Getir have each had at least one round of layoffs. Combined, at least 8,250 jobs have been lost, according to a tally by CNN Business based on a combination of press coverage, publicly available information and confirmations from some of the companies. Many of those impacted worked as couriers, or the frontline workers essential to delivering on the missions of speed and convenience.
The fallout has created whiplash for some of the many workers who bet on it. One of the thousands of employees laid off by Getir told CNN Business that they had felt a sense of security because of something they said they'd heard expressed inside the seven-year-old company: It had never undergone layoffs.
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The worker, who joined in late 2021 as Getir was building up its US presence in Boston and Chicago, said that while they'd rationally understood it's common for startups to lay off employees, or even to fail, they believed Getir would be the exception. "I really believed they just didn't do layoffs and thought they were going to be a very different startup," said the former employee, who asked their name to be withheld for fear of retaliation. "I believed the dream they were selling. I'm disappointed."
In an e-mailed response to CNN Business, Getir CEO Nazim Salur said his company "decided to extend the runway" through layoffs "because of the deterioration of market conditions." Salur added: "Layoffs are something we try not to do unless it is absolutely necessary. This is the first time in Getir's seven-year history that Getir has gone through a workforce cut of this magnitude."
He declined to provide additional details on the round of cuts in May, including what portion of its US business was impacted. The company said it's the first instance of widespread layoffs as opposed to specific store closures.
Like Getir, the ultra-fast delivery startups that remain have largely indicated the cuts are intended to help them weather the economic downturn. As they adjust, however, other businesses appear to be eying opportunities to gain a footing in the market, and perhaps change how it operates.
The rise and stumbles of 15-minute delivery startups
When Gopuff, considered the first to leverage its own stores to fulfill ultra-fast deliveries, was founded in 2013, Uber and the app-based gig economy were only a few years old. Gopuff's original pitch was to offer hookah deliveries and later food to college students with sudden cravings.

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Less than a decade later, Gopuff was valued at $15 billion, and then reportedly raised a convertible note at a valuation cap of up to $40 billion. It was also operating in more than 1,200 cities and capturing the attention of a more established gig company, Uber, in the form of a partnership. Gopuff had 450 micro-fulfillment centers spread across college towns and major cities to supply its customers with everything from food to alcohol and medicine almost instantaneously. As of March 2022, it had 15,000 employees.
But in a memo to investors in July, it outlined a number of changes it was making, including a second round of layoffs in a matter of months and closing 76 micro-fulfillment centers, to prepare for the next two years by which time it projects it can be profitable. It said that it is preparing for "what could be a much more significant macro-economic downturn than we are experiencing currently."

Gopuff, founded in Philadelphia in 2013, is the most highly-valued of the ultra-fast delivery startups.
"The instant commerce industry that Gopuff created is at an inflection point," the company said in the memo, a copy of which was viewed by CNN Business. "Gopuff was among the last hyper-growth tech companies to raise a significant round in the previous economic environment and among the first to cut costs to focus on and optimize unit economics," the company said, referring to the revenue and costs associated with each delivery.
Even with the cuts at Gopuff and other startups, some industry watchers have doubts about the long-term viability of their main offerings, especially in a more sober economic environment.
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