Assertion certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Heavin: Employee departures surged at Lynda.com after raising venture capital

Bruce Heavin · Lynda.com: Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin · Sep 6, 2021 · at 1:02:00

Co-founder Bruce Heavin contrasts employee retention at Lynda.com before and after its 2013 institutional funding round.

0:00 / 0:21exact quote · 21.3s
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“It made working there a lot less interesting, and I could tell you I could count on one hand how many people chose to leave before we took money. But after we took money and the business started changing because of investors, because of this pressure, we had more employees leaving than ever.”

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