Amazon just cut 14,000 corporate roles.
Reuters suggests it could reach 30,000 by end of 2026. This really sucks. I personally know a number of people impacted by this, and I’m also an AWS customer and have been for a long time.
That's roughly 10% of Amazon's 350k-person corporate workforce.
These are real people, and they’re talented, experienced, hardworking people.
Here's what every GP needs to understand: This is a terrible opportunity for Series Seed, A, and B companies. This isn’t cynicism. We call it math.
Amazon corporate employees are built for scale and process.
They optimize within massive f****g systems. They ask for project charters, skip-level meetings, and approval workflows. They think in quarters, governance structures, and stakeholder management.
Early-stage startups need the opposite. They need people comfortable with ambiguity, wearing 12 hats, not wearing a hat, shipping without perfect data, shipping with nearly no data, and making decisions on 60% information. They need urgency and ramen, not process.
There are two kinds of people: those who need permission to move, and those who don't. I've never sat through a skip-level meeting in my life. Met Oprah. Hung with Blondie's drummer. Built a publication 3% the size of TechCrunch. All without asking permission. Which one are you hiring?
Which one do you want in your portfolio?
What this means: Of the 14,000+ being cut, maybe 10-20% have the psychological profile for startup velocity. That's roughly 1,400-2,800 people across the entire venture ecosystem. That's not a flood.
That's a trickle.The rest? They're permission-askers.
The real opportunity? Growth-stage PE and infrastructure funds.
Amazon engineers who spent years optimizing AWS scaling?
They're perfect for infrastructure plays and growth buyouts where the business model works and you need to operationalize at scale. PE shops need these people badly.
Early-stage VCs? You're competing for the 10% who either came from startups before joining Amazon or who explicitly say "I felt suffocated by the bureaucracy." Interview hard on this. Most won't pass the test.
Also: if they felt it, they're already screaming it. Don't ask.
If you're a GP, here's the truth: Don't get pumped about the Amazon talent pool. Get excited about the Amazon alumni who were already frustrated by Amazon. Those people were already looking for exits anyway. They're your real hire.
Ask candidates: "What's the smallest team you've shipped a product with?" If they freeze or pivot to a team of 50+, you have your answer.
The Amazon layoffs aren't a gift for VC. They're a reminder that talent arbitrage only works when the talent actually wants to move fast and break things. 80-90% of these folks do not want to break things.
Hire accordingly.
P.S. Don't waste energy on Jassy's decisions. Not your job. Your job is to keep your head and your team's emotional focus in the game, build your fund, and hire the right people. Move on.