INSIDE THE WILD FALL AND LAST-MINUTE REVIVAL OF BENCH, THE VC-BACKED ACCOUNTING STARTUP THAT IMPLODED OVER THE HOLIDAYS

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

Bench, an accounting and tax startup based in Canada, suddenly shut down on December 27 after 13 years of operation. The company's hundreds of staff were laid off immediately without any severance or notice. Some of its staff claim that the company's struggles were due to a push to embrace AI and other automation tools in recent years. Overreliance on automation tools, sometimes at the expense of human workers, caused delays, which made some customers leave. Bench was saved by an unlikely acquistion by Employer.com, who extended a large number of job offers to former Bench staff.