Spoonflower, one of the Triangle’s highest profile startups which raised $25 million last year and hired a top executive with IPO experience, has laid off 18 percent of its work force, the firm’s president confirms to WRAL TechWire.

The layoffs were described as a “work force reduction event.”

The layoffs accounted for more than 30 workers, a source told WTW. Some 150 people did work for the firm, which is based in Durham and recently opened an office in Berlin.

However, the company is continuing to recruit some new workers as it reorganizes.

“We did have a workforce reduction event in late July of 18 percent,” Spoonflower President Allison Sloan Polish told WTW in response to an inquiry.

“We provided notice to our employees and severance based on tenure of service,” she added.

WTW was told that employees were informed of the job cuts via email after the close of business in late July.

The layoffs were initiated the following morning.

Spoonflower’s founders (a pair of executives who bolted from Bob Young’s Lulu to launch the custom fabric e-commerce business) was looking to hire 50 people – and a CFO with the right kind of experience (IPO and more) topped the list after the investment was announced in August 2015. Jennifer Turnage was hired as CFO in November.

Polish did not respond to all questions about the layoffs but said the company is evolving, needed to sharpen its focus, and that business continues to grow.

“Spoonflower continues to evolve in how it serves its customers,” she explained.

“This was a reorganization to sharpen our focus on geographic expansion and new brand initiatives in home decor and apparel.

“Our business continues to grow strongly in our new offices in Berlin and here in Durham.

“We are recruiting for some new positions as part of our continuing growth strategy.”

Backstory

Spoonflower has grown rapidly, cracking the 2015 Inc. 5000 list with revenues soaring 469 percent over the past three years to reach $15.2 million.

The $25 million was the first institutional financing for the startup, which bootstrapped funding. Leading the round was North Bridge Growth Equity, which is based in Boston.

Durham-based Bull City Ventures also invested. (BCVP co-founder David Jones told WTW that Spoonflower is in “great shape” when asked about the job cuts.)

Spoonflower burst onto the local startup scene in late 2008 by landing a $45,000 grant from economic development group NC IDEA. The company has claimed from the start to be the first Internet-based deliverer of custom fabrics.

Stephen Fraser and Gart Davis, the co-founders of the company, left executive positions at self-publishing firm Lulu to launch Spoonflower.