Sasha Orloff — 'Wall Street is rewarding AI-driven layoffs'

Sasha Orloff — CEO of Puzzle (AI accounting platform) and host of the Tech Finance podcast on A16Z Studios — attends the 2026-06-22 Commonwealth Club fireside and posts a substantive 41-like reflection on the AI-layoff incentive cycle Eric described.

“Wall Street is rewarding AI-driven layoffs. Last night I went to hear Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit, interview Eric Ries about his new book Incorruptible. The conversation was about how good companies go bad. The pressure from Wall Street, the pressure of quarterly earnings, and the peer pressure that builds when your competitors run a playbook that works. The example Eric used was the AI layoff cycle. A CEO announces job cuts and cites AI as the reason. The stock pops. The CEO gets a bonus tied to that pop. Other CEOs watch this happen and run the same play. The incentives are completely misaligned with what actually builds enduring companies. Then Eric pointed to the companies that broke the pattern, like Novo Nordisk and Costco. Companies that held their values, refused to fleece their employees or customers, and still outperformed the market over decades. You don't have to fire your employees or your customers to build a great business. Some of the greatest companies in the world are proof. They just don't get rewarded on a 90-day earnings cycle.” — Sasha Orloff on LinkedIn