Weight Loss App Noom Slashes Coaching Staff in Second Round of Layoffs
Noom cuts 500 employees, mostly coaches, reducing its coaching team by half since the start of the year. The layoffs signal a major strategic shift away from the live chat support that defined the platform.
Noom, a health coaching platform valued at $3.7 billion last year, lays off 10% of its staff, or around 500 people, in its second round of job cuts in just a few months. This latest reduction primarily impacts the coaching team, leaving the startup with roughly half the number of coaches it had at the beginning of the year. A company spokesperson states that the difficult decision helps ensure the business is structured for long-term growth, but Noom declines to answer specific questions about severance packages or future strategy.
The massive reduction in coaching personnel marks a significant departure from the platform's original pitch of combining intelligent nutrition with live exercise and lifestyle coaching. Since hitting $400 million in revenue in 2020 and launching a mental health vertical in 2021, the company heavily markets its "Noomily" of empathetic coaches who guide users through daily ups and downs via personalized action plans.
However, the current layoffs indicate that Noom shifts away from this heavily promoted live chat model. According to an internal memo obtained by TechCrunch, the health tech startup transitions its remaining support toward scheduled video calling instead of the continuous text-based coaching that previously served as the core of the user experience.