This week I made a decision to ensure Prefect’s long-term success by reorganizing our company to operate as a profitable, customer-funded business.
This decision had a terrible consequence, and I deeply regret that it meant parting ways with twenty extraordinary colleagues. These are people I personally recruited, who believed in our vision, who said “yes” to this journey. They made Prefect what it is today, and I’m committed to supporting each of them during this transition and will advocate for them all as they move forward.
So why take such a difficult action?
In uncertain times, we must “control what we can control.” When capital is expensive, investor dependency becomes an existential threat, and on its previous trajectory, Prefect would have required new capital later in 2026.
Becoming a profitable business frees us from that constraint. A startup can do extraordinary things when it doesn’t operate under the shadow of its next fundraise. Our decisions can now flow purely from what creates value for our customers, not from what extends our timeline.
This is a fundamentally different Prefect, built to last and ready to support our growing community. For our users and customers, this change means faster innovation cycles and a partner they can count on regardless of market conditions.
I believe this is what a modern startup should look like in 2025: resilient, independent, and focused entirely on creating value for its users. That’s the Prefect we’re building today.