Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop axes staff, cites ‘pivot to AI workflow’ in latest business blow… just 18 months after large-scale layoffs at the company

Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness empire Goop has axed more staff while announcing a ‘pivot to AI’ just 18 months after massive layoffs.

In late 2024, the 53-year-old actress’s wellness and lifestyle brand implemented two rounds of cuts within two months, culling around 50 employees.

Goop has let go of around 20 more this week, with the rationale of ‘profitability and AI,’ Puck reported.

The layoffs were apparently ‘justified via pivot to AI workflow,’ according to the tip line on Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me Substack.

It was also claimed that Paltrow had led the town hall meeting when the announcement was made. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to Paltrow and Goop for comment and is yet to hear back.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness empire, Goop, has axed more staff while announcing a ‘pivot to AI’ just 18 months after massive layoffs at the company

The Oscar-winning actress, who also acts as CEO of Goop, founded the company as a weekly e-mail newsletter in September 2008.

It later expanded into e-commerce as it collaborated with fashion brands, hosted pop-up shops, and even ‘wellness summits’ as it also launched a print magazine, podcast, and docuseries on Netflix.

However, it has not been an easy last few years for the wellness and lifestyle brand. 

About 40 people were axed from the 216-person-strong staff, accounting for 18 percent of the e-commerce site’s workforce, in September 2024.

Additional cuts were made late the following month, of around ten people, equating to less than 6 percent of staff across several divisions, including the beauty, programming, engineering, and creative departments. 

At the time, it was said that the goal was to ‘optimize operational efficiency and revenue growth in our key verticals of beauty and fashion,’ a Goop spokesman told Business Insider.

 Paltrow said that the 2024 layoffs had put Goop ‘back in growth mode’ – but it appears that there were still more cuts to be made.

Few details exist on just how solvent the company is, with a spokesman simply stating that revenue grew year on year in 2023, with 2024 looking like another year of growth.

In late 2024, the 53-year-old entrepreneur’s wellness and lifestyle brand implemented two rounds of layoffs within two months

Now, Goop has let go of around 20 staff members this week, with the rationale of ‘profitability and AI,’ it was reported by Puck

Meanwhile, according to the tip line on Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me Substack, it is alleged the layoffs were ‘justified via pivot to AI workflow’ as there were also statements about the lack of profitability 

The spokesperson said Goop Beauty revenue had increased 21 percent compared to last year compared to a massive 42 per cent boost in 2023, while G. Label revenue is up 45 percent. 

The last round of cuts before the two in 2024, occurred in 2021 when it’s believed at least 140 employees, including high-level execs including a chief financial officer, chief technology officer and chief risk officer, left the company over a period of two years.

The actor famously listed a candle named ‘This Smells Like My Vagina’ on her online Goop shop

While the pandemic accounted for some staffing loss, ex-staffers noted how Goop’s high turnover problem predated COVID-19 layoffs, and that stingy pay, a ‘taxing culture,’ and the Academy Award winner’s habit of picking favorites and then seemingly changing her mind were the causes. 

Other ex-employees who griped about the company on Glassdoor also slammed the ‘bullies’ and ‘mean girls’ who rely on ‘fear-based management,’ saying Paltrow in particular was ‘wanting to spend her days trying on clothes when the company desperately needed a real CEO.’ 

When the company launched over 17 years ago as a weekly newsletter, it seemed to generate fans and critics in equal measure with some eyebrow raising products including sex dust and libido boosting supplements, vampire repellent and scented candles, one of which was billed as smelling like Paltrow’s orgasm.

The actress had famously listed a $75 candle, cheekily named ‘This Smells Like My Vagina’, for sale in her online Goop shop and revealed that the geranium, citrus bergamot and cedar scented candle originally started as a joke. 

According to the product’s description: ‘This candle started as a joke between perfumer Douglas Little and GP—the two were working on a fragrance, and she blurted out, ‘Uhhh..this smells like a vagina’—but evolved into a funny, gorgeous, sexy, and beautifully unexpected scent. 

The actress had also previously advised readers to purchase a $15,000 24k gold vibrator and vaginal jade eggs. 

Many of Goop’s wellness and lifestyle products are shown

More recently, she has launched Goop Kitchen which is an extension of the brand and is a health-focused restaurant that serves food only for takeout and delivery

 But Paltrow has seemingly had no trouble pulling in the big bucks having raised more than $140 million in capital from blue-chip firms

Paltrow has said that she started to feel uncomfortable accepting so much venture capital funding. 

‘You start fielding questions about scale, especially if you’ve taken VC money. And that’s where I think it can be very, very difficult. And frankly, where I’ve made mistakes along the way,’ she said during a Forbes conference in September 2024.

More recently, she has launched Goop Kitchen which is an extension of the brand and is a health-focused restaurant that serves food only for takeout and delivery.

Article source: https://www.dailymail.com/tvshowbiz/article-15815309/gwyneth-paltrow-goop-ai-layoffs.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490