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From left: Compass Kendra Schimmel, Shay Artzi, Robert Rafkin and now-former CTO Joseph Sirosh (photo illustration by Steven Dilakian from Getty Images, LinkedIn/Shay Artzi)
It’s the clearest sign yet that Compass is becoming the housing broker its rivals have always accused it of being.
The company is releasing its chief technology officer, Joseph Sirosh. The real deal Learned. Compass CEO Robert Refkin announced Sirosh’s departure to company employees late Thursday. The company said it would lay off a “small” number of employees and recruiters in its tech group, though it didn’t say how many. The layoffs are part of the company’s broader $320 million cost-cutting plan.
Taking over some of Sirosh’s duties are Kendra Schmelz, who joined Compass last summer, and Shay Artzi, who joined in January 2021.
“With the successful release of the Compass technology platform, Compass now enters the next phase with our industry’s largest technology team, focusing on improving and building tools that help more than 28,000 agent-entrepreneurs grow their businesses,” he said. Statement b TRD. “We are excited to announce that Kendra Schmelz and Shay Artizzi will be moving up to Head of Product and Engineering and have decided to part ways with CTO Joseph Sirosh. We thank him for his many contributions and wish him well in his future endeavors.”
Notably, Twitch’s Schmelz and Amazon’s Artizi will not be officers of the company, and Compass has not announced that it is looking to fill Syros’ role.
In the year Sirosh, who joined the brokerage in late 2018, came over from Microsoft to oversee its artificial intelligence team. Before that he was at Amazon where he worked on machine learning applications.
Last week, he sold more than 220,000 Compass Class A shares, or 40 percent of his total holdings, for $870,000. The sale was made through an SEC-compliant program that allows insiders to plan trades in advance and had nothing to do with its withdrawal, a company spokeswoman said.
Compass said it spent $900 million to build its technology platform, which it believes will give it a significant competitive advantage. It is now moving to reduce spending on tech, stressing that it will continue to support agents. During last week’s earnings call, Refkin credited Sirosh with taking the technology platform “to the next level.”
Layoffs in housing are happening across the board, with companies looking to cut back as they battle a sluggish housing market. Redfin has already cut its workforce, and Inman reported Thursday that Anywhere Real Estate (formerly RealOG) is making an undisclosed number of layoffs.
Compass’s insistence that it’s a technology company — a narrative that’s helped it win major venture capital from SoftBank and others — has been quick to point out that it’s a long-term source of revenue from its competitors and critics. From broker commissions – the same model as other brokers. Compass has been emphasizing that it is an “end-to-end technology platform” for residential real estate agents.
In the 18 months to January 2021, the brokerage lost nearly $800 million. Its CFO, Kristen Ankerbrandt, will leave Sept. 2, SEC filings show, and the company has not named her successor.
Refkin is serving as interim CFO.
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