Cue Health

He cut 2,000 staff the moment COVID ended; Cue and Lucira overbuilt and went bankrupt

Once it was clear COVID testing was over, Danny Yeung quickly laid off about 2,000 Prenetics employees. Peers like Cue Health, once a $3B company with $1B in US revenue, and Lucira overbuilt with their own factories and bets on at-home testing, and both went bankrupt within about 18 months.

“it was right when we knew COVID was over, I let go of 2,000 people very, very fast. And that turned out to be a really good decision. Because again, during that time-wise, you had Q Health, you had Lucera, and these were at the time, they were listed companies. At one point, Q Health was $3 billion market cap. They had $1 billion in revenue in the US, right? Lucera, they had another, like, I think they were $2 billion market cap. Yeah. They went bankrupt, you know, 18 months after COVID because they overbuilt.”

Steal thisWhen a demand spike ends, cut to the new reality immediately instead of carrying the boom-era cost base.