&gt; there is not much more risk than any regular hire ( who could also write an expose about whatever )<p>Comparing a regular hire &#x2F; fire to firing an individual from a team is not apples to apples.<p>For a regular hire, that person is a &quot;team&quot; of skills that can do many things.  For example, Joe can program and do technical writing.  If MegaTech hires Joe for a programming job, and then only assigns him technical-writing work, they&#x27;ve &quot;laid off&quot; his programming skill.  Joe might be a little unhappy that he didn&#x27;t get to do the job for which he was hired.  He may mention it in his Glassdoor review, and that may impact future developers&#x27; opinions of MegaTech a smidge.<p>If MegaTech does a team hire and then lays off one person, it could appear that the initial idea of hiring the whole team was not sincere.  That is risking more reputation than hiring and firing one person.  When you hire&#x2F;fire one person, it&#x27;s clear the company and individual&#x27;s initial plan failed.  When firing a person from a team after a few months, it&#x27;s not so clear whether the company ever really wanted that person or not.<p>So I think there are potential downsides.  I also think Stripe is aware of these.<p>I look forward to hearing about this model and hope it works for the companies and groups who try it.