(Bloomberg) -- In a year when much of the tech industry has pulled back on spending, startups have been hit particularly hard. During the pandemic boom, investors were happy to bankroll promising young companies’ growth at any cost. Now, with new funding rounds all but evaporated, the order of the day is cuts.

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More than 250,000 workers at tech companies of all sizes were let go this year, according to job tracker Layoffs.fyi. While that includes big reductions at giants like Meta Platforms Inc. and Google, thousands came from smaller, closely held companies facing their first reckoning with a slowdown. More than 500 startups closed their doors in 2023, according to equity management firm Carta Inc. — and many of those that endured are laying off workers and looking for alternative sources of cash.

Serve Automation Inc.’s Stellar Pizza, which uses robotics technology to make pizza, is one such business. The company cut half its workforce this year and announced a crowdfunding campaign to try to raise $1.24 million, which it said would give it runway to keep operating for five more months.

“It’s a weird time in the venture world,” co-founder Benson Tsai said in an email. “I’m fighting the good fight to keep the business alive.”

The tone in most of the industry has changed from the boundless optimism of the latest tech boom. When the last round of layoffs struck in 2020, startup employees, especially engineers, were nonchalant, knowing they would quickly find another job. Today the industry has become less hospitable. “Salespeople and recruiters are leaving tech entirely” to get new positions, said Roger Lee, founder of Layoffs.fyi. “Even engineers are compromising — accepting roles with less stability, a tough work environment, or lower pay and benefits.”