Dive Brief:

• Subscription retail darling Birchbox Friday announced cutbacks, including staff reductions of 15% and a halt, if temporary, of plans to expand into Canada.

• The startup’s pause is the latest sign that venture-capital funded enterprises could be in for some belt-tightening as what some economists view as a tech bubble deflates, or even bursts.

• But Birchbox executives characterize its moves more as a prudent response to the outlook for tech investments than worries about its own prospects, saying its growth is on track and that the company won’t be looking for further funding this year.

Dive Insight:

Warnings of a tech bubble increased in many quarters last year, including in Silicon Valley itself, and those murmurs in recent months have morphed into talk that the bubble is bursting. 

So the doomsayers that have been insisting on a tech bubble and warning of it popping have been loud and getting louder for at least a year. While many compare that—assuming it’s true—to the tech bubble blast of the nineties dot.com era, there are significant differences (and even some lessons learned) that indicate that, even if there’s a bubble burst, things will likely be different this time around.

As with any business, making solid moves around expansion and growth is the more solid path to ensure that funding—whether from investors or profits—keeps flowing. It's also key to insure that this growth isn’t dependent on the latest e-commerce innovation that may become a fizzling fad, be it flash sales or, in Birchbox’s case, subscriptions. Birchbox, for its part, has worked to expand beyond that niche with its brick-and-mortar stores, and says that profitability is a near-term goal.

“The cuts made today will allow us to reinvest in our biggest opportunities and grow even more quickly in the future,” Birchbox co-founder-CEO Katia Beauchamp said in a statement. "Our vision for Birchbox has always been to build a standalone company, and today’s market demands that we reach profitability this year."