If you are in tech, you’ve likely seen the controversial TikTok video of Brittany Pietsch’s firing from Cloudflare. A lot of discussion has been generated by this video and much of it has been critical of the company for the callous way they dismissed her. It has become commonplace for companies to suddenly lay off a whole team as they hire and fire irresponsibly depending on who is in charge and how aggressive their growth goals are. More and more companies seem to be operating from a short-sighted vision as the atmosphere in tech has become increasingly cut-throat.

If you’ve missed my first two posts in this series, you may want to go back and read my respective takes on the surprise closure of the design platform, Invision, and the controversy surrounding an equity funding platform. As a recap, I’m analyzing the chart of each company based on their website’s go-live date. This captures the energetic blueprint during the time they went live on the internet. Astrology is a study of cycles and by studying these cycles over time, they can inform us about key features and themes a given company may be dealing with.

From a high-level point of view, Cloudflare has more planets weighted in the 1st and 3rd quadrants, in the Air and Fire element, and a decent amount in Earth but less in Water. They also have more planets with both Fixed and Cardinal energies. This describes a company that swings from a defensive focus on autonomy (1st Quadrant) to seeking out growth through partnerships (3rd Quadrant). It denotes an ambitious cloud infrastructure company (Fire & Air) with aggressive (Cardinal) goals, but with less Water and Mutable elements, it can lack flow or sensitivity. As recent headlines have demonstrated, public perception is that the company is both aggressive and callous, lacking sensitivity to its employees.

The first thing I notice about the company’s chart is the Venus and Moon Nodal conjunctions on the Ascendent/Descendent axis. Venus in Leo on the Ascendant conjunct the South Node in Cancer describes a company that has historically shown creative and financial leadership (Venus and Leo in the 1st house) in internet security (South Node in Cancer in the 12th house). The company purports to be a darling of the tech world, claiming that 20% of the Internet uses their web security services as of 2022. With Venus opposing the Moon in the 6th house, the company can struggle between their own material needs (1st house) vs the needs of their employees (6th house). The Moon symbolizes security and Aquarius has been linked with technology. The North Node is on the last degree (or critical degree) of Capricorn and it’s in the sign of the Moon’s detriment. This indicates there will be crises that develop in the area of corporate and employee security.

The Moon and North Node trines Mercury in Libra in the 3rd house. If it weren’t for Mercury’s square to Mars in Cancer in the 11th house and a retrograde Pluto in Capricorn in the 5th house, it would have been a sign of easy-flowing ideas and diplomatic communication. Or more directly, this aspect in isolation might describe the easy flow of information supported by their technology. However, Mercury squaring Mars and Pluto shows some destructive tendencies in its communication with groups and possibly friction in the flow of their services (remember the lack of water). Mars is in the sign of its detriment, so it’s very weak here. It’s ruled by the Moon and that may mean the demand for their security services can fluctuate. The company does have a documented history of security and data outage issues. Mars also forms an opposition to Pluto which indicates there could be some power struggles around the topic of individual rights (5th house) vs. community rights (11th house). Or corporate rulership (Pluto in Capricorn) vs. the underdog (Mars in Cancer). This opposition aptly describes the controversy surrounding their stance on net neutrality, refusing to ban hate speech and websites allegedly linked to terrorist groups. The company does not believe in policing the internet.

The company’s Moon is ruled by Saturn in Virgo in the 2nd house. Saturn is opposing a retrograde Uranus in Pisces in the 8th house. Saturn in Virgo in the 2nd house can mean the company has a history of working hard under a restrictive budget and the opposition implies some volatility and change in access to other people’s resources. Lastly, Jupiter, Chiron, and Neptune all lined up in Aquarius in the 7th house implying the company operates alternatively with blind optimism and sensitivity to criticism.

Now, I’m going to lightly analyze two event charts. The first one is from the April 28th, 2023 quarterly earnings call. It was during this call that the CEO received some negative feedback about the way he publicly disparaged his sales team. This is the lens one should use to analyze Brittany Pietsch’s video. It is during this call, that the CEO shared his disdain with salespeople riding the coattails of the company’s “organic” growth:

“… if we’re honest with ourselves, we saw a lot of our success with our enterprise customers because our products were so good and solved real problems that every big company faces. That allowed many on our sales team to succeed largely by just taking orders. When the fish are jumping right in the boat, you don’t need to be a very good fisherman. But at the risk of mixing water metaphors, as the tide goes out, you get a clear view of who’s not wearing shorts”.

The first thing I noticed about this chart is that it was during the first entry of Pluto into Aquarius. Between 5/06/23–7/31/23, Pluto entered Aquarius for the first time before retrograding back into Capricorn. This initial entry was a peak at the themes that would show up as Pluto moves more permanently into Aquarius in 2024. It was during this time that AI started to gain traction.

As I mentioned earlier, Aquarius is an air sign (think: communication online) and is linked to technology. It is abundantly clear that during the next 20 years, we are going to see a huge shakeup and transformation in technology. Pluto first destroys before it restructures. So during this time, we will likely see many technology companies that seemed infallible, fall — while others that aren’t even on our radar take the lead.

Cloudflare has its moon in the early degrees of Aquarius which indicates it will likely go through more intense crises and transformations in the next three years. These two incidents were likely minor in a much larger unfolding story.

The next thing I notice is all of the planets including the North Node at the top of the chart with Jupiter in Aries conjunct the Midheaven. The 10th house represents the company as it presents itself to the public. Jupiter in Aries is hard-charging warrior energy and that’s the performance the audience received during this call. The CEO seemed to be on a warpath intent to weed out the chaff. With the recent headlines, it doesn’t appear he was playing around either. He must have coordinated with his sales leaders to identify the weakest links, cut them, and put in place more aggressive targets. The cohort that Brittany was in was probably the first round of cuts after the new plan was put into place. I’m speculating but the timeline seems plausible.

Transiting Mars had just met up with the company’s natal Mars and was now in the 12th house in detriment, damaging its reputation (the 12th house’s themes include the public’s perception of events).

When Brittany shared the TikTok video, it was just after the New Moon in Capricorn, and Pluto had just turned direct after being retrograde. Pluto was applying to a conjunction of its North Node at 29 degrees just minutes away from 0 degrees Aquarius. Remember this is a critical degree and it seems to represent a crisis point toward the company’s future direction. What accountability do they have toward their employees (6th house = employees)? Transiting Mars and Mercury were both conjunct with the company’s Pluto/Mars opposition. This aspect reflects the intense round of firing the company was farming out to 3rd party HR consultants. Neptune is conjunct the Company’s Uranus in the 8th house and it confirms the confusion about the changes happening from Brittany’s point of view.

As I mentioned, these events are likely to be just the beginning of broader changes we will see at Cloudflare in the next few years. I will be following this company and will provide an update if anything further develops.

3/21/2024 Update:
When I wrote this article, I did not realize that Cloudflare had become a publicly traded company. When this happens, astrologers will update the natal chart to the date and time the company rang the bell on the stock exchange. They do this because the company has effectively become a newly structured company. The company’s previous chart is still relevant, but this new chart will show the company’s evolution and reveal new themes and challenges. You’ll often see important connections between the charts. I briefly looked at the publicly traded chart and found the new chart to be compelling.

For the sake of this article, I will continue to use the original chart for these updates. On March 15, 2024, I received a news alert that claimed Cloudflare had recently lost 22% of the domains it hosted. A customer, Freenom, had recently announced its closure after being sued by Meta over abuse complaints. It appears that many of the domains it offered for free were tied to cybercrime. Freenom announced its exit from the domain registry business on Feb 12, 2024. 

I’ve added the Freenom announcement date (2nd wheel) and Netcraft’s published article date (3rd wheel) to Cloudflare’s website go-live chart below (inner wheel). When Freenom made its announcement, Pluto had gone back into Aquarius with Mars applying to a tight conjunction with Cloudflare’s North Node. Mars is in its sign of exaltation but at the critical degree before entering Aquarius to conjunct transiting Pluto. Since Mars rules Cloudflare’s Midheaven it is symbolic of how this event may impact the company’s future. 

The Sun applies to a conjunction with Cloudflare’s natal Neptune, separating from a conjunction with Jupiter. Interestingly, right before this announcement, Cloudflare’s stock price had gone up around 20% as a result of an upbeat Q1 earnings forecast. This boost in its stock price is symbolized by the conjunction of the Sun with Jupiter (Jupiter expands the energy of the Sun). Freenom announced its exit just days after, which would seemingly impact Cloudflare. But the Sun’s application to Neptune symbolizes the haziness around the actual impact. The lack of clarity about how this announcement will impact Cloudflare is further emphasized with the transiting Moon (public perception) separating from transiting Neptune (the veil) in the 8th house (other people’s money).

Transiting Jupiter also applies to a trine to Cloudflare’s Natal Sun, so while the stock has dipped since the jump on Feb 9th it didn’t decrease significantly. When Netcraft published their findings a month later, transiting Mars replaced the transiting Sun applying to Cloudflare’s natal Neptune. Transiting Sun applies to transit Neptune in the 8th house (partners or other people’s money). Joining the Sun in the 8th house, Venus (finances) applies in conjunction with transiting Saturn (restriction). These aspects continue to paint a murky picture of how this will impact Cloudflare’s finances, but it appears to be restrictive. We most likely won’t see the impact of this news until the next earnings call.