If you were cut from Airtable in October 2026, your resume says one employer name, your payroll record says another, and the news coverage names a third company. A background check only cares about one of the three.
Bending Spoons closed its Airtable acquisition, at a $1.285B enterprise value, on Sept 4, 2026, and announced layoffs on Oct 12. Three days later, a California WARN filing listed the employer as "Formagrid Inc. dba Airtable," with 190 workers affected.
Why does Airtable's layoff show three employer names?
The brand, the legal entity, and the owner are three separate things. Airtable is the brand. Formagrid Inc. is the company that signs your paychecks. Bending Spoons S.p.A. (NASDAQ: BSP) has owned 100% of the shares since Sept 4, 2026.
A dba ("doing business as") is a registered trade name that a legal entity uses in public in place of its incorporated name. A WARN notice is the state filing an employer must submit before a mass layoff. Formagrid filed one in California on Oct 15, 2026, and it takes effect Jan 15, 2027.
Here is every name an Airtable employee might be recorded under:
- Airtable: the brand, the press coverage, most LinkedIn profiles.
- Formagrid Inc. dba Airtable: the WARN filing, US payroll, Airtable's own employee privacy notice.
- Formagrid UK Limited, Formagrid Australia Pty Ltd, Formagrid Canada Limited: affiliates named in that same privacy notice, which gives non-US staff a fourth possible name.
- Bending Spoons: the new owner. Its product leader Federico Simionato said the cuts reflected a "deep belief that small teams ship more and better."
That's four strings for one job. A recruiter, an applicant tracking system, and a background screener will each look for a different one.
Where does each employer name actually show up?
Recruiters search for the brand, and verification databases store the legal entity. In Refolk's index of professional profiles, almost nobody lists the legal entity at all. That gap is where mismatches come from.
Refolk's index matches keywords loosely, so treat the raw totals as rough. The signal is in who actually turned up in each 25-profile sample:
| Where you look | Figure | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| US profiles matching "Airtable" | 5,677 | Only 3 of 25 sampled actually work at Airtable |
| US profiles matching "Formagrid" | 92 | 0 of 25 are Airtable staff; 18 are at Formaggio Kitchen |
| Profiles matching "Bending Spoons," worldwide | 703 | 18 of 25 list it as current employer; 12 are in Milan |
| Dec 2022 CA WARN vs. reported cut | 111 vs. 254 | WARN captured about 44% |
| Sep 2023 CA WARN vs. reported cut | 99 vs. 237 | WARN captured about 42% |
| Oct 2026 CA WARN | 190 | Total company cut undisclosed |
The Formagrid row matters most. Of the 25 sampled profiles matching Airtable's legal name, 18 belong to people at Formaggio Kitchen, a cheese shop in Cambridge, MA. Not one belongs to an Airtable employee.
In Refolk's index, nobody in the sample describes their job by the name payroll actually uses.
Recruiters search "Airtable," and that search is noisy
Recruiters type the brand, so the brand has to sit in your employer line exactly as spelled. Of the 5,677 US profiles that match "Airtable" in Refolk's index, only 3 of 25 sampled list Airtable as their current employer. The rest are look-alikes like Vitable Health and Actable.
That's fuzzy matching at work: "Airtable" pulls in "Vitable" and "Actable" right next to the real thing. Real ex-Airtable profiles are already buried in that noise. If your profile reads "Formagrid" or "Bending Spoons" and leaves out "Airtable," you drop out of the search completely.
Bending Spoons employees seem to get this. In the index, their headlines put the brand right next to the title, for example "Sales Operations Lead - Vimeo" and "Head of Technology, AOL." The brand people know does the work. The owner's name is background.
This costs you most right after a layoff. The number of people cut was never disclosed, so nobody holds a list of who's available. If recruiters can't find you, the fallback is sending applications cold and hearing nothing back.
Background checks search "Formagrid," and nothing else
Employment verification confirms what payroll recorded, and payroll recorded Formagrid Inc. That's why a background check can flag an employer name mismatch even when everything on your resume is true.
The Work Number is a database run by Equifax. Subscribing employers feed it payroll and employment data. Screeners like HireRight draw on it, and Sterling is part of the same verification pipeline. When a screener looks up your Airtable job, the record that comes back is keyed to the entity that paid you, not the logo on the office door.
Acquisitions make this worse. A company bought by a larger one may have its HR records migrated imperfectly. Bending Spoons owns Airtable now, and any later move to new HR or payroll systems is a chance for your record to change shape.
You don't have to guess whether name matching fails. Look at the trackers that exist only to match WARN filings to companies:
- Kadoa lists 2 WARN notices affecting 210 workers for 2022 to 2023.
- WARNScan lists 3 notices affecting 309 workers, with two separate 99-worker entries in Sep and Oct 2023.
- WARNTracker renames the employer "Airtable" and notes the raw data says "Formagrid Inc dba Airtable."
That's three purpose-built tools giving three different totals for one entity. If they can't line up the name strings, a busy screener working from your resume won't either. Put both names on it.
Don't list Bending Spoons as your employer
Bending Spoons bought the company that employed you. It never employed you itself. The deal was a purchase of 100% of the shares, so Formagrid Inc. ran payroll before the close and after it.
Writing "Bending Spoons" in the employer field creates another name that matches nothing in the verification record. A screener who sees "Bending Spoons" on the form and "Formagrid Inc." in The Work Number now has a discrepancy to resolve, and the name you added is the one causing it.
The owner still belongs on the resume, as context:
Airtable (Formagrid Inc.), acquired by Bending Spoons 2026
That one line gives the recruiter the brand and the screener the legal entity, and it tells a hiring manager why you're looking.
How to list an acquired company on your resume
Lead with the brand, put the legal entity in parentheses, and add the acquisition as a short note. Then use the legal name anywhere a form is verifying your history rather than marketing you.
As one background-screening guide puts it, "A resume is a positioning document. A background-check form is a verification document." Each surface gets its own format:
- Resume employer line:
Airtable (Formagrid Inc.) | Acquired by Bending Spoons, 2026, followed by your title and dates. - ATS "Company" field:
Airtable (Formagrid Inc.). The brand comes first for keyword search, and the legal name stays attached for anyone cross-checking. - Background-check authorization form:
Formagrid Inc. dba Airtable, written exactly as it appears in the WARN filing and your pay stubs. If there's a field for other names, enter "Airtable." - LinkedIn: tag the Airtable company page, and mention Formagrid Inc. once in the role description so both strings can be searched.
- Non-US staff: swap in your actual employing entity, for example
Airtable (Formagrid UK Limited).
The same pattern covers any dba company name on a resume: brand first, legal entity in parentheses, owner as a note. It works for anyone who came out of Vimeo, WeTransfer, or Komoot, and soon for people at Miro, which Bending Spoons agreed to buy at a $1.36 billion valuation.
The hard part isn't writing that line once. It's keeping it identical across every tailored version while you rework bullets for each posting. That's the drift Refolk stops. I write your resume from your own history, so when I tailor it for each new posting, the bullets change and "Airtable (Formagrid Inc.)" stays exactly the same.
Your official end date may be January 15, 2027
Your last day at work and your recorded termination date may not match. The WARN notice takes effect Jan 15, 2027, but staff were told they'd be gone by the end of the week of Oct 12, with "substantial separation packages."
Here's the likely mechanism, though it isn't confirmed for every person. If your separation pay runs through the WARN period, payroll may keep you on the books until mid-January. In that case The Work Number could show an end date three months after the one on your resume.
Before you fill in any verification form:
- Read your separation agreement for the formal termination date.
- Request your own employment report from The Work Number so you see what a screener will see.
- Put the verifiable date on the background-check form. On the resume, "Oct 2026" is honest if that was your last working day, as long as you're ready to explain the gap between the two dates.
- Keep every document. Strauss Borrelli PLLC is investigating whether Airtable gave at least 60 days' notice before laying off the 190, and your paperwork may matter for that too.
The 190 is a floor, so say you were part of it
The WARN count undercounts the layoff, so recruiters won't automatically know you were in it. In 2022 and 2023, California WARN filings caught only about 42% to 44% of the cuts that were publicly reported.
99 workers on the notice versus 237 reported, because WARN counts specific sites, not the whole company.
WARN counts workers at specific sites. Remote employees, people outside California, and staff at the UK, Australian, and Canadian entities don't show up in that 190. If you were one of them, nothing public connects your name to the Oct 12 cuts.
Close that gap yourself with one dated, checkable line under the role: "Role eliminated in October 2026 layoff following Bending Spoons acquisition." Put one plain sentence about it in the first paragraph of your cover letter as well. Say it once and don't apologize, so the hiring manager isn't left guessing.
One mismatch looks clerical. Three look like a pattern
A single difference between your resume and the verification record usually reads as admin. Stack several together and it starts to look deliberate. As one screening guide warns, "Several mismatches in dates, title, and employer name can start to look like a pattern."
Airtable workers can hit all three at once:
- Employer name: Airtable on the resume, Formagrid in the record.
- End date: October on the resume, possibly January in payroll.
- Title: your LinkedIn-friendly title against the internal one HR stored.
If a check does come back flagged, you have rights. Under the FCRA, the employer has to send a pre-adverse action notice and wait at least 5 business days before making a final decision. Use that window. Send the WARN filing showing "Formagrid Inc. dba Airtable," your pay stubs, and your separation agreement. A government document that shows the dba is the strongest evidence you have.
Then go back and fix the source. If your resume had the legal name in parentheses from the start, the screener would never have needed to ask.
FAQ
What happens if my background check says "Formagrid" and the employer doesn't recognize it?
It's a common background check employer name mismatch, and documents fix it. The FCRA requires a pre-adverse action notice and at least 5 business days before any final decision. In that time, send the California WARN filing naming "Formagrid Inc. dba Airtable," a pay stub, and your separation agreement. Putting the legal name on your resume from the start keeps this from happening at all.
Which end date should I use if my severance runs past my last day?
Use the date that will verify on any background-check form. Check it first by reading your separation agreement and requesting your own Work Number report. The WARN notice runs to Jan 15, 2027, so payroll may show a later date than your last working day. Your resume can show your real last month as long as you can explain the difference.
I worked for Airtable outside the US. Which legal name do I use?
Use the entity that actually employed you. Airtable's employee privacy notice names Formagrid UK Limited, Formagrid Australia Pty Ltd, and Formagrid Canada Limited alongside Formagrid Inc. Check a payslip or your contract, then write it as Airtable (Formagrid UK Limited) or the equivalent. You also won't be in the California WARN count of 190, so state on the resume that your role was eliminated in the October 2026 layoff.
Does this apply to other acquired companies, not just Airtable?
Yes. Any company with a dba, a renamed parent, or a recent owner has the same three-name problem. Bending Spoons alone has run layoffs after buying Vimeo, WeTransfer, and Komoot, and it has a pending deal for Miro. The rule doesn't change: brand first, legal entity in parentheses, owner as a note, and the exact legal name on verification forms.