Pros
Highly skilled, supportive, and dedicated colleagues. Freedom to choose technologies and contribute to technical decisions.
Kontras
For a startup, the company was unusually large, but leadership was still ineffective and disconnected from day-to-day realities. C-level management lacked engagement and delegated too much decision-making authority to a tech lead whose management style was rigid, dismissive of feedback, and contributed to a high turnover rate. Existing problems were never addressed despite repeated employee feedback. Although the tech stack allowed flexibility, progress was consistently slowed down by heavy processes, excessive meetings, and overstructured decision-making centered around a single individual. Major decisions—such as launching the product after two years—were made based on overly optimistic assumptions (including reliance on a single celebrity-driven marketing push), which ultimately failed to generate expected results. Layoffs and restructuring were communicated abruptly with minimal transparency. Over 90% of the company was let go within days, including employees who had joined only 1–2 months earlier. This was not the first time: there had already been at least two previous rounds of layoffs and sudden policy changes, such as enforcing full on-site work despite originally offering a hybrid agreement. The biggest issue was not the general workforce, who were motivated, collaborative, and proactive, but the C-level leadership’s lack of clarity, alignment, and responsiveness.
