Wetpaint Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Wetpaint

Pros – - Solid technology, dev practices, and sprint pace.
- Fun parties, free snacks, community involvment.
- Close-knight, people often go running at lunch or hang out together after work.

Cons – - Small company with few resources means you are doing a lot more than your job description.
- Long hours, late nights, but typical for industry
- Direction changes can be frustrating. What you are working on today may very well be scrapped in 6 months.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Wetpaint

Pros – - technical autonomy / latitude
- little legacy code
- no pager duties
- smart, motivated peers
- career development highly emphasized
- lots of influence over the final product

Cons – Downsides are probably shared by all small startups
- clear product definition not always available
- wearing many hats can be tiring
- lack of qa when releasing a prototype can sometimes drive you crazy ( but it does keeps things moving fast )

Advice to Senior Management – focus on your customers

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Wetpaint

Pros – A couple of the previous reviews are a little over the top. Did the company go through some layoffs during strategic changes? Yes. Many companies do. Layoffs always suck, but Wetpaint treated people with dignity and respect.

Overall I found Wetpaint to be a fun and laid back environment that was also highly productive. There is tons of talent there at all levels. I look back on my time there very fondly. Wetpaint was a great place to work. By all accounts their newfound direction is very focused and getting good results. It's a big departure from where they started and those kind of changes don't come without some lumps.

Cons – The strategic shift was drawn out and difficult for many. Luckily, it's in the rear view mirror.

Advice to Senior Management – Stay focused

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Wetpaint

Pros – Fun people to work with - Wetpaint was diligent about making sure new hires meshed well & were playful. Great downtown location.

Cons – Don't let the funding fool you. Wetpaint is cheap - don't expect much pay, benefits, equipment, tools, or data. Senior management waffles on decisions and doesn't care about its employees. Case in point: over $1 million in cash per employee sitting in bank, yet company decides to lay off 70% of its employees in the worst possible job market, despite promises that everyone's job is completely stable and the company could last for years on existing funding.

Advice to Senior Management – You waffled on strategy, layed-off some of your most talented people, and are in the process of screwing over your large customer base. Burn any more bridges and you're toast. Now is the time to patch things up and go back to your original visions.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Wetpaint

Pros – somewhat laid back startup environment, nice downtown Seattle location, some decent benefits including subsidized transportation or the option for the flex pass, generally friendly/social atmosphere, some transparency in business goals

Cons – Don't be fooled by the claims of $40 million in venture capital and high profile customers; this company has laid off more than half its staff this year after telling employees they won't be doing layoffs. Product dev had way too much emphasis on estimation of software development with total disregard to changing requirements. Belittling atmosphere towards any new ideas and a unique combination of technical incompetence + arrogance that translates to a bulky and over-engineered platform. Incompetent project managers created more work rather than resolving issues and there was a lot of pointing fingers when things went wrong. One of the worst things is the cronyism on part of management during conflict resolution or decision making. Zero career development opportunities.

Advice to Senior Management – Get rid of the big picture executives who don't contribute anything valuable to developing or monetizing the product. Hire some strong technical leadership. Learn the tradeoffs of time to market vs. long term cost

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Wetpaint

Pros – Fun dynamic and fast paced startup. Everyday is a challenge and you need to be willing to roll up your sleeves and get busy.

Cons – lack of expertise in core revenue areas, conflict /uncertainty about core mission can lead to confusion or lack of focus

Advice to Senior Management – align product and personnel more clearly. Drive differentation based on consumer and customer needs. Analyze product with an unbiased eye looking to improve based on market need

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend