Toxic Leadership, Poor Management, and No Long-Term Vision - Customer Success Manager (CSM) DebtBook Employee Review

I had an awful experience working at DebtBook. The leadership team, including the CEO, COO, and CFO, had no prior corporate experience and made unilateral decisions that left directors and managers feeling unnecessary. They mismanaged finances so severely that they over-hired, leading to a layoff in early 2024, followed by additional reductions in late 2024 and early 2025. These cuts created widespread fear and uncertainty, prompting dozens of employees to quit on their own. The company operates like a "good old boys club"—if you're not in the right circles, your hard work will go unnoticed. They changed the compensation plan three times in one year, making it clear their goal was to minimize payouts rather than fairly reward employees. Pricing for customers was raised arbitrarily, only to be reversed the following quarter, showing a lack of strategic direction. Poor leadership was a constant issue. The company overpaid executives while hiring first-time, inexperienced managers who micromanaged employees and set unrealistic expectations. For example, the Customer Success team was expected to achieve 130% Net Revenue Retention, 95% Unit Retention, and $2M in upsell/cross-sell—despite not even owning the renewal process, which was handled by Sales. This left CSMs powerless yet blamed for any account issues. The so-called "unlimited PTO" policy was misleading—taking more than a week off was frowned upon. The work environment was outright toxic, with manipulative people and a leadership team that refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing. In January 2025, the entire HR department quit on the same day due to the liabilities the company was exposing itself to. If you’re considering a job here, my advice is simple: stay away. The reality of working at DebtBook is nothing like what they tell you in interviews, and you will 100% regret it.