Pros
Free food, decent pay, a few perks, and kind coworkers at the IC level.
Cons
Leadership at both the startup and parent company level lacked the basic skills needed to run a business. Decisions were reactive, poorly thought through, and often contradicted each other. That dysfunction rolled downhill and showed up everywhere.
Many leaders cared more about appearances than actually doing the work. Individual contributors were scrutinized and expected to perform at a high level, while leadership regularly disengaged, left early, and avoided accountability. Teams operated like separate companies, with almost no cross-functional alignment. For a ~40-person startup, the level of silos was honestly shocking.
Product direction was unfocused even though there was potential. The company tried to do too much at once with no clear strategy, while carrying unresolved baggage and burnout from the parent company. Features were frequently half-built and declared “done” in the name of velocity, creating low-quality products.
Communication was especially bad during times that mattered most. Weeks before the layoff, rumors were everywhere and leadership said nothing. On the day itself, employees were told that outside vendors were doing “building maintenance,” while senior leadership sat together and deactivated roughly half the company one by one. There was no severance. Just a cold, impersonal email after access was already gone.