Culture is amazing, management needs improvement - Research Associate UPSIDE Foods Employee Review

2.0
Mar 23, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Many social events, cutting-edge work (not to mention being a fun problem to solve), unlimited PTO

Cons

Work-life balance suffers for RAs. Some individuals have half a dozen HR complaints and yet still hold leadership/management positions, get promoted, get new hires, etc. Meetings can get tense with certain personalities. A lot of clique-ness (e.g. some scientists hate other scientists, complain about them, etc) and favoritism (people with 1 year of experience will get huge projects, others with 5 years will not).

Explore other reviews about UPSIDE Foods

5.0
Mar 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

UPSIDE is my first experience working at a startup and it's exceeded my expectations. It has all the benefits of a startup - flat structure, IC can achieve real impact, and minimal bureaucracy - without the toxic culture of other bay area tech startups. The company has a very diverse set of talent and the people here care a lot about the positive impact of their work, which makes the workplace experience very pleasant

Cons

Company direction and strategy is ever changing, people needs to be comfortable with navigating ambiguity

5.0
Mar 23, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Building a food system so people can eat meat at scale without destroying the world has to be one of the most important needs of this generation alongside clean power and good health. I'd volunteer to advance this mission, so it's wonderful to also get paid to do it. Hard and challenging start-up work means fast-growth and zero dull repetition. Every single person cares about the mission. Very low politics compared to many companies

Cons

Not for everyone. We work hard, We have high expectations of ourselves, We're doing science that's never been done before, and that means you need to be OK failing, learning, and then succeeding. Don't come here if you just want a paycheck/payout or are going to be sad our snacks don't compete with your favorite profitable tech campus. But come if you want to better the world.

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