Firstup reviews

3.3

54% would recommend to a friend

(271 total reviews)

Bill Schuh

63% approve of CEO

51% positive business outlook

Firstup has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 271 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Firstup employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

271 reviews
2.0
Jun 19, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good work life balance, with unlimited PTO for US based employees. The product is used, and relied on by some big companies, so there is a real impact to the work.

Cons

After a string of disappointing C suite leaders, and several waves of turnover, both voluntary and not, the Product and Engineering organization is a mess. A culture of fear and mistrust has been building, creating a generally unpleasant place to work. Outside of the leadership issues, the teams are all remote, with many spread across global timezones. This limits collaboration and encourages solo development, which has had a negative impact on product quality. Leading to a high level of quiet burnout that people do not feel safe sharing. Overall there is a feeling that Firstup has squandered these past few years. There is a growing feeling of helplessness, and my sense is, if left unaddressed, will change it from just being an unpleasant place to work to something much worse.

1.0
Jun 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are still talented individuals trying to do good work, but they are increasingly constrained by leadership decisions and organizational instability.

Cons

The company has undergone a full leadership reset. New CEO, new C-suite, and layers of new, hand-picked management. However, there is still no clear, durable strategy. Instead of data-driven decision-making, leadership (notably at the CEO/CTO/CPO level and downstream management) operates heavily on narrative: what sounds good in a deck or all-hands matters more than what is actually working. This shows up in constant priority shifts, reactive execution, and a blanket push to force AI into everything, regardless of whether it solves real customer problems. Teams are left to reverse-engineer meaning from vague directives while being held accountable for outcomes they don’t control. Attrition is extremely high. Experienced employees are leaving in large numbers, and many teams have been significantly hollowed out. Rather than addressing root causes, leadership continues to backfill with aligned hires, reinforcing a culture where agreement is valued over competence. Compensation is below market in many cases, and benefits have been inconsistent and trending downward. Combined with the workload and instability, this creates a poor overall value proposition for employees. The most concerning issue is the shift toward managing optics instead of reality. Leadership set a target to raise the company’s Glassdoor score, and within months it jumped from ~2.3 to 3.1. At the same time, there has been a surge of anonymous 5-star reviews that are vague, overly polished, and often claim multi-year tenure, despite the well-known turnover. Meanwhile, detailed negative reviews (with roles and context) appear to be disappearing. Internally, this mirrors a broader cultural problem: perception is prioritized over truth. Managers focus on controlling narrative upward rather than addressing issues downward. Accountability is uneven—leaders avoid it, while ICs are expected to absorb the impact. There is also a growing pattern of behavior that raises serious concerns around professionalism and policy adherence. Employees who raise legitimate concerns or challenge leadership decisions risk being sidelined or pressured out. The safest path is to stay quiet, document everything, and protect yourself. The result is a culture of self-preservation, micromanagement, and internal politics. People advance by aligning with leadership narratives rather than delivering meaningful results.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 271 Reviews

Glassdoor has 279 Firstup reviews submitted anonymously by Firstup employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Firstup is right for you.