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Formlabs

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Formlabs

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Formlabs Reviews

Updated Mar 20, 2023

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Found 298 of over 395 reviews
4.0
81% Recommend to a Friend
Formlabs CEO Maxim Lobovsky
70% Approve of CEO

Found 291 of over 395 reviews

4.0
81%
Recommend to a Friend
70%
Approve of CEO
Formlabs CEO Maxim Lobovsky
Maxim Lobovsky
165 Ratings

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Top Review Highlights by Sentiment

Pros
Cons
Pros & Cons are excerpts from user reviews. They are not authored by Glassdoor.

Ratings by Demographics

This rating reflects the overall rating of Formlabs and is not affected by filters.

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  1. 5.0
    Current Employee, more than 3 years

    An exciting place to work with great people

    Feb 9, 2023 - Senior Software Engineer 
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    There are so many interesting problems to work on, and so many great people working on them. I've learned so much.

    Cons

    It can be overwhelming to work with so many capable people.

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  2. 5.0
    Current Employee, more than 1 year

    Fast-paced, primed for big growth, and strong leaders

    Jan 25, 2023 - Head of People Operations in Somerville, MA
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Strong leaders are committed to making the decisions that will lead to sustained, long-term growth. That includes judicious headcount planning, thoughtful budgeting, and other exercises that many earlier-stage, high-growth companies don't employ. Everyone gets a large degree of autonomy to do important, exciting work. The culture is supportive and friendly without getting into the cult-like territory that many tech companies find themselves embodying.

    Cons

    The company is still very much in the mode of reinvesting in products/customer, often to the detriment of internal tools and processes. Systems leave a lot to be desired, and documentation lives in scattered Google docs or in people's inboxes. While base pay is definitely competitive, the company embraces the idea of getting in on the ground floor of a growth company, so some other financial perks - like 401K match, a bonus plan for non-commission employees, or low-cost insurance for families (single employee insurance is free!) - are not offered.

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  4. 4.0
    Current Employee, less than 1 year

    Great

    Mar 20, 2023 - Process Engineer in Somerville, MA
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Great people, lots of learning opportunity

    Cons

    Growing pains with management restructuring

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  5. 2.0
    Former Employee, less than 1 year

    Cool tech but poor leadership with terrible transparency and communication

    Jan 30, 2023 - Anonymous Employee in Somerville, MA
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    > Global technology leader > Good work life balance and fun culture > Unlimited free 3D Printing > Diverse in some areas > Good company outings

    Cons

    > Leadership acts more on gut feel than on hard data > C suite often would micromanage day to day work of individual contributors > No clear product or company strategy > Insanely high attrition rates > Very low compensation compared to the rest of the industry and miserly spending policy > Very little racial diversity > If you enter an established team you can find them to be quite cliquey and hard to break into

    1 person found this review helpful
  6. 2.0
    Current Employee, more than 3 years

    Low-Level Toxicity

    Feb 9, 2023 - Anonymous Employee in Somerville, MA
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Formlabs 3D printers are high quality Formlabs has name recognition in the marketplace There is a Workplace Experience team that cares about your well-being Loyalty matters

    Cons

    As with other awkward 12 year-old companies, there are serious growing pains. And lots of contradictions, which is also common among companies like this. What’s less tolerable, is cruelty. Even worse is thinly-veiled cruelty by people who have no business working with other people, let alone managing them. Morale is horrible, there’s little internal trust, performance reviews and engagement surveys vague. You'll write a performance summary in January and get feedback on your performance in early April. HR writes long emails that no one understands and then spends a lot of time in meetings clarifying the long emails. Employees are either working their tails off or hiding in the woodwork, scared of saying anything mildly controversial. Or sitting in DE&I meetings. It’s not arsenic-in-the-drinking-water-level workplace toxicity, more like a low-level poisoning and the doctor says you have cancer but because it was detected early you have a good chance of fighting it. Cons/Red Flags/Advice: Red flag #1/Advice: Series E funding is complete and Formlabs is still private. Founders and rest of the C-team say they want an exit, however, they retain control and get as much outside money as possible without giving too much. Smart? Probably. But as an employee, chances are your stock options are worthless. Chances of going public or getting bought are slim to none. Red flag #2/Advice: Don’t be fooled by the $150 million 2021 funding round. This is a very cheap company. And there is no methodology to spending money, hiring or otherwise. No data-based decision-making whatsoever. You’ll be repeatedly told there’s no money for that but when you dig deeper you realize that most decisions are made by whimsy. Red flag #3: There’s no vision, there’s no strategy, there’s no mission. The company has yet to define who its customers are and who it wants its customers to be. Red flag #4: DEI&I: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. C-team and HR speak about wanting more diversity. However, there’s no cultural dedication to it and efforts are a mess. You get the sense there’s outside pressure from investors to increase the percentage of non youngish white males. What it means is that if you’re not a youngish white male, your chances of getting hired or promoted are higher. What it means is that you can almost completely neglect your job, though show up to every DE&I meeting and you’re almost unfireable. What it means is that Formlabs is run by youngish white males with low emotional IQs who are so intent on proving that they’re not Silicon Valley bros that they don’t realize they’re just as bad - if not worse - than Silicon Valley bros. People who don’t deserve promotions get them. Resentment reigns supreme, trust is low and the people who get said promotions are often in over their heads and set up to fail. Global expansion plans are fluff, everything is Somerville USA-centric, cultural and otherwise, down to the embarrassing memes during painful worldwide quarterly meetings. Red flag #5: Job titles are confusing. It could be an attempt to be different or an attempt to confuse people so they have no idea what their market value outside of Formlabs is. Engineers are forced to sell, salespeople are forced to navigate ridiculous spreadsheets, what goes on in business development is top secret. Red flag #6/Advice: Job descriptions don’t mean anything. Which is okay if you love flexing beyond your role, less okay if your twice yearly review is based on murky expectations and even murkier feedback. When you apply for a job here, copy the description from the posting and keep it in a safe place. Your responsibilities will change and you will need to pivot, however, whether you’ll get recognition is questionable. Whether you’ll be stretched thin to the point of burnout to compensate for people leaving and open positions not being filled is more likely. Red flag #7: Sales and revenue are dirty words. Formlabs is a company run by MIT engineers and Harvard quants that see marketing and sales as necessary evils. This will probably never change. Marketing, sales and product teams are revolving doors. Siloes are so bad that marketing and sales fight fiercely over budget and constantly point fingers vs actually accomplishing important goals. There are growing teams of MBA quants hired to keep marketing and sales in check with reports that only make sense to the MBA quants. And yet Salesforce breaks several times a month, your boss blames it on Salesforce the company and you find out there hasn’t been a Formlabs Salesforce administrator in years. Advice: If you’re a Salesforce administrator, Formlabs desperately needs you.

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    4 people found this review helpful

    Formlabs Response

    We definitely hear your concern about growing pains, and it's unfortunate you've not enjoyed your experience working here. Like many companies that have experienced rapid growth, we have worked hard to balance this significant business growth with a supportive and inclusive culture for all employees, but perhaps we need to think more about how we're approaching this balance. It does seem like you might be missing some context about what the business is focusing on, which is a great reminder for us to make sure we're creating regular opportunities for employees to ask questions and get insight into the decision-making process. But if a one on one conversation is more appealing than a wider public setting, we'd be happy to set that up! That said, we all spend the bulk of our awake time at work and it's so important to find a place where you feel good about your presence each day. We do understand that Formlabs is not for everyone, and if this is not the right fit for you, let's discuss how we can support you in your search for the right place.

  7. 4.0
    Current Employee, more than 1 year

    Happy

    Mar 13, 2023 - Account Manager in Somerville, MA
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Great culture, growing company, good peopl

    Cons

    lower wages than expected, some high turnover

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    Formlabs Response

    Thanks for your review, it’s really nice to hear from someone with a few years tenure in our sales organization who is happy with the culture, company growth, and team. We’ve worked really hard the past few years to keep the culture strong as our business is rapidly growing. In particular, we’ve put a lot of attention into our compensation, people processes, and management practices to ensure that everyone feels their careers are growing alongside the company. One good output of all this focus has been our turnover in the past few years has stabilized – and it’s now lower than it’s ever been at our mid-size. This shows us we’re focusing on the things that are especially important to our people. There are certainly other companies out there that pay more – but we strive to hit the right balance between rewarding great performance and building a sustainable business model. As we continue to grow, and focus on getting great products into the hands of our customers, our rewards strategy has become more holistically competitive. We also strongly view our equity packages as an important part of compensation, especially to build that high ownership mindset. When Formlabs is successful, our employees will be rewarded for that as well! As we continue evolving this important work in compensation and retention, we see our people feeling more valued in all ways – and excited to tackle the exciting challenges ahead.

  8. 1.0
    Former Employee, more than 3 years

    Low pay, ran by incompetent people, days are numbered.

    Feb 12, 2023 - Sales Account Manager in Somerville, MA
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    You will feel like the most competent person at the company

    Cons

    You will be the most competent person at the company. It’s run like a group of middle schoolers who only allow you to advance if you subscribe to their work ideologies. Low pay, zero room for career growth, products that are quickly being surpassed by competition, and not a single person at the company or management that you can look to for advice or any sound thinking at all. It’s a house of cards that WILL eventually collapse. Time shows everything

    Continue reading
    1 person found this review helpful
  9. 4.0
    Current Employee, more than 3 years

    Work

    Mar 7, 2023 - Production in Toledo, OH
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Nice hours, friendly, good time off.

    Cons

    No communication from department heads

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  10. 4.0
    Current Employee, more than 3 years

    Great company to learn if you are young but weird/'brotherhood' type leadership

    Oct 31, 2022 - Senior Sales Operations Analyst in Boston, MA
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Opportunities here at Formlabs are abundant, go and get it! Great young, vibrant teams and bosses that are flexible.

    Cons

    Leadership over the years have become questionable, the company is not willing to share with employees what is in the works in the next 3 to 5 years, maybe there is no plans? Top leadership here are very focused on people coming out of top US MBA schools and seems like this tech company is becoming the likes of top consulting firms around the world. Some bad performing employees are not asked to leave, rather, they wait until the very last minute when the situation is dire to make them vacate the position. Top leadership sometimes recruit very young out of business school graduates to lead teams and without industry expertise or experience in the role, it makes it difficult for team members to seek guidance or growth opportunities under them.

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  11. 1.0
    Former Employee, less than 1 year

    poor upper managemtn

    Feb 9, 2023 - Anonymous Employee 
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    . Good product but won't be successful as a company if they don't look at the leadership

    Cons

    Poor upper management - no direction - leaders put in place are pompous and not helpful - if you aren't fully playing by their rules they degrade you

    2 people found this review helpful
Viewing 1 - 10 of 291 Reviews
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Formlabs Reviews FAQs

Formlabs has an overall rating of 4.0 out of 5, based on over 395 reviews left anonymously by employees. 81% of employees would recommend working at Formlabs to a friend and 80% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has been stable over the past 12 months.

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Formlabs employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.0 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Formlabs. This rating has improved by 1% over the last 12 months.

81% of Formlabs employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated Formlabs 3.8 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.9 for culture and values and 3.7 for career opportunities.

According to reviews on Glassdoor, employees commonly mention the pros of working at Formlabs to be career development, benefits, culture and the cons to be senior leadership, management, compensation.

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Formlabs photo of: Formlabs HQ Team, Fall 2019
Formlabs photo of: Form 3L Print Farm at HQ
Formlabs photo of: This picture is from our summer camp in 2019 (Camp Taconic). After skipping 2020 (due to the pandemic) we're very much looking forward to this year's camp at the end of August!
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Glassdoor has 395 Formlabs reviews submitted anonymously by Formlabs employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Formlabs is right for you.