Upside Business Travel Reviews

Pros

The CEO, Chief People Officer, and others on the exec team invest a lot of time and resources in the culture of the company. With great results. As a woman I have been given every opportunity (and the tools) to succeed as anyone else in the company. Good benefits including a very generous allowance for continuing education and training. A smart, fun, hardworking team that is passionate about putting out the best product in the industry. Folks throughout the company are empowered to do their job and make decisions. I find the CEO (Scott) to be super transparent and in general shares a ton of information with the company (there is way more transparency at Upside than any other company I have worked with in the past). If you are a hard worker who produces results, this is a place where you will be given opportunities to take on more responsibilities.

Cons

If you are looking for a 9 - 5 job, not the place for you. This is not a con, but we move at a very fast pace so you need to keep up.

Pros

I have worked here for more than two years. Great PTO and benefits. Lots of access to travel industry and acquiring more knowledge everyday; if you want to be a subject matter expert in it you have a front row here to all the travel systems. Working and coding with the latest programming languages and tools. If you count all the snacks and free food as a plus. Transparent company for the most part, just lofty goals.

Cons

Too big for a young startup with young managers. Also the CFO wrote the last review; kind of shows how they aren't transparent about everything. Flight center who recently invested in Upside has too much power for not being the majority stakeholder but Upside could not survive without them. My advice is if you are looking for something long term more than 3 years, this is not it. They are happy if people just stay a year and keep hiring. They also say diversity is important to them but have not seen any major improvements last two years.

Pros

Best place I've ever worked. My prior employer was famous for its culture and leadership, and it didn't have what it claimed. Upside has that culture. Everyone supports the mission and each other. They value the whole you and appreciate your thoughts and ideas. It is a true team effort. Everyone there is nice and friendly and supportive. The leadership is open about initiatives and plans to the whole team. There is access to the leadership at every level. Great place to learn and grow.

Cons

You need to be able to think and act quickly as it is fast-paced and agile. The whole company is expected to help where they can and give suggestions. Start-up world can mean a lot of work at times.

Pros

Great location and a lot of really good people in individual contributor roles.

Cons

Employees are scared to give management feedback because of several suspicious terminations - management told employees that the people who left "went to go spend more time with their family" but this was not true. The people responsible for making promotion decisions are not experienced enough to make those decisions. Several really problematic employees were never checked. Too many people have Get Out of Jail Free cards and they make it impossible to do your job. People Ops pads numbers on hiring and they try to figure out who left what reviews or NPS comments. Employees don't feel safe.

Pros

Dynamic and exciting environment where you work alongside an incredibly talented group of individuals. There are no unnecessary processes or politics to hold you back. Management is super supportive and encourages you to take chances and be resilient to failure. Everyone at the company is as equally nice as they are talented and driven. I love coming to work each day.

Cons

This isn’t a con, but be sure you are ready for the roller coaster of a start-up. Things change quickly and there will be challenging days. Maintaining a ruthless prioritization of your own time and communicating it to your teammates is key.

Pros

Leadership gave me courage to perform my job. To me, good pay and unlimited PTO were not the best reasons to work there. It's the freedom I got from the company.

Cons

Not so easy to fit in the startup environment when came from the traditional office environment.