Catch Reviews

Do not work for this organization. The founder and CEO abuse their employees with manipulative tactics and verbal assaults but position themselves as trustworthy and socially-driven organization - which is dangerous not only to potential employees - but to their user-base - who are already in vulnerable positions as freelance and gig-workers. This organization is a very toxic place to lend your talents. Within the first 3 months of 2022, half the company has left; employees left because they could no longer work in such a toxic workplace or they were fired at random based on leadership’s whim. Employees do not last long at this organization, with only few lasting past a year. You’ll have a hard time finding past employees during your research because many do not want to be associated with the company and its leadership. There are many red flags, please take these seriously when considering employment with this company. I am not writing as a ‘disgruntled employee’ but to warn those who are considering a position with this organization. There is no senior leadership or senior board members that help this organization. Both the founder and CEO have both shown that they don’t have the integrity that is essential for leadership for a stable and successful small (or large) organization. You should not work for Catch because it is an abusive and toxic work environment. The founder and CEO are constantly promoting negativity and bullying employees. The founder is known for his verbal assaults, both in the office and online. It’s normal for an employee to get a notification on their Slack from the founder while he is on a late-night curse-laced rampage or be the victim of his assault in the office if he loses his temper. There is a manipulative nature to both of their leadership styles. They often use exclusionary tactics and psychological manipulation to control their employees, whether it is pitting employees against each other by talking about other employees and their downfalls or threatening company “firings”. There is a lack of respect and the lack of authentic appreciation for the people who have decided to work for Catch. They oftentimes make bizarre excuses for their behavior - “We want to move fast!” - but it’s really code for the fact they don’t have the patience to spend the time working as a team or building relationships or processes. In response to employees being respectful to each other while asking for help with tasks or projects, at one all-hands meetings, leadership let the company know that “Kindness is not a value at Catch.” so that the founders behavior would be acceptable as a way to “move fast” and “create immediate impact”. In reality, they wanted an excuse for the founder’s micromanagement or distasteful feedback-style and verbal abuse. You should not work for Catch because it’s an unprofessional work environment. There are multiple examples of inappropriate work behavior, such as comments made about past sexual relationships. Many times, there are jokes made about how Catch doesn’t like HR or that the founder “is HR”. Employees will find out their coworker was fired by seeing their Slack go dark. Leadership will not address this with the company and employees will find out details through their other coworkers. Gossip is rampant even in such a small organization, lead by leadership. When it comes to DEI, the organization likes to think they are progressive, but they hire friends and referrals without putting the work into find talent in different talent-pools that would extend out of their own circles - and when they do it usually does not end well. You should not work for Catch because it will be hard to be successful in your position, much of the work you will try to do will be stifled or micromanaged by leadership. That being said, leadership is inexperienced in leading an organization and making successful business decisions, which creates an unstable work environment. Employee experience or expertise doesn't matter unless it fits into exactly what the founder or CEO have in mind (which is impossible to tell what that exactly is). If employees work in design or engineering, the founder will try to do your job for you, despite an employee being in a senior position. Oftentimes employees find their workspace changed or edited late-night work session by the founder. The founder and CEO are roadblocks. Employees feel devalued and demotivated. When it comes to leading teams or making practical business decisions, the founder seems to have no experience outside of starting this company right out of college, being incredibly young and green. The CEO tries to lead, and sometimes has good leadership moments, though she is stifled by the founder. Note, the CEO’s Twitter is misleading to her leadership capabilities; it is not reality. Leadership is in the weeds, focused on small, tiny details. They do not spend their time doing work that C-level leaders should be doing. There is a certain paranoia within their work, they focus most of the time on the gossip and drama of the company verse the business itself or find themselves micromanaging employee tasks because they do not trust who they hired to get the work done. They do not know how to give feedback, take feedback, or to utilize employee talents. It’s a confusing work environment. The business model changes by the week. There is a whiplash because of this; you may work on a project that will be deemed as worthless within a week. Again, the excuse is a “fast-moving start-up” but the truth is that they are inexperienced leaders and do not know how to successfully pivot. (This usually would not be a problem if they wanted to change or learn from their shortcomings with feedback or mentorship, but they are unwilling due to incredibly large egos). This won’t change unless leadership changes, though that is highly unlikely. They are incredibly out of touch with the reality of the situation. Note: This feedback has been made available to both the founder and CEO before this review was created.