Chaotic Clueless C-Suite, avoid unless you love building CRUD apps (badly), I am actively looking - Anonymous employee Upwind Employee Review

2.0
10 Mar 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are some smart engineers who would be nice to work with in a nicer culture/environment. The salary is generally quite good as long as you don't pay attention to how many hours you do per week, at which point you'll realise your hourly rate is not as good as it seems on paper.

Cons

A word of warning: there is currently an active internal push to get employees to leave positive reviews. I would encourage you to scroll back a little further in recent views, and then draw your own conclusions about what that says. Unfortunately anyone with good intentions will be hamstrung by an incompetent C-suite who like to use the "startup culture" cop-out to explain why they cannot create a coherent product roadmap. A roadmap driven by reactionary engineering due to a lack of market understanding, 'follow the leader' where the leader is every competitor all at once. Some of the previous reviews about C-Suite hunger games ring very true. Lack of process is actively celebrated here, dressed up as a virtue. There is a peculiar cultural pride in "not being like those other engineers who sit in meetings all day" - as though process itself is the enemy. What gets lost in that framing is that what's happening here barely qualifies as engineering in any meaningful sense. Commit counts and lines of code are treated as proxies for value, which conveniently obscures the fact that the output is a growing pile of hacked-together features that solve problems poorly, incompletely, or not at all. Velocity is the metric. Quality is someone else's problem, usually the next engineer unfortunate enough to touch the code. Do not be persuaded by some of the strange reviews on here claiming that the work is 'interesting' because it is not what is being claimed and people seem to either have rose tinted glasses on or have never worked on anything interesting before. The technical reality is that ~80% of the work is CRUD development on top of foundations that experienced engineers find genuinely embarrassing. This industry has seen years of learning how to build scalable SaaS apps and yet, due to inexperienced founding engineers who made some awful architectural decisions, you will enjoy building CRUD apps on questionable, frustrating and poorly tested foundations. Poorly tested, heavily hacked, and resistant to improvement, it is the gift that keeps on giving. The remaining work splits between firefighting half-baked features and navigating a codebase that reads like a cautionary tale. Some parts of the codebase are so littered with irrational logic and feature flags that they will likely evade the comprehension of ever improving LLM models for at least the next decade, so you may find some job security here. The development philosophy, if it can be called that, is: ship the easy 70% at speed, pretend the other 30% doesn't exist, and panic when customers find it. Testing is a luxury. PoCs become permanent. The C-Suite's response to quality concerns is to ask when the next feature will be ready. You get to enjoy panic driven development by day, and panic driven fire-fighting by night. You won't be alone though, C-Suite members will be sure to keep their watchful eye on you, often pinging for updates and offering solutions to problems they don't fully understand. Sadly, the only thing most of the C-Suite remain consistent in, is their insistence on micromanaging and pushing their incompetence into every crevice of the product. You will not be listened to here, it is your job to listen, not the other way around. There is culture at Upwind, it is a culture of fear and panic. On culture from the top: the CEO's response to news that Israel-based staff were sheltering from attacks was to remind everyone to maintain productivity. To paraphrase his words: "Be strong, stay safe. Let's keep our productivity at the highest level, that's the only way to win." Make of that what you will.

Explore other reviews about Upwind

5.0
11 Mar 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Working as a Field Marketing Manager has been a positive experience. My role focuses heavily on planning and executing events. The company strives to provide memorable experiences and long-lasting relationships through thoughtfully planned events and one-of-a-kind ideas for industry conferences. Upwind values in-person connection with customers and partners, and marketing plays a key role in driving that! Across the board, teams are collaborative, supportive, and goal oriented with an emphasis on speed. Working towards common objectives helps make all cross functional projects run smoothly. There is a strong sense that we are all building something meaningful together. The work environment is fast paced, but energizing. Someone who enjoys being creative, detail-oriented, working with vendors, and manages their time well would thrive in this role.

Cons

- Event managers are required to travel and event schedules can be demanding, especially during peak conference seasons when multiple programs run back to back. Would not recommend to someone that does not possess this style of commitment to their organization. - Fast growth means processes are sometimes still evolving. Must be open to carving a path as landscape changes. -Last minute event changes are common and require flexibility. This role requires someone who can think quickly on their feet and executes thoughtfully under pressure.

1.0
13 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are some nice people who are trying their best to help you despite the circumstances.

Cons

*Toxic Culture & Micromanagement: The culture is stifling. The founders are involved in every minor detail and refuse to accept feedback or differing opinions. It’s a "top-down" environment where questioning the status quo is discouraged as reflected by top executives and founders leaving the company. *Product Instability: The product is chaotic and plagued by quality issues. Instead of adding real value, features are constantly moved around the UI in a shell game that confuses customers. Support is completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of bugs and technical debt. While it "works" on AWS, the performance and functionality gaps on other platforms are glaring. Wiz is killing it and there is no answer. *Erratic GTM Strategy: The Go-To-Market strategy is non-existent. Leadership positions are filled by "puppets" of the founders who lack the experience required to scale a global enterprise. There is a total lack of understanding regarding the specific needs and nuances of different geographical regions. *Unrealistic Metrics: Selling the Runtime solution remains an uphill battle. Management has hiked quotas by up to 500%, which is completely detached from market reality. Achieving these metrics is a mathematical impossibility. *Lack of Strategic Direction: The leadership confuses "running in all directions" with "running smart." Expect constant, whiplash-inducing changes to the organizational structure, the product roadmap, and the overall strategy every few weeks. *Homogeneous Culture: The company has an incredibly "Israel-centric" culture that doesn't always translate well or inclusive of global teams, leading to friction in communication and work-life expectations.

3
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