There are too many cons to call out in this review. I’m not going to cover the incompetent managers, lack of a clear product release cycle/development process and lack of engineering resources in this review.
- Product is not going anywhere. Only major “update” to the app was a confusing design change that was pushed by the CEO (rejected by employees) and had to be rolled back due to declining usage. No major releases or updates to the product since. Same old features keeps getting pushed/featured/marketed, with no new interest/adaptation from the community. Also, there is no interest from the CEO or product team in implementing user feedback.
- While the CEO might be a seasoned, charismatic and experienced entrepreneur in the valley, he’s not been able to deliver good results on any level for a couple of years now. It appears that he has no idea what he’s doing. Most of the time he isn’t even in the office and/or on extended vacations with his family and wife who just happens to lead the marketing team. The perception is that he's already mentally out of the game. Surprised the board and Flipboard's investors didn’t replace him yet after a couple of years of minimal success and a steady stream of disgruntled team members leaving.
- Similarly, other C-level employees are either not present or “working remotely” all the time. No one knows what they do or what value they provide to the company.
-Everyone and everything at this company moves really slow. This is the slowest “start up” I’ve ever worked at. Frustrating and hard to get anything done.
- High turnover rate. New people leaving every week. No “old” people left. Morale and energy is at an all time low. Many coworkers openly talking about leaving and/or looking for roles outside of the company.
- The PA office is extremely empty -- lots of folks working remotely and/or just stop coming in. Unclear why we need this much space. People are out the door by 4pm. It's a ghost town.
- Nepotism and favoritism. As other reviewers have mentioned, this is essentially a family business and a place where some people get special treatment depending on their role or how close/chimmy to the C-level folks they are.
