What initially seemed like a fast-growing environment quickly revealed a lack of structure needed for employees to succeed or advance. There was no clear path for growth, support was limited, and expectations around leveling up were often vague. Employees were frequently left to navigate expectations on their own.
The performance review process was a joke. In my experience, self-reviews were never referenced, which made the process feel more procedural than like a real feedback loop. This is the kind of place where you may be suddenly fired for "performance," even if you only ever had positive feedback.
Turnover was high. In a short time, it's normal to experience many employees abruptly having their “last days,” sometimes with little or no communication, which made the organization feel unstable. The number of people, that were gone within a year, is mind boggling.
The culture often emphasized blame over support, and wins were rarely acknowledged. Direction and strategy frequently shifted in reaction to customer demands rather than following a cohesive long-term plan.
The work itself was not particularly challenging. Most of the difficulty came from navigating existing messes and unclear expectations. Despite that, accountability remained high even when accountability higher up sometimes felt inconsistent.
Leadership was heavily involved in design, engineering, and product discussions, including highly technical areas where that involvement sometimes created additional friction or slowed decision-making, which often made team autonomy feel more limited than advertised.
Five days a week in-office with daily company-wide stand-ups at 7:30 AM PDT. Remote work was not an option.
Benefits were minimal: basic health coverage, no 401(k) match, no WFH flexibility, and few perks. The compensation and benefits package felt below what many other Bay Area companies currently offer. From what I observed, compensation adjustments were either non-existent or incredibly rare.
The product itself was difficult to feel proud of. Underneath the marketing, it often felt less like a genuinely AI-native platform and more like a complex product with yet another chatbot.
If you have other options, consider them carefully. If you want growth, organizational stability, long-term career development, and a place where you feel like the work you do matters. there are likely better opportunities elsewhere.
If you recently joined, keep interviewing. Don't count on making it a full year. If you’ve been here a while, you should have started looking a long time ago.
