I've been with this company long enough to witness its rapid decline, which began soon after an aggressive expansion phase. Below are the core issues that have made the work environment increasingly toxic:
1. Founders:
Both founders exhibit extreme egotism and have a habit of publicly shaming employees. They frequently jump into different teams with random, often nonsensical, last-minute demands. While occasional urgency is part of any job, this has become a norm — and it piles on top of already high-priority work, overwhelming teams and destroying focus.
2. Leadership:
This is, hands down, the most incompatible leadership team I’ve encountered in my career. No one challenges the founders' unreasonable requests. Leaders from different domains are misaligned, often pushing their own conflicting agendas without any coordination. There's no unified direction — just chaos. Teams are pulled in every direction (product, sales, customer success, founders’ whims), and no one at the top is willing to prioritize. Yet, it's always the teams that are blamed when things don’t get delivered.
3. Blame Culture:
The company is driven by a top-down culture of blame. Leadership never takes responsibility for strategic failures. If you attempt to challenge or reason with them, you risk being fired or pushed out through subtle (or not-so-subtle) mistreatment.
4. Shifting Values:
The company’s values change constantly. Currently, the only one that seems to matter is "Intensity". There is no care or empathy from management — just pressure and performance demands.
5. Talent Drain:
Most of the good people have already left or are actively planning to. I’ve seen many great colleagues leave — some pushed out, others leaving voluntarily due to politics and the toxic culture.
6. No Clear Direction:
There's no longer a clear product vision. The company chases large customers, building one-off solutions with no long-term strategy. Instead of scaling solutions properly, teams are forced to jump from one custom build to the next without fixing core issues — making it nearly impossible to build something sustainable.
7. Leadership Is Out of Touch:
Executives seem completely disconnected from the day-to-day reality. They push unrealistic demands, assuming things are easy — without any understanding of how much work teams are juggling. Miscommunication is rampant, and the gap between what is asked for and what is delivered is often laughable or tragic. Despite having multiple products, the founder insists on "keeping it simple" — no documentation, no coordination — just fast delivery, which only deepens the chaos.
8. Nepotism:
While some level of familiarity is normal in leadership, this company takes it to an extreme. Most leadership positions are filled from the founders' personal networks, creating a toxic echo chamber. These leaders have unspoken expectations not shared or documented, assuming everyone should just "get it." They forget that they’ve hired globally, and not everyone shares the same cultural mindset. If uniformity is what they want, they should stop claiming to value diversity.
9. Time Zone Issues:
Though they claim to support "async" work, expect late-night or early-morning meetings if you're not in the favored time zones. Many leads and managers regularly work at unhealthy hours just to meet others' sync demands.
Final Thoughts:
If you’re considering joining this company — don't. And if you're already here and struggling, know that you're not alone. Many of us, across different departments, feel the same toxicity every day.
