Great potential ruined by no clear goal - Senior Software Engineer Bleachr Employee Review

2.0
31 Jan 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- I was able to learn and grow a lot as an engineer. - I worked with many good engineers during my time. Lots of friendly people, most of them working hard. - Never a dull day, always something to work on if you’re motivated. If you don’t like what you’re working on today, there’s a great chance the plan will change tomorrow and you’ll get to work on something brand new. - Usually pretty good about getting equipment/software when asked. - Was able to work on many interesting software development projects and I never had to worry about stuff breaking because basically no-one was using it. - Good snack/drink options when in office.

Cons

- The company is run on fear and it is very common for people who voice any sort of objection to the current idea will either get fired or tossed in the dog house. - Bleachr is at its core just a hobby project of the owners who are able to self-finance the company. They have never came close to making money, and any current idea to make money is far-fetched at best. - I never felt there was a true goal or vision to make something successful. It was just to meet people and go places. They’d rather focus on making one "sexy" client feel special even if that's at the cost of the overall product. Instead they could focus on making a great product and using that to attract clients. - After being work from home in 2020, no real perk or help with having to work from home. - Disappointed on handling of 2020 issues. Black Lives Matter was never mentioned and also voting or getting time off to vote wasn’t even discussed. - Owners abused the idea of a hackathon and turned it from something really fun for engineers into a period of torture.

Explore other reviews about Bleachr

5.0
11 Dec 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Remote first, good people and smart ideas

Cons

Not a lot of consistent direction

1.0
10 June 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The team members actually putting in the work care deeply about what they are doing and have built some great products despite toxic leadership

Cons

This is a simple story from a few years ago: Product leadership (not including the CEO) is presenting to the entire company about the next big project that is about to kick off. Everything going great, the CEO Kristin even pops champagne to hand out and celebrate the occasion. The team starts asking questions and discussing future plans and other features that could be useful. The product team starts talking about MVP vs not MVP features for the new app. Kristin has to ask what MVP means, upon finding out it stands for "minimum", she gives a 10 minute rant about how "if minimum is acceptable". She doesn't listen to any explanations about how it's a common planning technique while building software. She eventually starts yelling and crying before literally running out of the room only to be followed by her husband\co-owner while the team is just in shock. The fallout of the event completely derailed the project and it never got built while "don't say MVP" became a running joke amongst the staff. In another instance after a particularly grueling couple weeks of peak tennis season, multiple employees approached the CTO about Kristin's recent behavior and said they were done if something didn't change. The CTO had to threaten to quit to get her to back off and allow him to handle day to day interactions with employees

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