Proceed with caution - Anonymous employee Helix Employee Review

2.0
10 Nov 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Good benefits -Smart people with good intentions if not misguided -Unlimited PTO, flexibility with your schedule

Cons

Thank you to the November 7 reviewer. You aren't drinking the Kool-Aid! That review is spot on and it's helpful to me, as a fellow employee, to know I'm not alone. -CEO and Co-Founders are in over their heads. Direction continuously shifts. No one is in charge or qualified to lead the company. There's a lot of talk about culture but no execution. Their intentions are good and genuine but there is no real change despite the talk. -Agree with previous review that the CEO comes from the wrong background and hasn't executed on company issues. CEO is rarely in the office, and if he is, he isn't seen or engaging with employees that aren't VP level or above. He'll talk about Under Armor at every opportunity and seems to fail to realize he doesn't work there anymore. Not a great way to rally employees. -There is no HR, only recruiting which constantly badgers employees to share news with their networks and make referrals. Yet they fail to follow up with referrals which is completely unprofessional. It's take a lot to put put your reputation on the line in making a referral and when there's no follow-up one way or another, there's no excuse for that. -New Head of People Ops is not going to be effective when senior leadership doesn't have a plan or idea what they're doing. It'll be the blind leading the blind. -Agree with previous post that current employees are start-up types that lack the ability or professional maturity to be strategic partners to help the company scale. -It's clear there are cliques among those who joined the company early on. It's not a friendly environment if you're new.

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Helix Response
9y
Thanks for the feedback. I’m really sorry that your experience at Helix did not match our intention of being the best place you have ever worked. I believe that there is always a better way, and your feedback will give us an opportunity to learn and address the places we missed in delivering a great experience for you. I value and consider all feedback and will continue to find ways to improve but I wanted to address a couple of your specific concerns here. Our culture, particularly as we scale is one of my highest priorities. We have an incredibly collaborative culture - one that attracts individuals and quality partners who want to be part of a mission to help people discover their DNA and use that knowledge to improve their everyday lives. We have many ideas, and are committed to “walking-the-talk” in our interactions both externally and internally. Walking-the-talk is about who we are, the values that we endorse, and how we work and live. We have a number of initiatives going on within the single goal of launching our first product this quarter, so I can see how the discussion of this could come across to you as a change in direction. We are trying to make the priorities really clear, not only at an individual level, but at our cross-company weekly stand-up, and other everyday discussions with the team we have focussed on our quarterly goals we set as a team. We will continue to find more ways to transfer learning across the organization and help each other if the direction is not clear. As we scale, it is not just about growing in number of team members, it’s about growing as a team. We hire only incredibly talented people who are interested in growing themselves, and will end up building a sustainable business with the team in an effort to create something remarkable. We look for people who can push the boundaries of the business, become future leaders and who can help our culture evolve. We value team members that have different backgrounds and perspectives, knowledge and ways of doing things. These differences make all the difference in our vitality, scalability and our quest for excellence. The importance of our mission to individual consumers is potentially life-altering, but equally important is the profound impact our work can have on humanity. With this as a goal, I’ll admit that sometimes I can become too focused on the execution of those goals, spending less time than I’d like walking through the office and engaging with you and others helping to support our mission. I know this is incredibly important. Through our weekly meetings, company socials, group bike rides and activities, lunch gatherings with cross-functional teams, I’m working hard to make an effort to seek feedback and connect on a personal level with as many of our employees as possible. We are trying to maintain our fun, dynamic and caring environment as we grow. But I’m sorry that our efforts are not meeting your expectations. That said, I’m thankful that you took the time to share your opinion here so that I and others can reflect on it and think about ways we can adapt and do more to ensure you and others feel valued and appreciated. -Robin Thurston CEO @ Helix

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5.0
19 Feb 2026
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CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Dynamic fast modern company with lots of opportunities to learn modern tools.

Cons

Modern fast companies often require occasional uncompensated overtime and rapid changing priorities

1.0
2 Nov 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The industry the company is in has potential.

Cons

After a decade, many basic processes are still not standardized. Simple tasks that should be easy elsewhere take unnecessary effort here. Mid-level managers form cliques, handling conflicts by forcing the more reasonable side to back down. Double standards are everywhere. People who don’t do the work tend to oppress those who do. Managers have a shallow understanding of both the work and people, resorting to bullying those who are kind while avoiding confrontations with the strong or rude. There's a constant manpower shortage, and higher-level issues are often dumped on lower-level employees, but salaries and promotions don’t reflect this. Meetings are mostly for show—employees are only allowed to ask trivial questions or praise each other. If you bring up real issues, they’ll either ask you to fix them yourself or tell you to stay quiet. Layoffs have been frequent over the past year, mostly targeting decent employees who won’t cause trouble or those who dare to speak up. The company is rigidly hierarchical, both in title and race. Middle managers give speeches as if they’re important figures, which is laughable. The quality of employees has dropped, and management is full of holes. Issues in old negative Glassdoor reviews remain unresolved to this day. The tolerance for toxic employees and the chaotic management have left good employees discouraged—they either find excuses to leave or simply cut down their productivity. As one one-star review said, this company needs a complete overhaul, not just minor tweaks.

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