It really feels like this company is circling the drain... - Program Manager MassChallenge Employee Review

1.0
17 Aug 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Responsibility - The role you are hired for is almost never what your day to day looks like. You are immediately given huge responsibility which can lead to massive successes if you can execute with limited resources. Exposure - There are many well connected people in the MC network, and if you pander to the right people, you can make big career moves as former employees have proved.

Cons

Management - While the main product of the company is our accelerator program, the entirety of upper management treats it as a side note. They have the power to rally people around this program, but only do so for opportunities with money tied to them. Culture - Since the greater mission is a moving target, many staff have decided to only put effort into what aspects of the business are important to them and their role. Cross-team functionality is non existent. Since the team is so small, and the work so great, there is little incentive to do anything outside of core job roles.

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MassChallenge Response
7y
Thanks so much for your review: we really appreciate that you took time to share your honest feedback and to highlight some of your concerns about working at MassChallenge. It’s clear from your note that we can do a few things more consistently. This includes communicating to the team why certain staffing, resources and partnerships decisions are made, discussing how those decisions impact individual staffers, and working closely with those individuals to determine the best path forward. We take this feedback to heart and I believe some recent actions we are taking will help. For example, our functional and organizational leaders, including our Executives, are sending bi-weekly emails to share information and promote cross-team and cross-program collaboration. In addition we've instituted regular employee surveys and interactive sessions to actively seek input on the employee experience here. Recently our Boston team had an offsite to discuss their results from an employee survey and our COO attended their last all hands meeting to hear concerns and answer questions. I agree with you that our staff has a ton of freedom to take on new and different projects to grow their skill sets, and many opportunities to connect with stakeholders within our ecosystem who can open up doors beyond MassChallenge. These opportunities for “career acceleration,” in my opinion, are what set us apart as a great place to work. If you’re comfortable with sharing more information about your experience or suggestions for what we can do better, I would love to hear more. Please email me at jocelyn@masschallenge.org so we can connect.

Explore other reviews about MassChallenge

5.0
11 July 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Wonderful first hand experience being able to actually help start ups

Cons

Wasn’t paid but that’s understandable considering the nature of the company

1.0
25 Sept 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The mission and purpose are great, great team except for the very top

Cons

Chaotic and a bad place for women, the CEO has favs and is completely stressed all the time and operates without empathy and is rude and dismissive

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