Pros
Remote work environment is strong Capable and talented teams
Cons
Ninety’s internal culture now stands in stark contrast to the content and values the CEO pushes out. The CEO frequently publishes messages about trust, delegation, psychological safety, and building a company people love to work for—but his leadership has created the opposite environment. The current culture is not because of the layoff. It’s because of this. The hiring process at Ninety is long and demanding, intended to find the best people. Yet once hired, the minute employees present ideas and plans based on their deep wells of knowledge that conflict with the CEO’s personal taste or decisions, they are often treated as though they don’t know what they’re doing—under the guise of “they don’t get the vision and don’t deserve to be here.” Decisions are centralized (to him) dissent is retaliated against, and team leads are often overruled on matters they’re best equipped to handle. The CEO maintains heavy control over strategy, product, and messaging, making personal preference prioritized over team input or customer need. Innovation suffers, morale is low, and psychological safety is nearly nonexistent. The C-suite, despite being composed of capable and experienced leaders, appears to spend a lot of time navigating the CEO's preferences instead of being able to run actual business progress. This results in months of “discussion” and inaction, with little forward momentum. It’s increasingly difficult to ignore the gap between what the CEO says and writes and how this company operates.