Cool company, good potential, poor management - Anonymous employee truBrain Employee Review

3.0
4 Sept 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Cool beach office vibe, you get a crash course in startup life and knowledge, exposure to the world of VC/tech/venture-backed culture. Product is interesting and innovative. You learn fast and can do some creative stuff. Leadership does try to help you grow/develop to some extent.

Cons

The biggest thing holding truBrain back is lack of good management wisdom and neglecting employee well being. The leadership are good people overall and I believe they have good intentions - but they don't know what they are doing. They would purposely withhold good feedback, thinking employees worked harder if they thought they were doing poorly/failing. This lead the whole team to be stressed/unhappy despite busting their butts. They also think being busy means progress - quite the opposite. There were so many pivots/experiments that the leadership never made a real decision forward. There was a strong feeling of indecision/lack of solid vision, and the company has suffered for it. There's a little vibe of Ivy League superiority - like they know better than you. Employees are viewed as worker bees and the leadership try to manipulate more production out of them. Leadership drank the VC koolaid, thinking the answer to the companies woes was always the latest or greatest tactic out of Silicon Valley; the focus was on ideology rather than people. This contributed to unproductive work and higher turnover. I haven't worked at TB for a while but I suspect this review is still accurate.

Explore other reviews about truBrain

5.0
20 Oct 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The team and execs have a real passion for the brand and mission. Fast paced, challenging, enriching, and overall great experience.

Cons

Not much negative other than you have to be the right self starter fit. People who complain about instructions being vague sometimes just aren’t wired for the startup Game

4.0
3 Jan 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It is fast. It is intense. The team puts you through a stretch principle where they never let you get comfortable (or complacent) and are very creative at coming up with new challenges that they like to tie to numbers and templates. It's cool b/c they will put you in front of investors like 500 Startups to make sure you are doing and learning from the best.

Cons

Sometimes you are drowning and don't want to say so with startup companies. I probably should have done a better job at this b/c management is pretty rational, but they would likely keep pushing you along, since there is no where to hide in small teams to catch your breath.

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