Food52 Reviews

Food52 is a struggling company. They ousted CEO (who was there for about a year) in Dec '23 but continue to be plagued by a major identity crisis with regards to a business model. CEO and "Leadership" was/are extremely reactionary to every little uptick or decline in *insert KPI here*. Business and marketing initiatives changed daily, even hourly, as they threw everything at the wall to see what sticks. In many cases they'd plan big promos for months, only to change direction in days and/or hours before launch, creating spin and making it impossible for teams to stay on top. This would send just about the entire org into chaos and disarray. It happened more than not. In this sense, they truly didn't know what they were doing, disagreeing with each other all along the way. Food52 initially rode a big wave of success in creating food and recipe content, but there was certainly not a clear focus in this area with new CEO. The vast majority of my team's responsibilities were consumed by email. Those twice-a-day, spammy, nagging, product-heavy emails with no soul—while they are well-designed by talented designers who are doing their best—those are what consumed an unimaginable amount of time and energy from the Design Team, Content Team, Copywriters, Photography, Merch, and yes, CGO and CEO. A shocking majority of their internal activity is their email program, and yes, there are too many cooks in the kitchen. Oh, and there's a strong culture here. Culture is unhinged. Toxic. Leadership was rude, demanding, intimidating, disrespectful, demeaning, condescending. Food52's acquisition of Schoolhouse in Dec of 2021 was a nightmare for all at Schoolhouse. I know because I was on the front lines as a Schoolhouse employee who got sucked into the F52 vortex post-acquisition. There's so much I can say here but I digress. The Schoolhouse story is just tragic. They managed to infect and suck the soul out of one of the strongest, most unique, most interesting, most sought after brands in the American lighting and home decor industry. Working at Schoolhouse was a dream come true before F52 came along. I know just about everyone at the company and I'm confident they'd all agree. I know Schoolhouse will pull through, not without some PTSD due to how it all went down (I'm not exaggerating here). There are still super talented people at Schoolhouse who are hanging on by a thread and I wish them nothing but the best. Shame on the CEO and "Leadership" at F52 for their handling of this acquisition. A master class in how to drive the soul of a brand into the ground. My advice to you, dear reader, butter keep lookin'.