LaunchSquad Reviews

The entry-level pay does not compute with the sheer volume of work and expectations at this company. I found work-life balance to be hardly ever discussed at the company and this is partially because of how bureaucratic they’ve set up their teams to run. All team members getting to be on the client call does not make LaunchSquad a “flat” organization nor make teams any less hierarchical. There are too many internal review cycles for any given task and “happy to take a look” becomes not sending an email out for at least a few hours – an odd set up given the amount of false internal urgency that is created by internal teams daily. The workload at LaunchSquad is frequently enormous and dismissed as characteristic of the industry rather than caused by overservicing clients. The lack of diversity in the SF office is immediately apparent, and again, often dismissed as characteristic of the industry. I also did not leave with faith in the HR department to appropriately address this issue when, despite public statements that diversity and inclusion are a company priority, partners are overheard claiming that they won’t “lower the bar” for hiring in the name of diversity behind closed doors. I both hope LaunchSquad will be more diverse in the future yet I would not recommend this environment in its current state. Also, despite the company being overwhelmingly white and female, expect to mostly hear the male partners run important company meetings. Lack of transparency around your progress at the company and negative feedback will often outweigh the positive even when you are performing well.

There are a lot of great things about LaunchSquad, including two very talented even-keeled partners that are operationally effective and responsive — along with many other wonderful senior leaders. However, unfortunately there's one partner who is very unprofessional and bursty — he blatantly picks favorites, manipulates people and breeds toxic energy. It's unfortunate that people have to take to this public forum to raise it, but given his influence on the company culture, it's hard to do otherwise. His volatile approach is a problem — he'll gloat about some employees while icing others out, and turn on some after previously pumping them up. It's all done in a rather emotional and public format, which can be very damaging to employees — especially younger and newer ones. And optically, this dynamic between a male senior leader and a majority younger women organization isn't great. He is seen as the "creative genius" at the firm, so seems to get away with a lot in terms of erratic behavior and is protected by his own ego. Unfortunately, he seems to fundamentally lack self-awareness, so I wouldn't be confident there's a real path for him to change.