Skip to contentSkip to footer
      employer cover photo
      employer logo
      employer logo

      PAX Labs

      Is this your company?

      PAX Labs Reviews

      3.3

      57% would recommend to a friend

      (112 total reviews)

      Chris Ahern

      86% approve of CEO

      45% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      3.9

      Compensation and benefits

      3.8

      Work/Life balance

      3.3

      Diversity and inclusion

      3.2

      Culture and values

      3.2

      Career opportunities

      2.9

      Senior management

      PAX Labs has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 112 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The PAX Labs employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      112 reviews
      2.0
      4 Aug 2021

      ...where talent goes to die.

      Director
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      As of August, 2021: - There are still a handful of employees that are trying hard - Very few incompetent individual contributors - There is cash in the bank. You should apply to work at PAX if you are unemployed and need a job. You should not apply to work at PAX if you have a job or have other job opportunities.

      Cons

      Overview - The whole thing is a joke. Vulnerable questions at All Hands are answered with non-answers. Timelines are consistently missed. People leaving the company en masse is viewed as a net positive because it slows the cash burn. Management - Since Fall of 2019, senior leadership at PAX has been a revolving door. In that time there was the CEO, followed by an iterim CEO (general counsel), followed by another interim CEO (outside management consultant Mike Murphy), followed by another interim CEO (the former CFO), and finally today's full-time, permanent CEO, Adam Cahan. - Over that same time period, the BOD was replaced by two fine gentlemen who had not once ever been to a dispensary. - In the last seven months the following leadership positions have been vacated: Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Financial Officer, SVP Global Supply, VP Software, SVP Product, VP of People / HR, and many other Director level positions. - One might assume that with all of the turnover at the leadership level, the company would be poised for a turn around. The reality is that those key positions were a) not back filled, b) backfilled without an interview process, or c) PAX has been unable to recruit for them. Culture - PAX has invested in numerous Culture Amp surveys and routinely fails to act on the results. One of the prompts that always scores the worst is "I believe that action will be taken as a result of this survey." Without fail, everyone votes that no action will be taken, and like clockwork, no action is taken. - Regrettable attrition. It's tough to stay motivated when you see peers and fellow high performers fleeing the company for better opportunities. Instead of addressing this head on, management buries their heads in the sand and ignores it. - Return to work - PAX is trying to get people excited about coming back into the office once COVID cools down, but the reality is that no one is excited to go back to work for PAX, COVID or not. Vision - Adam Cahan wants PAX to be a national cannabis brand, which is a worthwhile endeavor. The problem is that PAX doesn't really know the cannabis consumer and what they want. As PAX's competitors in the hardware space launch iterative products and new categories, PAX is still looking around for the "next billion dollar idea." - Products that could generate revenue are shunned because the Board doesn't think the revenue is enough. Product - PAX has aging products. - The PAX Era and PAX 2 / 3 are great devices. Unfortunately there is no vision to iterate or improve upon them. PAX continues to launch new colors instead of new products. - There is no real Product leadership at PAX, The general consensus is that because Adam Cahan vies himself as a "product guy" he doesn't see a need to bring in a strong Chief Product Officer or VP or Product. - PAX continues to lean into it's app experience - which doesn't generate any revenue for the business. Engineering - There is no R&D - Pod programs launch, delay, change scope, delay again

      4.0
      20 Aug 2021

      ...where new talent can make a positive impact

      Manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Look, I’m not here to make one of those flimsy, easy to spot, “Everything is fine!” reviews to get you to ignore the experiences that are posted on this page. I want to give some additional context, and hopefully provide a more complete picture of the company. In my opinion, it’s not perfect, but it’s not quite as bleak as the picture you are getting here either. Whoever you are reading this, I hope you’ll take a moment to consider this review. I want to start with some important context, the cannabis and vape space have seen and will continue to see incredible volatility. That’s the reality of working in an emerging industry (much like crypto), especially one that is not yet legal at the federal level in the United States. This is a reality of working in our industry, so if a constantly shifting landscape is not something you find invigorating or exciting, we are probably not a great fit for you. Before I get into why I think that now, compared to anytime in the last 2 years, is a good time to join the company I want to give you a quick history of how we got into the situation we find ourselves in today.   In 2019, PAX had a massive funding round ($420 million). It was awarded at a very exciting time when the industry was rapidly growing and inflating, but as we neared the end of 2019 the bubble burst and the industry contracted. In a span of 2 months, PAX’s CEO had stepped down, we had a RIF (Reduction in Force) to reduce cash burn, and no clear company strategy for future. To make matters worse, hot on the heels of an industry-wide shake up was the Juul teen vaping crisis and the blackmarket THC scare, a period of time we at the company refer to as “Vape Gate.” I will spare you the unpleasant details, but what followed was a year and a half with no formal CEO, no clear company strategy, and to top it all off, a global pandemic. I won’t lie to you, it sucked. People were stressed out, frustrated, and unhappy; and I’ll be honest, leadership did not handle employee moral or communication particularly well. But what I did see, was a steadfast employee base who continued to believe whole-heartedly in the potential of Cannabis as a force for good, and PAX’s role as a leader in the industry.  That unwavering belief in an abstract mission “Establishing cannabis as a force for good” can only take you so far though, and for many employees the need for greater stability led them to leave the company. I understand why people have left PAX. Your job is a major part of your life and if something is no longer a good fit, the you should do what is right for you and move onto something that is. For many of the people who have left, it was the necessary end to a messy and stressful chapter that had dominated their lives for the last two years. The things that were written in these reviews were valid.  So, why with all of this, would anyone in their right mind work for PAX? I believe we are on the upswing.  We have a full-time CEO, and a plan for the future. The employees that still remain are deeply passionate and talented, and despite years of chaos, have remained at the company because we still believe in the work we are doing and we still want to be here. PAX is starting a new chapter, one that I am excited to be a part of and will be defined by increased stability. We are still one of the most well-funded cannabis start-ups, we have big plans for the future, and we create word-class products in one of the most exciting industries in the world.. We need bright, driven, and passionate people to help us build on the hard-won positive momentum we are creating now. As for Adam our CEO? If you are not familiar with Adam (or his mentor from Yahoo), let’s go through the PROs. His attention to detail, drive for product excellence, and consumer driven thinking are awesome, and his leadership style, while a touch *intense* at first has grown and improved in response to employee feedback. Now that he is more fully integrated into the company, I can honestly say I am glad to have him here at PAX.

      Cons

      Since this is where we left off, let’s start with Adam and leadership.  When Adam joined, PAX employees were ground down and burnt out. We wanted (and needed) someone who would come in and support us in the ways we had desperately needed over the last 2 years. Things were wildly disorganized internally, and the management team in place had pretty much lost the trust of the employees.  Adam, for better or worse, came in and wanted to immediately get to work on fixing what was broken. But, what the employees really needed was for leadership to pause and acknowledge the emotional baggage and history before driving hard towards our better and brighter future. As one employee described it “it’s like Adam has dropped in on the last mile of a marathon fresh, energized and ready to go, but we are struggling to even keep ourselves upright and moving forward.” I’ll be honest, in the emotionally charged atmosphere that PAX already had, things did not get off on a perfect foot. For many of the employees that had hung on by their fingernails over the last few years, it was the straw that broke the camels back.  In fairness to Adam, I think that after 2 years of instability at work, and a global pandemic, it may have just been time for some of the current employees to move on and close this chapter in their lives.  Beyond that? The biggest thing that is challenging PAX right now is back-filling the departures. If you look at our website we have tons of open roles and it puts increased pressure on the employees that are still here to cover the gaps. New hires are the best news of the week because it continues to shift the tide in a more positive direction. New energy, new ideas, and increased support for the incredible employees that remain at this company.

      1.0
      13 May 2021

      Senior Executives and Board Members are a Joke

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      - Nice people to work with - Great product

      Cons

      Summary: It is a big joke. Tl;DR; - New CEO is Adam Cahan, this profile needs updating - Constant misalignment with senior executives and board members - Senior executives are mostly hand wavy and political in their responses to employee's honest feedback or questions and no action is ever taken to fix that - Too many cooks in the kitchen such as product and program management rather than having enough people to do the job - Some teams are overstaffed and protected well by their super chill self-entitled executives vs some teams are constantly struggling and their staffing needs are never met as CFO of this company prefers bragging about saving the burn rate than taking risks in R&D, and this is causing unhappiness in junior employees needing help to grow - The above is causing a culture of finger pointing, blame, and low moral - Work/life balance is non existent - Initiatives start and people work on them hard for a few month soon to find out some executive decided to kill the project - Smart people are being driven away every day and those who are staying are just liking the people who they work with rather than caring for the company's mission - The way work is currently being done is by CEO going to every team's meeting, micromanaging them, and asking the same question from a dozen people to see who gets him what he wants fast. Brilliant leadership ... pun intended.

      Viewing 1 - 3 of 112 Reviews
      Related searches: PAX Labs jobs | PAX Labs salaries | PAX Labs benefits | PAX Labs interviews
      ReviewsPAX Labs reviews

      Glassdoor has 121 PAX Labs reviews submitted anonymously by PAX Labs employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if PAX Labs is right for you.