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

      btrax

      Is this your company?

      btrax Reviews

      3.3

      56% would recommend to a friend

      (21 total reviews)

      Brandon Hill

      40% approve of CEO

      55% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      4.7

      Diversity and inclusion

      4.2

      Culture and values

      3.7

      Work/Life balance

      3.7

      Career opportunities

      3.2

      Senior management

      2.7

      Compensation and benefits

      btrax has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 21 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The btrax employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      21 reviews
      2.0
      13 Jan 2014

      Fun place to work, but dissatisfying

      Graphic designer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      btrax has consistently hired smart, creative people with interesting backgrounds. Most are bilingual or trilingual. Every employee works hard and I really enjoyed working with practically everyone. The easiest way I can describe the company is that they offer services in design, localization and cultural consulting/marketing for East Asian companies seeking to enter the US market and vice versa. It's a relaxed, friendly environment in a killer location in SoMa with lots of places to eat nearby. 2 blocks from AT&T Park, Caltrain, Safeway, and a dozen foodie places. FT employees get paid federal holidays off, flexible PTO (take time off whenever you need it), plus health and retirement benefits. There's lots of parties with cake too!

      Cons

      Lack of strong leadership from upper management. Disorganized and occasionally unprofessional. Unpaid interns are told to work overtime hours on client projects and writing blog articles. No clear intern training program in place. Below competitive salaries. One of the biggest factors of low morale among staff. High employee turnover rate. When I started there were 12 employees (not including myself). By the time I left 3 years later, only 3 of the original staff were still there and 20 employees in total had come and gone, not including dozens of unpaid Japanese interns.

      avatar
      btrax Response
      12y
      Thank you for your well-balanced response! We of course appreciate the praise and as the Office Manager I am always looking for feedback to improve the satisfaction of our employees. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since your time at btrax, I personally have made strong efforts to take ownership of all interns and their program at btrax. Currently, I provide each intern with a offer letter that is tailored around the intern's needs - namely, what they want to learn / accomplish during their time at btrax. Each intern is provided with transportation assistance, free meals during company events, a 6 week review, a review at the end of their internship, as well as written letters of recommendation and / or LinkedIn recommendations as reward for completing their internship with satisfaction. There is also the added value of our cross-cultural community, which gives all members of btrax the opportunity to practice foreign languages with native speakers, and learn the cultures of different places through human interaction. While the interns are not compensated on an hourly basis, yes, the internship program is now under the direct supervision of solely the Office Manager, and each intern is paired with a mentor to maximize the learning benefit for the intern. At btrax, Inc. it is our belief that an internship should largely benefit the intern and is a great opportunity for a student or recent graduate to get real working experiences. We also do not accept anyone for an internship that we do not believe has the potential to become a full-time, paid employee at the end of their training period. We are working hard to improve our internship program, and would like to compensate them appropriately like good companies such as Apple and Google do; unfortunately we do not currently have this capability. I truly thank you for your concern toward the interns at btrax; it was one of my first worries upon joining the company as well. Please rest assured that all of your concerns regarding the internship program are now no longer true at btrax, Inc.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- btrax, Inc. started as a web-design company, but with the new year in 2014, we are making a large shift away from design and toward marketing strategy, localization, and branding. We will always retain our core as creative with a focus on web design, user-experience design, and technology and have enjoyed working on a variety of projects with such client as Nissan, Square, and Expedia. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In our metamorphosis, we have struggled to keep up with the competitiveness of tech and financial companies in terms of salary, but have always tried to remain fair to employees by offering 80% coverage of the monthly premium for health insurance (vision and dental included), a flexible and unlimited Vacation system, sick days in accordance with California law, flexible working schedules, and monthly company events. Currently, we have several projects in the pipeline that are set to kick off this month; additionally, we have had several unexpected projects and inquiries as a result of our business development strategy and recent overhaul of the website and blog. Morale is picking up, and I have no doubt that this year will be the year that btrax will raise the bar and compete with companies in the bay area for talented individuals such as yourself. As for the turnover rate, I will not deny your claim, as btrax strives to be a transparent and fair corporation. Many of these incidents I was not present for so I do not wish to speculate. I do wish to sincerely apologize on behalf of btrax for anyone in the past who had a bad experience with our company. We have hit some bumps and some major detours along the way to come to where we are in 2014 and we can only learn from the past and look forward to better times. We here at btrax would like to thank you for your 3 years of dedication, perseverance, and apparent patience. Additionally, I would like to thank you for bringing these issues to my attention; there is no hope for our company's culture and business to improve if more people like yourself do not voice their opinion. Thank you,
      3.0
      19 Sept 2014

      Great people, good start for designers, questionable upper management

      Web designer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      + I met a lot of great friends, many of whom I still keep in touch with to this day + The company culture can be fun, dynamic, and if you love Japanese culture you'll get a lot of it from here + We had some really great and appreciative clients + The SF location is in SoMa, surrounded by cute places to eat, two blocks away from a Safeway if you're not feeling restaurant/cafe food, and a reasonable 25-minute walk from downtown if you're looking for somewhere to go after work.

      Cons

      - The upper management wasn't willing to invest in things like basic office supplies, competent hardware or legitimate software, leading to a lot of "first come first serve" when the office got something new, like chairs or desks - btrax was never able to retain clients, thus losing several streams of revenue by being unable to have clients come back - Tons of interns came and went during my tenure at btrax. Several were unpaid in exchange for the visa needed to stay and work here, and for some lodging was not provided or advised, forcing some to stay in hostels or apartments of questionable condition - There was no guidance for interns coming into btrax; new employees and interns were simply left to "figure it out" without any mentoring from upper management, and poor communication between upper management and employees often left full-time experienced employees unaware that the interns might need help - btrax still tries to keep the startup culture within the office, but the reality is that after 8 years it hasn't blossomed into anything more than a small marketing company, downgraded originally from a web design firm that couldn't keep itself afloat - The salary was way below market; without a competitive salary there hasn't been any employee outside of the CEO and one other employee who have been in the company for more than four years - Projects were poorly scoped and way underpriced for what they should have been, often leading to many projects that lost revenue. Some of the underpriced projects were in an attempt to secure the project and retain the client, but as btrax could almost never retain a client this just led to losing even more revenue. - There are questions of ethics around the btrax CEO

      avatar
      btrax Response
      11y
      Hello, and thank you for your response. Although your review has much more cons than pros, I am happy to see that you are identifying similar problems that I - as the office manager - have identified and helped to resolve this past year. We are currently operating with a new staff, new equipment, and new clients that we have retained throughout 2013 and 2014. It has taken us 10 years to get to this point, and although we may have not exploded as start ups such as twitter, square, and uber, I am witnessing the culmination of 10 years of hard work every day in my office. I am confident that our hard-working staff is not only happy to be here but will continue to help expand our business in the years to come. Your great insight, knowledge, and experience on running a business is apparent in your criticism. I hope you fully apply these skills in your next career opportunity.
      3.0
      9 Nov 2012

      Variety of clients and work, but not professional

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Easy going, nice people, nice office location. I could have a variety of experience. I recommend this company if you are really self-driven and passionate about doing something new even you don't experience that much. They are very welcome to spontaneous person.

      Cons

      Low compensation, limited benefit, over working. And office equipment such as computer is not good enough as a web creative agency. They don't spend enough budget for necessary stuff. Also if you are thinking to "learn" through this company, here is not a right place. You should join more experienced or large scale company.

      avatar
      btrax Response
      13y
      Thanks for your review! btrax definitely loves spontaneity! We're beginning to change some of the HR dynamics and since your review was posted the HR department has been given a makeover. Thanks for highlighting these developmentals, we definitely are taking them to heart.
      Viewing 1 - 3 of 21 Reviews
      Related searches: btrax jobs | btrax salaries | btrax benefits | btrax interviews
      Reviewsbtrax reviews

      Glassdoor has 26 btrax reviews submitted anonymously by btrax employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if btrax is right for you.