Toxic Work Environment - Marketing ProfitWell Employee Review

-Smart, decidated, and cool people to work with from all over the world. -Solid benefits, company owned, employee care focused company. -Forward thinking media plan and marketing. -Unconventional, sometimes to a fault. -Everyone, including the C-suite, are willing to learn and grow each day. -No babysitting. Wants you to be an adult… Even if you are naturally a baby. -Not afraid for people to be disagreeable. -Doing things in media no one else is doing. Long time reader, first time reviewer. I saw some negative reviews and wanted to put forth my 2 cents and experience at PW. I worked for ProfitWell for around 10 months. A truly unique experince that opened to my eyes to new ways of mangement and team thinking. I worked in a creative field, producing various stories and videos for ProfitWell. This wasn’t my first creative job, I have been a television producer and commercial director for many years. I wanted the challenge of helping a singular company with the safety of solid benefits, W-2 instead of 1099, etc… And yes it could be a challenge, I asked and received exactly what I wanted. Ultimately I had amazing creative opportunites pop up that I would have been an idiot for not taking and left the company. However, my experience was a solid one. Something I’ll always remember with lessons that continue to be valuable each day. I see a few people complaining about the pay. I’m surprised by this, you are clearly told what you will make which I believe to be beyond fair for a startup that also offers equity and benefits. It was enough for me to purchase a home, in a COVID market mind you, while also having the best health care and benefits I’ve had in my career. First company I ever worked for that was 100% employee owned and gave me several options when I started, more equity less salary or more salary less equity the decision is yours. I took the more equity option because I believed, and still believe, in the mission. You can make a comfortable living while progressing towards that goal of building something great. Then, sowing your wild oats when success inevitably comes. Also, this is the first transparent company I’ve worked for. Every week I knew exactly how much was in the bank account, where it was coming from, what was in the pipeline and where money was going. I truly felt like an owner. I demand this of all future employers moving forward. Where PW is really unique for me is the CEO. He sees the future of marketing. He just gets it, and trust me that’s rare. In house video production is very forward thinking. If companies aren’t doing this in 5 years they simply won’t survive. Media is a big investment, many don’t truly understand how big. It’s investments like this that prove to me the continued and future success of PW. I come from a world of sharks and bosses that would eat your heart out in front of you without thinking twice. Not so at PW. My leaders at PW truly cared for me. My dog died early into my employment, they sent flowers, told me to take as much time as possible and had my back through the process. But, even more important, they understood how hard it was to lose a loved one like a dog. I believe this shows the strength of their heart and character. The CEO truly cared about my mental and physical health. He would move mountains for anyone. Offering help, advice, a warm meal, a room to crash in or even time to chat through non-work related issues. When I decided to leave and pursue some new opportunies, management and the CEO fought like hell for me to stay. It was an incredible gesture of caring. I felt wanted and cared for, and yes, a little guilty for leaving. But that doesn’t mean he’s a push over. PC, and others, will challenge you, they will push you further than you’ve been pushed to be better. I can see many people not liking this. And yes sometimes it can be difficult. But the question is do you want to actually get better each day? Or just pretend to? I think most just want to pretend to. If that’s the case, need not apply here. Overall ProfitWell can be summed up as a very human experience that I can recommend. You’ll work people that have some of the biggest brains… with even bigger hearts.

-Sometimes there is a horse by commitie process, stalling progress on projects. -Startup life, many wear various hats that can slow some things down as priorities are shifted around. -I really disliked the review process, not that it wasn’t unfair or painful (I had very high review marks). It’s new and unique per PW and they acknowledge it’s not perfect. I mean which review process is? But, without going into long details it was a process I disagreed with many aspects of.

At the current stage (at least in my opinion), a lot of our success will hinge on the leadership team. The CEO and CPO seem to be in sync and are making a lot of moves currently (right around 50 employees) to make sure we're cutting the fat and pushing us in the right direction (streamlining revenue side of the house, working on more middle management, etc.). At my last company, the leadership team didn't evolve so this is good to see. Mission focus is really, really strong at ProfitWell. We're trying to do a few things that haven't been done before and the communication around those aspects is really inspiring and motivating. Revenue growth is insane right now, which is pushing us forward and you can feel it.

The wheels feel like they're going to come off sometimes. We feel super behind on hiring and I don't see/feel PeopleOps picking up the pace as much. May be happening and we are bringing on new people almost every single week, but just need more. Company is customer funded, so we're scrappy. That comes with cutting some corners sometimes. Not the important ones, but we're in an older building (not Class A space), so it's warm in the summer (A/Cs help, but can still heat up). Onboarding needs to be better for team members. Right now it's still too much trial by fire.