Hustle reviews

Uses outdated diversity stats to make itself feel good. Executive team seems scared of certain POC (ie: black VPs in the company are intentionally kept off the executive team). Mass lay offs (right before the holidays! 😕) that included only elderly, women and POC. I was sad to see some great talent let go. Can’t keep good talent (ie: a few people recently left to go back to their previous companies within their first week of work at Hustle). People team seems like they don’t know how to create a safe and understanding culture for POC. Deeply inexperienced executive team. Ill-prepared, shifty, and unexperienced CEO who will send this company to the ground before it takes off. Many rounds of layoffs with everyone scared for their jobs. People of color seem like they don’t feel safe working here. Favoritism over ability to do work. Lack of leadership. Some really mean and cuniving people work here for a company that started in the social and political space (including really mean legacy people close to the CEO who bully other women). It’s absolutely shocking how horrible the culture has gotten. Really goes to show that a few bad hires/promotions to leadership can derail a once promising company like this. I believe that the entire Sales leadership was let go, only to be replaced by junior people within the company with no experience. In my experience, the CEO is easily threatened by competent people, but would rather have “yes-people” around him to stroke his ego. I had to leave to save my career.

*Toxic, inexperienced leadership* Inept, naive, and lacking self-awareness at their best; bullying, double-speaking, undermining, immature, and entitled at their worst. There are a handful of people in positions of power that are bullies, making it an uncomfortable and at times unsafe environment for those they find a threat, especially for women and POC in particular. CEO enables this behavior. Some of the department heads are distrusting of each other and struggle over ownership and priorities at the expense of progress. There isn't a culture of growth-mindedness, reflection, or accountability in these scenarios—instead, there's finger-pointing and back-channel coalitions. Lots of talking, almost no doing, and very little learning. The business strategy just doesn't make sense, and with the top-down leadership style with a CEO that is in over his head, the result is no meaningful product progress, terrible (disempowering) culture, and inability for individual contributors to make meaningful impact. I would be surprised if they can raise series C. There is a lot of hand-waving, but things just don't add up.