Red Ventures reviews

• “Everything is written in pencil” sounds great, but in practice means that long-term planning and growth plans can be too easily abandoned for quick-wins and operations that “scale.” It can become a toxic rule when evaluating the work people are doing. • Mostly young, fresh out-of-college hires (few gray hairs around) • Competitive environment leading to less collaboration and sometimes a cut-throat environment (I.e., “It’s not enough that I should succeed, others must fail.”) • Extremely meeting-oriented. Lots of time and $$$ wasted on meetings and slide deck preparation • Not remote-worker friendly. Some companies that have been required were heavy on remote-workers, who were largely let go • Extreme focus on revenue growth — almost at any cost • Very cult-like approach to creating company culture. A lot of near-worship of Ric Elias. The summer and end-of-year "Culture Fests" were fun experiences, but often felt like a massive cult indoctrination event • Too large a company to feel like one is making a meaningful contribution, or that an employee is more than a line item on a spreadsheet

Big (over?)expansion pre-pandemic led to assurances employee counts would be maintained during the pandemic and then sudden cuts when the 2023 forecast started to look more grim than projected. Goals of editorial excellence seem to be shifting now to prioritize work that creates the highest revenue streams.