It has been no great secret that Spiceworks have wanted to IPO and be a $1billion "unicorn" from day one.
They have wrapped this quest up in warm and fuzzy behavior, a dinosaur, "holidays" for IT people, SWAG a plenty, a couple of big annual parties, and thousands of gallons of orange KoolAid.
In 2016 the mask slipped, as a whole heap of employees were let go in an apparently random restructure.
This was not the cult that you thought you'd signed up for.
The quest for revenue became all consuming, as unicorns were slain across Silicon Valley and beyond.
The word was out - a lot of these companies are growing hugely, but making no money... that IPO started to look shakey, and staff churn escalated.
Once upon a time, Spiceworks was not just a fun place to work, but challenging, exciting, and engaging.
As 2016 rolled into 2017 it became apparent that this was just another ad revenue based media business, no different from techtarget, or IDG - this place sold 3rd party leads to gullible and greedy IT companies, who are desperate to maintain revenue in a challenging economy.
If you're considering joining Spiceworks, look long and hard, talk to former employees, talk to customers, and users - this is not the fun and funky startup it claims to be.
You may hear that they have a recruiting policy of "not hiring undesirables*", which may be because they have enough running the business already.
*management use a profanity here which glassdoor will not allow.
