Bold Commerce Reviews

Pros

- Most teams are pretty tight-knit and friendly with each other. This makes it easier to come to work, even when things are tough (once you've finished the honeymoon phase, tough days happen often). - Depending on your team, you can get the opportunity to learn new stuff by filling gaps. - If you know where to look, there are some really smart people that you can learn a ton from. - Jay and Eric, two of the founders, are widely respected as being humble and down-to-earth. Take note of the other two founders which aren't mentioned here: they're missing because they present neither of those qualities. - There is such thing as a free lunch when the office is open. As long as you don't have dietary restrictions, in which case you're probably getting zucchini noodles and a bun.

Cons

- Compensation is low. When they respond to this review, they'll say that they do salary research multiple times a year. What they neglect to mention is that they'll miscategorize job titles to the actual duties of a role. For example, a junior product manager will get a contract that says "Product co-ordinator", which will title match to a lower salary but carry the responsibilities of a higher salary band. There are examples of this on every team: "Team Lead", "Account Manager", "Marketing Specialist". Check to see how long postings have been open; this is usually because they can't fill them since candidates withdraw once they hear the salary number. - On salaries: It's important to note that this is actually a running joke among Bold employees. "I'd love to buy a house, but I'm on a bold salary" is a common one for nearly anyone who isn't a developer. About once every three months, the Chief Human Resources Officer (a hilarious title for a 300 person company) gets up on stage and tells the company that they're always looking at compensation to make sure they stay competitive. This has happened at least 5 times over the past 2 years. - HR is not your friend. Talk to anyone who has been there more than a year and you'll hear horror stories of the CHRO gossiping to her underlings about employees (which almost always makes its way around the company in short order). She plays both sides of the coin to self-preserve. A few days after 15 people were let go, the CHRO accidentally messaged the entire company joking that they were going to fire others who hadn't joined a culture Slack channel. - The CEO is probably a smart guy, but he does a real good job of hiding it. There is no clear vision (it changes almost monthly based on what book he's reading). You need only check his Twitter account and compare it to that of a CEO from any other growing tech company to understand that he's in way over his head.

Pros

- There is a great sense of comradery and team in most departments. This might because most employees bond over the same frustrations and salary woes, but also because Bold does have a knack for hiring awesome people. - If you're driven, it is easy to learn a lot and benefit from the lack of role structure and requirements — you can step out of your role often and learn from others. You can easily learn skills that will benefit you in your next job and look really good on a resume. - The free lunch, drinks, and beer is convenient. You can spend your entire day there (and you just might come Black Friday season) and have everything you need to live. - You start with 3 weeks vacation. - Two of the four original founders (Jay and Eric) are kind, friendly, and genuinely seem to care about every single employee who is there. Striking up a conversation with them makes this clear, and they definitely go out of their way to get to know people in the building they are based in (there are 2 buildings).

Cons

- Most people, aside from developers and people in leadership positions, are underpaid. Instead of compensating someone appropriately, I often found 2 people doing the same role when 1 could suffice and get the job done if they were motivated properly. Or they would struggle to hire someone at the salary they were offering, so the people being hired didn't have any relevant experience or skills to do the job well, meaning they could get away with underpaying them for quite some time. It is important to note that over the last few years, Bold has ran surveys and feedback things that allow you to state what you struggle wit most and what needs to be improved — salary was always #1, for multiple rounds! The HR team would state they were investigating this and would address it in the upcoming reviews, but nobody ever noticed anything that would cause their complaints to disappear. — The annual review period is often disappointing. I would hear of some of the hardest and most dedicated employees all getting subpar and average reviews — never a single 'exceeding expectations'. Was this to keep people from thinking they deserved a raise? - You often hear that company HR departments are only there to look out for the company — and that has never been more true than at Bold Commerce. The CHRO is completely unapproachable and has no positive relationships with women. There have been multiple women who have left the department due to the stress and negative culture surrounding that team. There was an incident where the CHRO was caught joking around about firing employees for not staying in a specific Slack channel, and the apology that was sent out was widely unaccepted. This team is not your friend. - The CEO is smart and approachable, but the company seems to be lacking in any real direction in the last couple years. The company keeps creating products that can't compete in the space, and then instead of focusing on improving the product so it blows competitors out of the water — we create new products and APIs so other third-party developers can try and improve the product themselves. - There is a real culture issue with developers at this company. They seem to think their time is more important than anyone else's, and many new or junior employees are afraid to even reach out to them through Slack, or fear they may accidentally post in a channel about the wrong thing. Your top paid employees are the ones people are typically the most scared of — isn't that a problem? - One of the four founders isn't even worth mentioning in this review, because he's completely non-existent unless you want to talk about building an erroneously large home that encompasses your entire life.

Pros

no micro managing good coffee machine lot of scope to learn and grow My team was super friendly

Cons

Low Pay not many cons to be honest

Pros

- Flex time - Good benefits and vacation (on par with standards) - Treats you like an adult and doesn't micromanage - Wants to see you succeed and invests in it - Provides time for further educational learning and encourages you to take it - Tries to stay as transparent as possible, when possible - Some of the greatest people you'll ever work with (Seriously, I'd fight tooth and nail for my peers) - Senior management is working diligently to try and grow and fix any issues as they arise as Bold has grown and growing company problems sprout up

Cons

- Rapid growth has created voids in critical areas that need filling but are hard to fill - Some persons are in positions they have not been trained for causing a trickle down stress effect to others around them - The "culture" benefits are no longer a pivotal piece as lots of companies are offering the same thing for higher compensation making them more appealing causing people to leave for more money for the same work. - Lots of conversations about "watch your optics" meaning doesn't matter how good you are, if you're not perceived that way you're probably on your way out the door. - Is growing so rapidly is tough to keep up and hire for it causing stress on people within the company

Pros

Friendly coworkers, nice work-life balance, lots of opportunities to learn and test new stuff, company owners are ethical and value company culture

Cons

Company is growing and it might be difficult to keep the work environment when you add bureaucracy and extra management layers