Pros
WFH but no amount of pros will outweigh the cons.
Cons
This review is dedicated to the 165 talented individuals laid off yesterday and today, not due to a lack of skill, effort, or dedication on their part, but because of poor decisions made at the highest levels of Consensys. This isn’t a story about “economic headwinds” or “regulatory challenges.” It’s about misplaced priorities, cronyism, and strategic incompetence at the very top, with CMO Neal Gorevic. If the CMO were to be rightfully terminated tomorrow, this is what his tenure at Consensys would be remembered for: 2022 - Vanity Campaigns: The CMO diverted millions of dollars to frivolous projects like the Merge NFT campaign, an unnecessary rebranding of Consensys, full page ads in the WSJ. These campaigns were vanity projects that made the marketing team feel good but achieved nothing in terms of ROI. In the real world, that’s called “wasting money.” Resources that should have gone towards improving MetaMask’s UI and UX years ago were squandered on these failed strategies. 2022 onwards: Rapid Promotions and Nepotism - The CMO promoted inexperienced individuals from his inner circle who add no value to the bottom line but are part of his inner circle. I can't go into details due to guidelines the way the CMO picks whom to promote and not lay off is a further reminder to the entire company that sycophancy, not capability, drives promotion and firings here. 2022 - Early 2024: The DevX Experiment - The CMO initiated an overstaffed, multi-million dollar “DevX” experiment, creating a bloated team that failed to generate meaningful engagement. This wasteful endeavour was terminated by early 2024, after burning through considerable funds without delivering results. 2022: Increased Bureaucracy - The CMO’s tenure introduced layers of bureaucracy, making the organisation more hierarchical and less innovative. Far from encouraging creativity, this culture of red tape stifled initiative and moved Consensys away from its collaborative roots. Why do you think it takes us months to ship anything? 2023 - 2024: Linea’s Strategy Collapse - Marketing leadership's approach to boosting Linea’s total value locked (TVL) by courting airdrop farmers was a fundamentally unsustainable strategy. The plan collapsed when a few key employees left out of frustration, revealing the frailty of the approach in late July. 2023: MetaMask’s "Power User" Focus - The leadership’s strategy fixated solely on “power users,” who used MetaMask's paid features frequently, ignoring the broader user base and allowing competitors to gain ground. Millions are being spent on a new brand refresh for MetaMask rather than fixing glaring product issues. 2023-2024: Extravagant Spending Amid Layoffs - Following a double-digit million company retreat in Sicily in late 2022, large-scale layoffs ensued in early 2023. How many salaries could that retreat have paid? The layoffs continued in early 2024, again in October 2024, and are anticipated to persist after DevCon 2024. Yet the c-suite, or OAK, responsible for this mismanagement have retained their positions. 2022-onwards: Lack of Accountability - Despite repeated failures over 2.5 years, the CMO is still coasting in his role, while 165 others have lost theirs. 165 families with uncertain futures. This isn’t just poor management; it’s a moral failure, it's evil. If the board isn’t alarmed, they certainly ought to be.