Poor Leadership and Toxic Culture - Anonymous employee Freestar Employee Review

Freestar presents itself as a thriving ad tech company, but behind the scenes, it’s plagued by poor leadership, short-sighted decision-making, and a toxic culture. - Constant Layoffs Without Reasoning: The company regularly conducts layoffs without any clear explanation, creating an environment of fear and instability. - Lack of Diversity: The BD team is now entirely straight, white, men, after a single round of layoffs removed all the diversity, raising serious concerns about inclusivity. - Top Talent Let Go Without Justification: Even strong leaders in the Sales team have been let go with no apparent reasoning, further showing the lack of direction from management. The leader in question was one of the smartest, kindest and best people I have ever worked with. - Fear-Driven Culture: Employees are afraid to speak up due to the toxic work environment, where challenging leadership or offering constructive criticism feels risky. - Short-Sighted Decision Making: Management seems to plan and operate on a quarterly basis with little long-term vision, making reactionary decisions that hurt the business. - Sales Team Gets No Support: The sales team is treated as if they exist solely to serve the co-founder, with little to no backing from the rest of the company. - Mediocre Product, Excessive Hype: The product itself is nothing special, yet employees are expected to blindly praise it as if it’s revolutionary. - Unrealistic Expectations Without Guidance: Leadership demands excellence in outreach but fails to define what good looks like, setting unreasonable goals without providing the necessary support or strategy (Hint, you’ll essentially just be churning out cold e-mails) - Advancement Through Sycophancy: The only way to grow within the company is to suck up to leadership and act as if Freestar is life (reminds me of that scene in Ted Lasso - “Football is life”). - Incompetent Sales Leadership: The new leader of the Sales team shouldn’t be there - he lacks the skills to handle client interactions effectively, frequently mismanages calls and fails to provide value in discussions, damaging relationships instead of building them. It makes you wonder if he has ever had a conversation with a human being before. Overall, if you’re looking for a stable, inclusive, and well-run company, this is not the place. The constant layoffs, lack of support, and toxic culture make it a stressful and demoralizing workplace. If you’re an AE looking for a role, this isn’t it. You’ll essentially be, for the most part, a glorified BDR.