Poor Software company - Anonymous employee Kong Employee Review

1.0
Nov 18, 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Original product was good, everything else is smoke and mirrors

Cons

Culture, Management..Serious lack of experience in achievement at the top level.

avatar
Kong Response
3y
I'm sorry to hear that you feel this way and I appreciate you sharing and giving me the opportunity to address this. Yes, the flagship product, Kong Gateway is great and is the most widely adopted API Gateway in the world. We continue to invest in the original on-prem solution and will continue to drive innovation there. The "smoke and mirrors" that you claim for the other products is off base. Insomnia, Kong Mesh and Konnect continue to drive innovation in the API space. The proof of this is the fact that Gartner named us THE leading visionary in the leader quadrant for the 3rd year in a row. That isn't accomplished with smoke and mirrors. I’d like to respond to your comment about culture. Without any details as to what you didn't like here or what you think is a negative, I'll simply say that we have our strengths and our weaknesses. We are a humble organization that is constantly trying to improve and get better in all areas of the business. We are transparent and are open minded to feedback, hence our employee surveys since we were 150 employees strong. We created our "Employee Experience" team to continue to focus on the lives of our employees in an effort to never lose sight of who we are. While there will always be a boisterous group of employees when leaving any organization, our remaining 550 employees continue to voice their satisfaction with who we are. Our most recent employee sat survey posted stronger results than our last. I’d like to offer a different perspective on your comment about the "lack of experience in achievement at the top level". Our leadership team is made up of multiple startup executives who successfully exited many different companies. From our sales and marketing org, through our finance, legal and people teams and into our product and engineering orgs, every single leader has multiple success stories under their belt. Again, I wish you had a better experience with us at Kong and if you'd like to have a live conversation with me to discuss, I post my email here, chuck.waygood@konghq.com. I wish you the best of luck in your next opportunity and I hope that the remainder of 2022 is successful and healthy for you.

Explore other reviews about Kong

5.0
Jun 18, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Company is growing quickly, product works great, and great leadership

Cons

None at come to mind at this moment

5.0
May 18, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The thing that stands out most at Kong is the people. This is genuinely one of the most talented, driven, and collaborative groups I've worked with — and that's not just within my immediate team. Kong has built a truly global team, and the diversity of perspective and experience you get from that is something you can feel in day-to-day work. The product speaks for itself. Kong is solving real, complex problems in the AI connectivity space, and there's a shared sense of purpose around what we're building. It's the kind of place where you actually believe in what you're selling, which makes a big difference. Culture is something a lot of companies talk about but few actually invest in. Kong's COURAGE core values aren't just words on a wall — they come up in real conversations and shape how decisions get made. Leadership is visible, engaged, and genuinely cares about the team.

Cons

Like any high-growth tech company, the pace is fast and there's always more work to do than hours in the day. If you thrive in ambiguity and like to move quickly, that's energizing — but it can be a lot if you're looking for a slow and steady environment.

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