A Designer Perspective - Senior Product Designer Very Employee Review

Great people, solid compensation, best retreat I've been to.

The business is not growing as fast as you'd expect

I worked at Very for almost three years. There is a huge focus on culture and community, especially being an all-remote environment. Annual retreats and frequent all-company meetings helped the team feel connected, even with being spread out across North and Latin America. The company hired very intentionally, and they cultivated a employee base of some great people, many of whom I hope to stay connected with throughout my career. Their values of investing in their people and cultivating a culture of trust really resonated with the team.

Very grew too fast during the pandemic and were recently forced to do massive layoffs. There were also some toxic leaders (many are no longer with the company) who affected how much work Very acquired, which had a domino effect on the rest of the company. Furthermore, while members of the client-facing and leadership teams would receive regular promotions and pay increases, many ICs went without even annual cost-of-living raises. The culture shifted a lot over my 2+ years, and I hope it returns to its roots by focusing more on transparency and equal opportunity.