Pros: My colleagues are great, the office has beer on tap, the company's numbers are doing better than ever, we're profitable, and the stock is finally doing well.

Cons: My criticism comes from a place of disappointment and sadness, rather than anger. I used to be really proud of working at Klaviyo and would brag about our work-life balance, perks, culture, and engineering all the time. Unfortunately, pre and post IPO are two very different companies. People might say that's what happens when a startup goes public, but that's not what's happening here. The changes we've had since IPO are the type you'd expect from a failing startup trying to stay afloat. Our numbers have never been better, yet Leadership has been antagonistic and spiteful. Morale is at an all time low. Just a few examples from the past few months show how dramatically things have changed: - The CEO used to brag about having an unlimited books policy that employees loved. We received the news it wasn't going to be available anymore only 2 days in advance. - Our $3k/year learning stipend could be used for personal learning. Now it's been reduced to $2.5k and can only be used to buy accredited courses related to your role, with equally short notice. - Wellness benefits, WFH stipends, and the internal product usage program ($1,000/month) have all been removed. - People who discuss or question the changes on Slack are reprimanded by HR. - On every email notifying one of these changes, the company tries to gaslight us into believing these are good for us and that we should be happy for them. - The CEO stopped taking Q&As from employees and doesn't address feedback anymore. - The new Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) buys the stock during blackouts, so we can't sell the stock at a guaranteed profit like every other company. - Our performance stock bonuses and refreshers were replaced with a cash bonus that maxes out at 5% of salary to prevent stock dilution for shareholders. - 4-point performance system that recognized top 20% performers was replaced by a 6-point system that ranks employees and only awards bonuses to the top 5%. - New employees are being offered less and less stock, while base remains the same. - Unlimited PTO policy was removed in EMEA and APAC and replaced with government minimums. It's expected to be discontinued in the US as well. - Forced 3-day RTO for employees (while executives, including the "Chief Culture Officer," remain remote and absent from company-wide announcements), plus removal of titles from Slack - justified as making people work "as owners" rather than for titles or promotions. - Office doesn't have enough space for everyone, so we have to book our desks every day to stay close to colleagues. Leadership hasn't announced plans for an office expansion any time soon. And that's just what I could remember.

Pros: Benefits, free food, and tech talks.

Cons: I had high expectations coming into Klaviyo, but the reality fell far short. The biggest issue is leadership. There is a clear lack of the experience and judgment needed to effectively lead a modern engineering organization. Decision-making often feels reactive rather than strategic, and there’s little evidence of long-term technical vision. Instead of empowering experienced professionals, leadership tends to micromanage as if they’re overseeing a group of junior interns rather than seasoned engineers. From a technical standpoint, the quality of the codebase and product is concerning. Much of the system feels like a patchwork of rushed solutions—often reminiscent of a half-baked college project rather than a mature, production-grade platform. Core areas suffer from poor system design, weak data models, and significant technical debt that is consistently ignored rather than addressed. Project expectations are frequently unrealistic. Leadership pushes aggressive timelines without accounting for the underlying technical challenges or existing debt. There’s little regard for sustainable development practices, which leads to constant firefighting instead of building robust, scalable systems. The result is a frustrating environment where engineers spend more time working around problems than solving them properly. For a company at this stage, the gap between where things are and where they should be is hard to overlook.

Pros: - You get to work with smart, driven, hard-working people who push you to succeed - Highly collaborative environment - Leadership is transparent and gives employees many opportunities to ask questions - Everyone has a voice where people are treated with respect, honesty, and kindness - Big on learning that values curiosity and knowledge sharing

Cons: - We need more great engineers!