Braze used to be a great startup environment where everyone was heard, everyone's opinion mattered, and everyone pulled together as a team and a family toward the same goal of making a great product and a great company. Although growing pains are a normal thing for startups, Braze has had and continues to have some of the worst I've seen.
Transparency, something touted by upper management, is at an all-time low as previous steps to become more transparent have been reverted with no replacements or explanations. More company and policy updates are spread via gossip and backchannels than through management. Critical feedback is not accepted by management: at best it will be ignored, at worst it can cause issues.
Many managers are chosen to be managers because they are good at the job of the people they are now managing, but have very little or no experience in actually managing people. This shows very much. Direct managers do nothing more than feign interest in advancing their reports' careers, with no concrete guidance or help. There is almost no path upward in many departments, and in many cases the only way to grow your career at Braze is to jump to another department. Managers' only concern seems to be CYA and there is an astounding amount of it.
Upper management has no singular vision. Most departments are very siloed and have wildly varying expectations of their employees. Each department is essentially its own small startup with its own problems, and somehow they need to work together with all the other departments to survive. It is not a recipe for success and that's certainly how it's panning out. In the meanwhile the employees across the board are underpaid and running around trying to keep sane.
Just to note as well, Braze used to be called Appboy and their reviews don't carry over to the Braze name on Glassdoor. Take a look at Appboy's reviews as well for a full picture.
