FreeWheel Reviews

The StickyAds acquisition was the worst possible move that could have been made by FreeWheel. The team tasked with the evaluation of this acquisition was extremely ill-equipped to run such an evaluation, and the result was an acquisition that felt like the deal terms were struck in the private room of a strip club (read: sleazy) without any due diligence done outside of whether they would make good drinking partners. The product and the team that came over were in complete discordance with the business FreeWheel had run up to this point. Where FreeWheel had focused on strong, trust based service, the StickyAds team focused on swindling their customers under the guise of false transparency. The product barely functioned, and was quite embarrassing for those of us who were client facing at the time. The acquisition also came on the heels of what would become at least 2 years of constant re-org (my understanding is that they have yet to settle on a consistent, functional org structure to this day). This left the majority of employees, at least on the FW platform side of the business feeling disenfranchised and confused, while watching the teams on the StickyAds side of the business be supported in their every "effort", most of which surrounded the best way to do the least amount of work and drink the most amount of rose. During this time, promotions and career development went on hold for the majority of the business, most of us being told that no changes could be made until the org was finalized, while others were promoted sometimes 2-3 levels for no apparent reason, having made no apparent contribution to the company other than agreeing with management and not asking too many questions. Leadership made a great show of asking for feedback via forums, office hours, surveys, etc. None of the feedback that was given was operationalized, and in a few personal conversations with leadership I was told that the complaints being voiced by the majority of the company were "immature" and "unrealistic" When a mass exodus occurred last summer by the majority of the Product team and several other long term employees, this was excused by leadership as "some people aren't meant to work for large companies" without accepting any ownership of the fact that the company culture was crumbling.

Corrupt, phony, juvenile Three words to describe the culture and people of FreeWheel. Best things about the company are the benefits Comcast offers, though other large companies probably have better packages. Some people do like the culture here – if you fall into one of the below categories, you probably would (or currently) do well at this organization: - If you’re a recent college grad who thrives in a fraternity/sorority type of environment: FreeWheelers are very cliquey, judgmental and “bro-ey”. Someone who needs a good stepping stone to a real company and a formidable notch (because it is Comcast) on his/her resume might be well suited too. There’s beer in the fridge kids! Go get ‘em. (One of the few redeeming qualities of this company is the snacks, though those are dwindling since Comcast started tightening the belt.) - Individuals who are comfortable with not only being SURROUNDED by phoniness and two faced-ness, but BEING phony and two faced will also like it here. Image fostering is a paramount concern at FreeWheel and for many (most) of the people who work there. As long as you're just a bit conniving and can make people think you’re something you’re not, and believe things that aren't true, you’ll fit in easily. As a function of this, don’t count on a FreeWheeler – if someone is succeeding at this organization, they likely have thrown someone under the bus to get ahead. You also must be comfortable with deceit, as this is something you’ll encounter frequently in company meetings, and when interacting with management and coworkers.