Pros
Benefits are fantastic including employer paid healthcare, childcare reimbursement, and other convenience reimbursements (coffee, cell phone, etc.) The actual product- rower itself and content- is great.
Cons
Lack of clear and actionable mission makes it very difficult to set and achieve goals in this organization. There is an unhealthy and very disorganized push and pull between growth and profitability. While this is common in growing organizations, at Hydrow these priorities flip like a light switch, causing teams to be in a constant state of scramble. Pandemic hyper growth robbed Hydrow of the opportunity to build a solid foundation of anything. There are no standards, no documentation, no data or reporting norms. It was my experience that no one in leadership actually cared about remedying this. It was laughed off as “building the plane while we fly it,” but in reality it was carelessness that led to mistakes and swirl. I found it constantly difficult to get things done. This company claims to be data driven but they are anything but. Calls are made at the top that have nothing to do with performance and everything to do with visibility and optics. The CEO has reached the ceiling of his business acumen and it is widely spoken about even among the lower levels. It’s clear that he does not have a strong understanding of many elements of the business but insists on inserting himself where he does not have the expertise. This company claims to promote work-life balance but it’s 100% on the individual to create those boundaries, leadership is not modeling that behavior. It’s preached constantly to take time and take care of yourself but let me just say I was in a 25-person, completely unnecessary “check in” meeting at 9pm on Thanksgiving day. Mass comms have a tendency to have a touchy- feely, “we are a family” vibe. If you are a real-life adult who has any business experience, this is truly eye roll-worthy, coming off as disingenuous and distracting to getting things done.