Wonderful people, unimpressive company direction - Anonymous employee Databook Employee Review

2.0
10 Jun 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Most of the people you'll meet will be genuinely wonderful. They are smart, talented, sociable, and overall great to have as coworkers. People will be open to collaborating with you and sharing resources. People are willing to spend time explaining company lore or process with you. People form actual friendships (though sometimes cliques form as well). Pay is acceptable. Not high but not bad for a small startup. Unlimited PTO which can also be a con. Depends on your manager. If you have one that supports your time off, it's a blessing. If you have one that prioritizes work and the company more, you might be told "No" when you ask. There are lots of negative reviews recently so I wanted to add in my two cents. A lot of the negative feedback is true. I don't disagree. That being said, it isn't a horrible place to work for everyone. If you can manage your expectations, if you are passionate about AI, if you don't need guaranteed job stability, and if you are willing to work flexible hours (aka maybe a weekend here or there), this could work for you.

Cons

The company might say it's moving in a better direction, but the consistent layoffs of both tenured and new employees says otherwise. Will this company ever find its footing? Maybe. Will this company succeed in the long run? Unlikely. It's strange working at a company where at least half of your coworkers are actively or passively applying. I've never worked somewhere where it was the norm and people were this open about how they were trying to leave and look for a new job. The CEO is undoubtedly an intelligent person but his presence and persona create more politics than progress. In some startups, you're encouraged to challenge ideas and play devil's advocate. This is not that kind of startup. Instead, it's created a culture where people are incentivized to nod along and agree with the CEO since any sign of professional discord is seen as a problem.

Explore other reviews about Databook

5.0
11 Nov 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I read some of the negative reviews and thought some context is helpful. Yes - Databook grew too rapidly in early Covid and had to right size (ie let go of some staff) in 2023. But so has the majority of tech companies, and especially startups. Yes - Sales AI shows a lot of promise and the space is evolving rapidly which require a highly agile product roadmap. For example, in late 2023 Databook started investing in a conversational AI application which at that time was fairly unique, and which was piloted in the spring of 2024. By the time it was GA'd, the application is less unique - welcome to the world of AI. The fact that a relatively small company developed this technology in just over half a year meeting the high expectations of enterprise customers is remarkable. Enterprise B2B contains major opportunity from the application of AI, but is also very challenging to do. The fact that Databook has the customers that it has - among them some of the largest and most sophisticated sales organizations in the world - and they are expanding their dependence on Databook tells the full story.

Cons

Yes - employees are expected to work hard and some old timers that got comfortable when growth simply happened are not happy. The reality is that tech startup life is not for everyone. If you're looking for a 9-5 job where you can be comfortable with minimal effort, this is not the right place for you (for what it's worth, I'm not sure if larger tech companies are good for you either). Growing something is hard work and requires a lot of commitment!

1
1.0
3 May 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- The coworkers at your level are fantastic; there's some great talent working here - Lots of insight into the reality of hype behind AI and generative AI - Relatively high pay for the market

Cons

There is no plan. This place is an utter dumpster fire. You will work on nothing that actually bolsters your resume, and will instead spend all your time catering to the CEO. I have never seen a company have so many meetings and get so little done as a result of them. More time is spent on endless iterations of powerpoint decks than on actually building the product. Roadmap? What roadmap? It's entirely the CEO's whimsy. What the product can actually do and what's being pitched are worlds away. You can't bring that up, though - as another review pointed out, you'll simply be told "you don't get it", they'll explain it to you all over again, and you'll have to sit there nodding, bewildered, and questioning the life choices that led you here. Work life balance is an utter joke. The expectation is for all staff to work overtime, every day, including weekends and holidays. Setting boundaries around not working late, early, or more than 50 hours in a given week was frowned upon. People who worked until 3 am for a single one-hour presentation to a customer were lauded as exemplary, but that level of sacrifice resulted in little more than the CEO's approval. No bonus, no raise, just the expectation to do it again. If you have a sense of self worth, want to grow your career, or just not be miserable at work - steer clear.

7
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All