Polecat Reviews

3.3

53% would recommend to a friend

(26 total reviews)

James Lawn

61% approve of CEO

47% positive business outlook

Polecat has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 26 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Polecat employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Management and consulting industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

26 reviews
1.0
18 Apr 2019

A great idea poorly executed

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Nice, smart people. Interesting ideas. Massive potential. Flexible working.

Cons

Potential is something you should have in the early stages of a business, not 11 years in. The two CEOs appear split between being a keenly focused commercial organisation that has growth potential or a high end boutique which is run on ‘brand’ and a misguided philosophy that the world is crying out for a self-service corporate reputation platform. It isn’t. Staff are split between Bristol and London, with the only person who knows how the platform works based remotely in California. There’s a culture of flexible working which means that most of the client facing staff are never in the office. The atmosphere is quietly toxic as staff leave/are let go and investors become increasingly and understandably nervous. Nepotism is rife as the business hires in countless external consultants who are as useless as they are expensive. Immediate management were clueless but good at managing up and treading water. The platform cannot do what is promised. Content is messy and inaccurate. It doesn’t use AI. It’s English language only. It’s nothing more than an advanced bean counter. The cookie cutter ‘insight’ delivers zero insight and only thing more insane than the proposition is the price.

avatar
Polecat Response
7y
Hi – thanks for taking the time to give us your feedback. I completely agree with your assessment of there being massive potential. The strategic media monitoring industry (focussed on evidence-based insight for reputation, brand, sustainability, diversity, etc) has immense potential – especially for products such as Polecat’s. It’s true we started the company 11 years ago; we are one of the very few businesses to successfully move from consultancy to product. As an Enterprise SaaS business, it’s never an ‘either/or’ between self-service product and professional services – it’s always an ‘and’. That’s what our customers appreciate about what we offer – we understand their requirements, concerns and opportunities - and can also make what was purely agency-driven advice, far more efficient and help them be more independent. In terms of the product then I’d argue that the customers we have delivered insight to, over many years, in many languages including Arabic and Chinese (and more recently adding Urdu, Hindi and Mongolian to name a few) appreciate our translation options in the platform. Your point on pricing is useful; certainly, in the current market, we see the need to respond to changing priorities coming from our customers. Some of these priorities include offering particular packages at particular prices – so this is definitely something we’re working on together across our Bristol, London and US teams. I also take your point on the risks that face a company bringing in consultants. Fortunately, the majority of the consultants have given us great advice on brand, identity, diversity and reputation and have now either joined Polecat or are working in partnership with us directly with customers - demonstrating the value of professional services on top of he Polecat product set. We know that this is something our customers value and really differentiates the business from a tactical media monitoring or pure agency offering. It’s the best of both worlds. Really appreciate you taking the time to feedback to us, we share all comments with our people so we can learn from different perspectives.
1.0
16 Apr 2019

They have no idea what they are doing.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some fun people to work with.

Cons

Polecat as a business, has no idea what they are providing, and who they are providing it to. They have a monitoring system that filters products by various risk topics and any insight is reliant on the client drawing their own conclusions. Internal politics across upper management is rife and the company is handicapped in that there are two CEO's, based in two different locations who have two different ideas about where the business is going. Immediate management were completely clueless I would avoid if possible.

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Polecat Response
7y
Being part of building a new market for automated reputation intelligence, to deliver a global business environment where reputation is no longer a risk, is not a trivial task, so I appreciate and feel your frustration. It has taken time to develop the market and build the multi-year relationships we now have with many of the world's largest and most innovative businesses. Like the businesses we work with, Polecat must remain responsive to the changing market and this sometimes requires hard decisions to be taken to maintain focus and growth. Clear communication across the company is always critical, not least when hard decisions are being made and, as Co-CEOs, we always appreciate feedback on how we might improve communication. We appreciate the challenges and opportunities that face Polecat employees and we appreciate this is not an environment that suits everyone.
5.0
26 May 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I don't know where to start. A flexible working culture. Great customers and great people working together to try and find answers to the most important and challenging questions of global business.

Cons

Think the grass is greener on the other side? I doubt it if you treasure work-life balance and the application of deep analytics

Viewing 1 - 3 of 26 Reviews

Glassdoor has 29 Polecat reviews submitted anonymously by Polecat employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Polecat is right for you.