Nice Company, Nice People, Not much of a future - Anonymous employee RealSelf Employee Review

3.0
Mar 7, 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great company culture. Tries really hard to create a place where employees are valued. Focused on being mission and value driven. Good benefits, Fair Pay. Office Snacks. Great Pioneer Square location.

Cons

The business and model just doesn't have much of a future. Don't let anyone fool you - its not a high growth tech unicorn. Its a SEO marketing and sales company that needs to figure out how to be as lean and optimized as possible to drive profits. Don't get me wrong it has a future to be really successful at a fairly narrow charter. But its not going to disrupt the beauty and elective treatment space as is. Too much business baggage, technical debt, and not a strong enough leadership to make big shifts happen. A lot of people were hired in a short period of time to help make the company do something big - it was the wrong team, wrong place, wrong time. Now they are all gone.

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RealSelf Response
7y
Thank you for your feedback. You are exactly right that we need to make changes in order to be the high growth, iconic consumer brand that we know we can be. Many of those changes are already underway, and the entire company is focused on execution. We are also focused on getting the right people in the right roles and driving a more performance-oriented culture. We agree we need a strong management team and better consumer experience. Where we disagree is about the overall business opportunity. This is already a large market, growing rapidly, benefiting from favorable secular and demographic trends and many under-served adjacencies. Consumers are increasingly demanding the transparency we provide and looking to us to help make these decisions easier. Not only is the market opportunity and consumer demand significant, RealSelf is uniquely positioned to win.

Explore other reviews about RealSelf

5.0
May 28, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Having lived through many eras of RealSelf leadership and team culture, I can honestly say that our current CEO and exec team are more committed to the company’s success than any previous generation of leaders. These are the biggest positives I’ve seen coming out of this change: True passion for making RealSelf amazing for our consumers and providers A clear strategic vision for modernizing our legacy brand and product, backed with resources to make it happen Laser focus on a viable, sustainable revenue growth strategy An expectation that everyone is working hard to meet our goals Opportunities for meaningful career growth that had been absent for a few years Big emphasis on a positive, collaborative culture focused on solutions and bold bets We’re in a growth phase, so it has the fast-paced energy of a startup. It’s so energizing now to work with a mostly new team of rockstars who truly want to be here and are pulling together to make RealSelf live up to its potential. We also have an inspiring mission to help consumers make smart choices about aesthetic procedures and connect them with providers who are actually qualified.

Cons

We’re a relatively lean team, and resources are not infinite. We have to be strategic and leverage AI to work smarter, sometimes making trade-offs to deliver what’s most important for customers and the bottom line. (Not a challenge unique to RealSelf, but worth noting.) Many of us also wear a lot of hats. This can be a plus in terms of learning the business and new skills, but it also means we have to operate broadly and not always as deeply as we may want. We have to think in terms of improving systems and savvy automation to ensure things don’t slip through the cracks. It can be stressful for those who are not used to context switching and driving multiple priorities at once. We’ve also inherited areas of legacy mess (code, old systems, etc.) that need some clean-up, but we’re no longer sweeping them under the rug. If you’re up to these challenges, RealSelf is a fantastic place to grow.

1.0
Mar 25, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pros: - Initially exciting mission and team potential - Opportunity to learn in a fast-paced environment

Cons

Cons: - Leadership transparency and communication need major improvement - Culture can feel unsupportive and high-stress - Lack of consistency in decision-making

4
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