I began my short stint at PlanetArt through an acquisition (which seems to be a major growth driver for their business) of the CafePress brand where I had worked for many years. The first time we met the CEO he expressed that we should feel gratitude because we're lucky to still have jobs. He was upset that we complained about them taking our PTO (we were moving from an "unlimited" to an accrual policy) without compensation. It was downhill from that point. A year later, anyone with any experience and domain knowledge has fled.
The CTO will micromanage your project despite having only surface-level knowledge. He will request to be in every meeting where he will derail constantly. On more than one occasion he swooped in while a manager was on PTO and changed fundamental aspects of their team. He admits to thriving on controversy.
Product managers will appease the CTO during meetings and afterward tell the devs to do something different behind his back. It is a toxic environment.
Employees who raise concerns about potential problems are derided and told that they are afraid of success. This is a mantra for senior leadership who seem to take pride in flying by the seats of their pants. When the plan blows up they're quick to point fingers at anyone but themselves.
Avoid at all costs.
