Pros
Let's not get it twisted, all the "pros" of working at Weedmaps existed purely for the tech side of the organization. To be competitive, Weedmaps had to offer superficial benefits such as free lunch, tons of snacks, and a lax dress code. Shout out to the office managers of the company who always were amazing and kept folks happy (and distracted).
Cons
1. Sexist Culture Weedmaps is at the intersection of tech and cannabis, both very male dominated industries. As a woman at Weedmaps, I felt my experience and efforts were constantly discounted because of my gender and I was also overlooked and blocked out of conversations/promotions because I didn't fit in to the "boys club" that was sadly promoted by the all-male C-suite team. I have witnessed my female peers harassed by male co-workers. I have witnessed female peers get paid less than their male counterparts. And when the women spoke out, Weedmaps used an org-wide layoff to dismiss them and sweep the issues under the rug. Weedmaps also sponsored sexist and dangerous events such as Papas and Beer in Mexico, which was a spring-break type party series that promoted underage drinking, illegal drug use, and sexual assault. When this was surfaced to leadership as something our team was uncomfortable supporting and promoting, leadership brushed it off and did not address it. 2. OG Bullies Weedmaps has been around for 11 years and there are a lot of staff that have been with the company for 5+ years - aka the OGs, the founder's circle. However as the company grew and hired new people with stronger qualifications, the OGs started to fear for their job and bullied new hires that didn't fit in with their core stoner culture. They constantly used their tenure to overstep and have conversations behind your back with the leadership team, who were their "friends." They also discounted your judgement if you weren't a cannabis consumer, despite Weedmaps supposedly having a no-peer pressure stance. 3. Working in Gray Areas For a company that promotes legitimacy and transparency in the cannabis space, a lot of things operated in the shadows. There were a lot of handshake-type deals, internally and externally. Leadership also had "private" relationships with certain vendors and clients that were taboo to discuss. This lack of transparency created a lot of uneasiness amongst staff and created a lack of trust with leadership. 4. Weak Tech Team Weedmaps year after year continues to run into a ton of product issues. They claim they are a tech company in the cannabis space, but they continue to push the "cannabis lifestyle" aspect of their company because there is no actual product to go to market with. Leadership is too weak to provide strong and smart direction, causing the team to work inefficiently or deliver incomplete products. They have lost their competitive edge (that they had 10 years to build) and will definitely get passed by new startups who have stronger leadership and better talent.
