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Molekule (California)

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Poor Leadership & Familial Nepotism - Anonymous employee Molekule (California) Employee Review

2.0
22 Dec 2021
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great people to work with who can make scrappy situations easy to get through

Cons

Where to start? Things were looking good at the start of 2021 but somewhere along the line it all came crumbling down. For a company with a stellar product that has been verified and validated through extensive independent studies, the leadership team sure knows how to botch up selling the products. 1) A new CEO joins the leadership team mid 2021 but in the last 6 months he has proven that his strategic thinking is short-sighted at best. Given the size of the company, that short-sightedness is felt and creeps into the way projects were handled. From changing project scopes at the spin of a hat and little to no business case for why there is a change to giving the green light to spearhead new initiatives that create extra work for other downstream teams, the CEO Jonathan Harris has shown that he doesn't seem to put much thought into what he does. He affords his growth team a lot of latitude without bringing in other teams into the discussion to understand the affects to them, which is not surprising I guess given his sales pedigree. Honestly, not sure how he was selected to be the CEO by the board because he is far from well-rounded. He did manage to hire his kids though in his short tenure there so there is that. 2) Lack of accountability from the VPs and up. Given how that is a tenant of the Molekule culture, its shocking how many of the VPs or C-suite execs do not own up to their poor and hasty decision making that leave projects in tailspins and the teams scrambling. I imagine it made it really hard for the company, financially speaking, and is probably one of the reasons why they had a 2nd round of massive layoffs in little less than 2 years. Oddly enough, most of those leaders were saved being let go 3) No more diversity. This company used to honor that tenant with the leadership team consisting of a diverse set of individuals. There was a female minority CEO even for most of my time there. It has since turned into a prime example of homogeneity. All in all, its a real shame because the product really has potential and Molekule was a fun place to work because of the people there. I don't think this leadership team has what it takes to positively grow this company.

Explore other reviews about Molekule (California)

5.0
16 Apr 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great people to work with and the chemistry and culture among employees is fantastic. Benefits are comprehensive and take care of their employees and family. Truly enjoyed working with everyone at Molekule.

Cons

Existing product line is showing its age and the need, and pressure, to get a new product to market is rightfully always there.

2.0
10 Oct 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Remote hiring, good PTO policy

Cons

Inefficient processes, poor (or complete lack) of communication from leadership, cliquey attitudes among longtime employees, reactive mindset rather than proactive strategy, and an overall lack of buy-in regarding the business mission and values (it's not about bringing clean air to everyone, it's about selling one of the most expensive air purifiers on the market to the wealthy and giving them at discount or free to influencers and celebrities). The company lays off 25% of its staff each year, fairly consistently. They are still stuck in start-up phase at their 8 year mark and chase clout rather than longterm profits and business sustainability. Then there was the instance of losing their expensive HQ in San Francisco (lease was around $210,000 per month) due to failure to pay, ending up declaring bankruptcy because of it, and blaming the entire situation on local homeless people. I personally watched while the team neglected an expensive endeavor to break into the Canadian market and heard many team members openly state their indifference to making the product available to Canadian customers. A few weeks later, a devastating wildfire hit the north United States and Canada (I believe it was 2023). Guess who was suddenly scrambling and pandering to the Canadian market about needing an air purifier to protect against the deadly gases and particles in the air? It was a typical display of exploitation from a company that thought its biggest flex was paying for a quote calling their product "the Tesla of air purifiers."

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