Stake Reviews

“Was a great place — until it wasn’t” I worked at Stake for many years. For most of that time, it was genuinely a good company. The people were kind, the culture was collaborative, and while there was some pressure from the product side, and the engineering culture and pay were nothing special, it was a solid place to work overall. Everything changed when a new CTO joined — someone already well-known in the industry for bullying and inappropriate behavior and was fired because of that from his previous company. He brought in an aggressive “high-performance culture” modeled after Optiver, and it completely destroyed the company from the inside. Engineers started getting hired just to be fired. People began attacking each other to protect their own positions. It became one of the most toxic environments I’ve ever experienced. What I still don’t understand is why anyone would tolerate this kind of culture for pay that’s at or below market average. If you’re going to demand Meta-level intensity, at least match Meta-level compensation. Would not recommend — unless you have no other options or genuinely enjoy a cutthroat, backstabbing environment

- Incredibly male dominated culture that's very dismissive towards women. - A few C-Suite and senior management (especially in tech, product and marketing) are incredibly cliquey and unpleasant people. - Alcohol-focused culture. If you're not a drinker, expect to be cut out. - Incredibly micromanaging culture that can verge on bullying. - Very high turnover: a lot of people don't pass probation or quickly leave after a couple of months, often with no warning. - People who've been there for a long time seem to get a free pass no matter what. - Claim to be doing good for people's finances but in reality design a product that encourages spending to boost Stake's fees.