When I first joined Thinkific, I was genuinely excited and proud to be part of the company. The values felt aligned, and it seemed like the company truly cared about the business, the product, and its customers. Ideas felt original and there was a real commitment to innovation.
Unfortunately, since the first round of layoffs in 2022, much has changed, and not for the better.
The company seems to have lost its startup mindset. Innovation is no longer fostered the way it once was, and ideas are often dismissed rather than explored. At the same time, some managers, many of whom appear to have received little or no management training and could benefit from real coaching and development, continue to be promoted. There are certainly strong leaders, but there are also a few bad apples who seem to stick around far too long. Issues like an inability to say no, failing to protect their teams in favor of being well perceived by peers, and not providing meaningful support for their reports’ growth are still too common.
Many employees genuinely want to grow and take ownership of their careers, but unless you're following a very linear path, and even then, opportunities are limited. The company lacks clear structure around career development. Each year, the People team mentions that growth programs are a priority, yet tangible progress rarely seems to materialize. Managers clearly need more support from HR to build meaningful development opportunities, but that support never seems to fully come together.
There are no stretch programs, no opportunities to explore work in other departments and potentially transition there later, nothing like that. In Support, work from other departments is often presented as “projects” and pitched as growth opportunities, but more often than not they do not lead to meaningful career progression. It frequently feels more like a way to offload work that sits outside the normal scope of Support roles.
The company also moves very quickly and frequently shifts its focus. While some level of speed is expected in this industry, leadership could benefit from a clearer long term vision and strategy. Initiatives often change before teams have enough time to determine whether they are actually working.
Thinkific once felt like a unicorn, not just because of its success but because of its innovation and culture. That feeling has noticeably faded. Bluesky Week, for example, which once represented a rare opportunity to collaborate across departments and focus purely on innovation, has not happened in over two years. Even before that, it had already started losing its shine. What used to be a company wide celebration of creativity gradually became something only a few people could participate in because everyone else was too busy trying to keep up with the roadmap.
Customer Centric Week followed a similar path, shrinking from a full week to just a few days. Even then, the pace is often so rushed that fixes sometimes introduce new issues because teams are pushed to move too quickly.
Like many companies, Thinkific has also shifted heavily toward hiring senior and above in engineering, effectively closing the door to junior talent, even internal candidates. If you work in Support, there are essentially two paths: stay in Support or hope a Customer Success role opens up, as that is often the only other team where internal Support candidates are seriously considered. It is disappointing to see for a company that once valued diversity of experience, perspectives, product knowledge, and career mobility.
And finally, there is very little diversity at the leadership level. The executive team today feels far less diverse than it once did: more white, more male, and more American than before. Some departments still have female leadership, but others noticeably lack it. Several leaders who brought diversity, including female and BIPOC executives, are no longer here. As a result, it increasingly feels like there are fewer voices at the top who reflect a broader range of experiences or who are actively listening to employee concerns and ideas. Minority groups increasingly feel that they are no longer meaningfully represented at the table.
It is difficult to watch because this was once a company that truly felt different and did not simply follow the rest of the tech crowd. Seeing that culture slowly deteriorate has been genuinely heartbreaking and disappointing, especially knowing how special this company once was.
