Not a startup, can't ship product - Anonymous employee Venmo Employee Review

2.0
Jul 12, 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Venmo is populated by nice/smart people and wins points on the benefits, location, and office environment (snacks, nooks, couches) fronts. Everyone is well meaning and intelligent. Free lunch anyone? Wii in conference rooms? This is the spot.

Cons

It pretends to be a startup - with the cute payment-jaron conference rooms, twee-office aesthetic, and infinite berry-budget - but it does not innovate or ship product and is run from the top-down by PayPal. Venmo leadership is ineffectual at best, jaded/lazy puppets at worst. They've tried and failed to launch the same path-to-profitable product for 3 years, only to be passed over by bigger/better players who can actually launch product. Venmo is a great tool and (was) a great team. Everyone good has left. Squandered opportunity.

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5.0
Feb 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great corporate benefits! Sabbatical, etc

Cons

Lean team, but great place to work

4.0
Feb 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

People care about the product immensely. Also, WFH 100% is really great as an option.

Cons

PayPal's senior leadership is absolutely clueless on how to move the product forward or grow the company, and this kills the I credible Venmo team's work velocity considerably. Senior leadership also thinks inserting ads everywhere is somehow helpful for the Venmo brand and company as a whole. They (PayPal) just removed sabbatical PTO. Horrendous idea.

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