Amazing company - but it's not for everyone
Pros
Amazing mission and a product that works really well. It’s incredibly satisfying to help stop bot attacks for some of the biggest companies in the world. The vast majority of people I worked with were brilliant — incredibly smart, passionate, helpful, and just great humans. There’s a lot of transparency from leadership around the bigger picture, and a real effort to seek feedback, learn from it, and keep improving. Employees are regularly recognised, given opportunities to grow, encouraged to innovate and have fun, and offered a good amount of flexibility and work-life balance (role/workload permitting). Everyone gets stock options with the usual vesting schedule, so there’s a shared sense of ownership and investment in the company’s success. And yes, like other reviews mention, there was encouragement to write a Glassdoor review—but nobody said it had to be a positive one. So don’t assume the good reviews are fake.
Cons
I was one of the longest-serving employees at Arkose Labs, so I got to know the company quite well over the years. In a nutshell: This company is not for everyone. Like any startup or scaleup it had its fair share of growing pains, paired with the enormous pressure of operating in the high-stakes cybersecurity industry. So naturally, there were rough patches, including strategy pivots, product-market-fit adjustments, layoffs (sometimes followed by rehiring to support the new direction), and the occasional bad egg in leadership. Of course that sucks - but honestly, it comes with the territory. Not everyone has the appetite or resilience for those kinds of ups and downs, and that’s totally fair. Some former employees might leave negative reviews that always contain grains of truth, but often don’t reflect the bigger picture. In my experience, every rough patch eventually led to a better direction. That’s how the company stays competitive - but yes, it does take its toll.