Inkitt reviews

3.7

64% would recommend to a friend

(119 total reviews)
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Ali Albazaz

62% approve of CEO

66% positive business outlook

Inkitt has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 119 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Inkitt employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Mídia e comunicação industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

119 reviews
1.0
Feb 10, 2020
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Young company and cool workspace. Large windows to stare wistfully out of as you fantasise about being anywhere else. Nice plants to helpfully suck up the hostile vibes permeating the desks. Free (Sternberg- let's not get too excited) beer. Occasionally the fruit ordered in was of a semi-edible quality. In the loosest possible sense you will be working with "books". Mostly clean bathroom to weep in.

Cons

Where to begin with this place. Ali, as many other poor former employees have said, is an arrogant and egotistical boss who knows impressively little about books and the publishing world (Harry Potter is overly complex to him) and refuses to listen to anyone who does not stroke his ego and run about after him like a puppy on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The man is convinced he knows it all, and his lack of respect for employees and boundaries is remarkable. Case in point: he once incessantly called an employee whilst their parent was in hospital having an operation and couldn't see why this was an issue. Also, he bullied another employee to continue working overtime until they also ended up in the hospital. What a super guy. The turnover rate in Inkitt is very high, and for good reason. Let's roll off a list now:the hours are stupidly long, there is little reward in any capacity for your efforts, shares and bonuses in the company are false promises, the management team will blatantly gossip about other employees in an incredibly unprofessional manner and also gossip about and insult their own authors, the organisation is absolutely laughable, but you will still be routinely blamed for other people's mistakes (mostly Ali's), and by the end you will wonder when you signed this agreement to be in a cult. And yes, Ali definitely does pressure/bully employees to write good reviews of Inkitt on Glassdoor, whether they like it or not. Have seen this first hand. This company wrote the book on gaslighting in the workplace and will convince you that you're a hysterical lunatic who is not part of the real world lest you question their methods. I've seen employees crying in the toilets, outside, under their desks... all feeling dejected, under-appreciated, alone, and desperate because this is the only means of making some money they have. Many vulnerable people who moved to Berlin were promised a lot with Inkitt, only to be rapidly fired and basically blanked by the company. I truly feel sorry for the people who get sucked into this toxic vacuum; such talent finds its way to Inkitt only to be wasted by this chocolate teapot of a "publishing company". Incredibly, it seems most of them don't even give a toss about reading or book quality either. All it is is a cash cow designed to make Ali and his few henchmen at the top wealthier. And I'm not even going to get started on their shady as hell ways of making money and turning profit and scaling. Good god. I'm sure we could all write a book about the evils of Inkitt, and I can bet it would be a better seller than any of the fodder they fling up on the website. There should be a recovery group for people who've survived working for this place. Don't go there, people. Choose happiness. Choose life.

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Inkitt Response
6y
Hey, Thanks for taking the time to write down your thoughts. We are truly sorry about your negative experience. Self-development is one of our core values, and we therefore strongly welcome any constructive criticism and we want to reassure you that we are doing everything in our power to create a good working environment for our employees so that they stay with us. If there is anything you'd like to talk about we encourage you to get in touch with one of the members of our Inkitt team, Laura Valeske (laura@inkitt.com). We would really appreciate more insights. Best wishes!
1.0
Jan 31, 2025

NEVER work here

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

- The employees are dedicated, talented individuals who genuinely want to do good work. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for management. - Compensation is competitive, but it comes at the steep cost of your personal life and well-being. - Free lunch is a nice perk. - Without a doubt, this company makes for a great conversation starter—there’s something uniquely amusing about telling people your job involves publishing werewolf sex novels.

Cons

One of the worst companies I've had the pleasure of working at in my career. Take every 4-5 star review with a grain of salt, employees are encouraged, almost forced, to write positive reviews. - NO work/life balance: If you have a family or any commitments outside of work, expect significant challenges. Leaving to pick up your children before 6 PM? Helping a sick relative? Nearly impossible. The company fosters a culture where staying late and working weekends is normalized. They offer small incentives like meal reimbursements to keep employees at their desks longer, but the underlying expectation is clear—your time belongs to them. Any mention of setting boundaries is met with resistance from leadership. - The CEO. Ali is on his fifth startup, and this one appears headed in the same direction as the others . His leadership style is deeply flawed and built on micromanagement. There is a clear inability to trust his team and combined with the mindset that nobody at the company is smarter than he is, There is outright refusal to listen to anyone outside his executive circle. He has a "Big Brother", 1984-esq setup in his office when he isn't present and I do mean a screen with his face on it. His erratic moods create an unpredictable and often toxic work environment. All, and I mean ALL decisions had to go through him at one point; micromanaging galore! The cherry on top is that Ali has stated multiple times he wants to get back to the "old days" where people would be in office until 10pm. - The illusion of "unlimited" PTO: It can and will get denied, multiple people had reported this during time. Individuals are discouraged from taking time off. - His C-suite are just yes-men: Dissent is not tolerated. The CEO surrounds himself with executives who won’t challenge him. The marketing & engineerings teams specifically have been noticed to have a rotating door. - No meaningful raises or bonuses: When/if you are asked to move to San Francisco or Berlin with the potential consequence of loosing your job, little to financial meaningful adjustment will be offered. - Potential legal issues: Persistent rumors of past employees considering legal action due to unfair treatment. Whether or not these claims hold weight, the fact that they circulate so widely speaks volumes. - The company touts its AI as cutting-edge, but in reality, it’s a watered-down version of existing tools like GPT with little true innovation. - Not truly hybrid/remote: Despite claims of flexibility, employees in the Bay Area are expected to be in the office at least 3–5 days a week, leaning more towards 5. Those who don’t comply are subtly labeled as uncommitted or underperforming. - One of the investors is Vinod Khosla, a man infamous in the bay area and in the VC community for being…not a great person

2.0
Nov 23, 2023

Clownish, exploitative work-place

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Nice office space in the center of Berlin. Opportunities to work remotely.

Cons

Inkitt is the most ridiculously mismanaged organization I have ever worked at. Please believe me: the 1 star reviews are absolutely true! Pressuring employees to write 5-star reviews is very much in line with how this company operates, so I'd be wary of the positive reviews on this site. If you are considering taking a job at Inkitt, you should know: this is not a serious work-place. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you move from abroad for the sake of an Inkitt job. You will have zero job security and management will do their very best to pay you as little as is legal in Germany while pressuring you to work crazy hours. The CEO will make you sit through meetings that go nowhere during which he repeats, ad nauseam, that Inkitt is the next Disney, when in fact what this company does is monetize werewolf-themed erotica. Nothing wrong with monetizing werewolf-themed erotica, of course, if you are actually earning a good wage. But - speaking for me personally - making werewolf-themed erotica was not the kind of job that made earning less than minimum wage per hour worthwhile. If you're in Berlin anyway, are financially secure, but want to earn some extra money, and are looking for short-term work (less than a year): then - AND ONLY THEN - should you consider applying to Inkitt. Otherwise, it is simply a waste of your time. As many reviewers say, the heart of the problem is the CEO. He thinks he knows everything and is unwilling to listen to others. You will be working on a project and - out of nowhere - he will interfere. Without understanding what it is you are currently working on (since he refuses to listen), he will tell you to change track and do something completely different, something you know is counter-productive and nonsensical: re-calculate numbers in a wrong way, for example, or lie to the teenagers who self-publish the werewolf-erotica Inkitt adapts for no reason. When what the CEO ordered you to do inevitably blows up in the company's face - as you knew it would - he will blame you: "why didn't you tell me? Even if I don't listen, it's your responsibility to make me listen" etc.

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Glassdoor has 143 Inkitt reviews submitted anonymously by Inkitt employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Inkitt is right for you.