Taro Experts

I've gone through similar struggles: it took a while for me to find what works for me. Given:

• At E5, your interactions with people are the core part of your work
• Getting pinged is generally the main way focus is shifted away/lost (from my experience)

I'll focus on tackling the people aspects of your situation. Here's the framework I had that worked for me:

1. Accept that people will always ping you & derail your focus. It's going to happen and the occurences are going to be unpredictable.
2. Find out the timing for responding to them that works for you. Having a dedicated block on your calendar for responding to these pings is one way. For me, I have a short attention span so I try to respond to pings the moment I'm pinged (if I can't then I give the person a rough ETA).
3. See if there's any themes on people pinging you. If you're noticing that people are pinging you for the same thing(s), it might be worth having a centralized communication medium for people to ask questions or see past updates. Dedicated project channels for project updates and a channel for general Q&A questions are the most common channels I've spun up. Once those mediums are pushed up, push folks to go through those mediums instead.

Once you feel like you've lowered the time distractions from other people going to you, take a step back and see what's the next thing giving you trouble (whether it's still people pinging you, on-call, better foundations around perf). Take things one step/one problem at a time.

You don't need to go through this discovery alone either: I'd talk to your manager about your stresses and work with them to help figure out a clear path forward. Keep in mind though at E5 it's when people expect you to tell them what to possibly do, so you'll need to lead the convo by:

• Stating your stress in a clean, straightforward problem statement
• Provide one or two potential ways to move forward with this stress

Else your manager might interpret your struggles as you being overleveled & underperforming.

People are more likely to write a review when they have something negative to say, esp. when it comes to employee reviews. Writing negative comments helps them get things off their chest, which makes them feel better, and that's pretty much the only thing they can go short of pursuing their case with HR, etc. So, there should be no surprise that when there's a large number of reviews, they lean negative.

When faced with a wall of negative reviews about a potential employer, I like to glean the general trend and make a note of the situations that are more likely play out negatively than others. But I don't take each negative review as a possibility that can play out for me—if I did that, then I'm afraid most companies would be eliminated as all of them have at least some negative reviews.

Your experience at any given company is highly dependent on your little corner there—your manager, your teammates, the nature of projects, their significance to the company, how the work plays to your strengths, and finally, your leadership (skip-level and above, if you're Senior+). I like to say that no one can predict your experience until you get there and work for 3-6 months at least.

Tying all of this together, I'd:

1. Glean the general trend from the negative reviews to see if there are any dealbreakers for you.
2. Try to talk to your immediate manager and team members to glean what's likely to play out for you. If those conversations instill confidence in you, I'd say go for it. But I'd be wary if what you read in the reviews surfaces in these conversations.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask follow up questions.

Your concerns are valid. There is only so much you can find out about a startup during the interview process. And it's unlikely they'll tell you about any of the real problems, so you have a ton of guess work to do. If they do tell you about real struggles, that's a pretty good green flag.

Founders tend to say whatever they need to in order to get early employees to join. Sadly, you don't have Glassdoor at this stage to do some due diligence.

Common Red Flags

Shiny Demo

Never, ever believe any demo that they give you (especially if it's an AI demo). It's most likely fake, unless they let you use the tool yourself.

Equity-Heavy offer

Early stage startup valuations are rather fuzzy. And if they have stacked SAFE contracts, your equity can get diluted really fast. Don't let startup founders give you this "but your equity is worth $5 million right now according to my personal valuation...", that's just a lie.

High Turnover

Look up both current and former employees on Linkedin. If the turnover is really high, chances are you're looking at some unstable personalities steering the ship.

Nobody Leveling Up at the Startup

Ask how people get promoted or significant increases in comp. If nobody has gotten increased responsibilities/comp in the past 6 months/year, that means nobody is given the opportunity to grow.

Low-No revenue/High Churn

Money talks. If a startup isn't getting traction, it's not getting traction.

TLDR;

Sadly, I can't name all the red flags. There are many unscrupulous founders who will bullshit you to the moon and back. But by asking hard questions during the interview process, hopefully you'll be able to filter out most of the grifters.

It's completely normal to feel some doubt, especially when feedback from different sources is so mixed. Sites like Blind and Glassdoor often attract extreme opinions, and negative experiences can be overrepresented. Instead of taking it all at face value, look for consistent themes. do specific issues pop up repeatedly, or is it more general negativity?

Since your friends at the company enjoy it and have similar work styles, that’s a strong positive indicator. If possible, you might try reaching out to others in different roles or teams to get more balanced insights. LinkedIn can help you connect with current employees or alumni with similar backgrounds.

Think about your own deal-breakers—work-life balance, culture, growth opportunities—and weigh them against what you’ve heard. Since you feel drawn to this company and can picture yourself being happy there, those personal vibes are worth paying attention to. Compatibility with your team and manager often matters more than generalized feedback, so trusting your instincts here could be the best guide.

I try to not reveal my level at first and rather talk about my scope at work

If recruiter is too pushy, I will tell the level at which I want to get hired and convince that I am already operating at similar scope