We Need to Talk About Pollen...

If you've seen my posts here you know I try to be as helpful as possible and transparent as possible. I have never written anything like this publicly or privately before and have absolutely no intention to do it in the future but I've been quiet about what's been going on with Pollen since being let go in May and now I have reached a breaking point. (Bright side, more on where I'm headed next very soon! ??).

Though there has been press coverage, I need to call out that isn't covered in most of the press and that is the absolutely egregious way the last 3 months have been handled.

This week, Pollen started the steps towards insolvency/bankruptcy thus almost all employees have been let go. My former co-workers have been incredibly gracious with their posts but I am not going to be as kind.

Over the last 3 months, leadership treated employees, former employees, contractors, and customers like scum on their shoes.

Pleads for owed refunds were ignored, begging from contractors dismissed, and delayed paychecks were brushed off as if everyone could cover days, let alone weeks of unpaid wages without issue. While simultaneously, leadership insisted a deal was coming that would resolve everything. As more news leaked to the press, leadership then gaslit their unpaid employees informing them that going to the press with completely factual information that investors would know/discover will ruin the alleged deal. No remorse, no explanations, no timelines were given, just vague threats and empty promises. I watched from afar as people announced on LinkedIn new roles they'd started at a company that literally was unable to pay their employees and trying to insist the employees keep quiet about it.

They shut off Slack, they blocked former employees from emailing current employees, they stopped paying private health care, and continued a charade that a deal was coming if everyone was obedient and patient. I knew everyone's silence would not save them. Everyone was kept in a holding pattern in an abusive relationship where they were made to feel at fault.

A company that raised $150M is now in administration, headed towards insolvency. One month previously, they released their financial report saying they were confident in being able to pay their debts through 2023 which an auditor signed off on. People were hired into roles as recently as 2 weeks ago knowing full well they couldn't pay them. They were putting events for sale and signing contracts for events they knew they couldn't actually hold. People believed what they said and now can't pay bills, can't feed families, and owe their own debts. Until the time they announced the administration there wasn't even a sentence uttered that encouraged people to seek other employment or that there was even a slight chance the deal wouldn't happen. In fact, they sent emails vehemently assuring the rumors of insolvency were lies. They provided no insight as to where the $150M actually went and blamed COVID and the economy while ironically, Live Nation reported last week their highest quarterly attendance EVER in Q2 2022.

And now, they get to get away with it. The company will be sold for whatever it's worth, whatever debt that can be paid off will, and none of the senior leadership team will face any real consequences for what they have done when what they did had very serious consequences for the 700+ people that were previously on their payroll this year.

I'm sure many would say that's startups but this goes beyond startup culture. I have worked at startups before and I will again. This is different. This is greed, negligence, and pride. This is knowing you'll face no consequences for your actions. This is knowing you'll be fine no matter what. This is knowing that the music industry means nothing to you, so it doesn't matter how you treat artists or their fans. This is a complete disregard for other people.

As they'll face no other consequences than some bad press I'd personally like to call out Liam N. , James Beaumont , James Ellis & Callum Negus-Fancey for their absolute negligence in all of this.

I've already made a post highlighting my former employees look for new roles, so if you are in a position to hire, please check that out and if you currently run or ever plan to run a company, please do the opposite of all of the above.