Goldman Sachs' Marcus unit is struggling with burnout, blown deadlines, and a tech-talent exodus

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Welcome to this weekly roundup of stories from Insider's Business co-Editor in Chief Matt Turner. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Sunday.

What we're going over today:

• Goldman Sachs' Marcus is struggling with burnout, blown deadlines, and a tech-talent exodus.
• Leaked Amazon documents detail a controversial system that insiders say forces managers to give bad reviews to good employees.
• DEI execs are burning out amid the billion-dollar push to diversify corporate America.
• Why Adobe's $540 million bet on advertising went awry, according to former employees, analysts and ad buyers.
• A VC investor who was Fidelity's first cryptoasset analyst breaks down two emerging crypto opportunities.

Here's what's trending this morning:

• Subway up for sale? Rumors are flying as the distressed sandwich chain lays off hundreds to cut costs and abandons franchisees.
• Next big tech rivalry: $67 billion Snowflake and $28 billion Databricks are on a "collision course" as the AI and data analysis market heats up.
• Housing boom: Four reasons the housing market will cool down and settle into a long and sustainable boom.
• Big Law's burned-out associates: Five current and former lawyers from firms like Cleary, Davis Polk, and Goodwin detail their nonstop daily work schedules.

Goldman Sachs exodus

From Dakin Campbell:

Goldman Sachs launched its consumer-banking arm five years ago with a marketing blitz and much fanfare, sending a strong signal to Wall Street that it wanted to disrupt retail banking - and reshape its own future.

Since then the bank has built it into a $1 billion business by standing up new technologies at breakneck speed.

But now Marcus staffers are quitting in droves at the precise moment the bank needs them most, just as it announced a slew of ambitious products and reshuffled its corporate structure to focus on growth.

Former employees, as well as banking consultants and an analyst briefed by Insider, said the exodus raises questions about Goldman's ability to drive its people hard and still compete with Main Street banks.

Read the full story here:

• Burnout, blown deadlines, and a tech-talent exodus: How Goldman Sachs' Marcus is struggling to live up to its lofty consumer-banking ambitions

Also read:

• Wall Street firms are trying to outdo each other with pay and perks to hold onto young talent. Here's what 8 banks and private-equity shops are doing.
• Goldman Sachs interns are scrambling to find housing in New York City this summer as the bank prepares them to head into the office
  

Amazon employee reviews

From Ashley Stewart and Eugene Kim:

Internal Amazon documents show the company has a five-tiered ranking system for employee performance reviews and expects managers to rank 20% of employees at the top level, 75% in the middle tiers, and 5% in the bottom tier.

More than half a dozen employees who spoke with Insider said the tier system was evidence of stack ranking, a controversial performance-review system in which employees are evaluated on a curve and a certain percentage must rank at the bottom - which could hurt both an employee's compensation and their future at the company.

Employees who have been part of the performance-review process told Insider the ratings had to be distributed across teams.

Read the full story here:

• Leaked Amazon documents detail a controversial system that insiders say forces managers to give bad reviews to good employees

Also read:

• Instacart Power Players: The 11 top executives - including recent hires from Amazon, Uber, and Goldman Sachs - as the company eyes an IPO
• How to impress at $55 billion Atlassian, which plans to hire 1,000 workers after bringing on 1,200 during the pandemic
  

DEI burnout

From Marguerite Ward:

Doris Quintanilla is drained.

For over four years, she's worked on corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion as the CEO and cofounder of The Melanin Collective - but never in a climate like today's.

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, her inbox has been flooded with requests from corporate and nonprofit leaders. They want change, and they want it fast. But at the same time, she felt many were not respecting her.

Read the full story here:

• DEI execs are burning out amid the billion-dollar push to diversify corporate America: 'It's hard to be both the advocate and the abused'

Also read:

• Derek Chauvin's trial is testing the stress levels of Black Americans. Here's what leaders and allies can do to help.
• LinkedIn wants you to add stay-at-home parent to your résumé. But the move could backfire on moms.
  

Adobe's ad bet

From Lauren Johnson:

Five years ago, Adobe had big advertising ambitions.

Adobe acquired $540 million for TubeMogul, a video adtech company that buys ads for brands programmatically and competed with Google, Amazon, The Trade Desk, and MediaMath.

At the time, Brad Rencher, then-EVP and general manager of Adobe's digital experience business unit and a key player in the TubeMogul integration, promised the deal would create a "'one-stop shop' for video advertising, providing even more strategic value for our Adobe Marketing Cloud customers."

But last summer, Adobe shut down a big part of its TubeMogul acquisition, closing its advanced TV business that sold linear TV ads and political advertising to advertisers.

Read the full story here:

• Why Adobe's $540 million bet on advertising went awry, according to former employees, analysts and ad buyers

Also read:

• Roku is looking for a new ad agency to help position it as the king of streaming
• Here's how major ad agencies like WPP and Omnicom are planning a return to the office
  

ICYMI: Fidelity's first cryptoasset analyst on opportunities

Vicky Ge Huang talked to Nic Carter, an investor at venture-capital firm Castle Island Ventures and founder of Coinmetrics. You can read the full story here:

• A VC investor who was Fidelity's first cryptoasset analyst shares what he looks for in companies to back - and breaks down the 2 emerging crypto opportunities on his radar

Also read:

• A 29-year-old self-made billionaire breaks down how he achieved daily returns of 10% on million-dollar crypto trades, and shares how to find the best opportunities
• The investing chief and research analyst at a $1.2 billion crypto asset manager share how DeFi is disrupting the traditional financial services industry - and break down the 10 largest assets in the space

INVITATION: Keeping our promises to the planet

Join us Tuesday, April 20 at 12 p.m. ET | 5 p.m. GMT | 6 p.m. CET for a free virtual event, "Act to Impact: Keeping our Promises to the Planet." Hear from corporate leaders, climate activists, experts, and artists about how we all can mitigate and adapt to climate change today to avoid catastrophe in the near future

Sign up here.

Lastly, don't forget to check out Morning Brew - the A.M. newsletter that makes reading the news actually enjoyable.

Here are some headlines you might have missed last week.

- Matt

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• Newsrooms are facing a mental-health crisis, and burnout is driving some journalists to quit
• Hacked companies are paying off ransomware gangs, the criminals are reinvesting the profits in making bigger and bolder attacks, and there's no end in sight
• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says remote work can undermine the 'character' of a company and lays out the bank's plans for the future of the office
• New York just legalized recreational cannabis. The move will give the state's 10 existing operators a big leg up - and that could be good news for investors
• These founders left the legal industry to launch their tech startups. They found Silicon Valley even more sexist than Big Law.