I interned at HubSpot while Lyons was there. Theres some truth to this, but it's greatly exaggerated.
"Frat house": Like many companies, HubSpot often provided alcohol and would host parties for big events. As for personality types, the engineers I worked with were pretty typical engineer types.
"Kindergarden": HubSpot has a big intern/co-op program, and likes to hire former interns as full-time. I can imagine Lyons might feel a bit out of place with so many young people.
"Scientology": The company didn't feel much more cult-y than other young software companies. I'd describe the culture as "We work hard, build products customers love, and treat our employees well".
For what it's worth, I really enjoyed my time at HubSpot and have only good things to say about the people I worked with. However, I was an engineer, and can't speak to the marketing team that Lyons was a part of.
No, Lyons is drastically exaggerating and overstating. Perhaps that's what it was like at HubSpot, but I've worked for four different tech startups and only one of them has exhibited even an inkling of Lyons' description. Even there, I would never compare it to a frat house, kindergarten, or Scientology. More like management makes kool-aid and a handful of people think it's wine.
It varies. Some years back, I interviewed at a San Diego startup that was flying in a dozen people a week, with a $300 reward just for showing up, to go through a five-day interview process, at the end of which perhaps one or two would be offered the chance to work for them...for $50k a year. In San Diego.
Most of their employees lived together, 2-4 to an apartment, because they couldn't afford solo housing.
The CEO gave a speech on the first day where he explained that they paid poorly on purpose, because they wanted people who cared more about striving for excellence (or some such buzzword) than petty concerns like money or stability. And people ate it up.
So, yeah, some startups are totally run like ridiculous cults that prey on starry-eyed young tech grads. I'm sure there's many that are sane and reasonable, too. None of them have paid me to vacation in California, though.
It's like claiming that all large companies are uniformly Dilbert-like hellholes full of pointy-haired bosses and despair. The elements are there, a handful of examples are that bad, but it's broadly exaggerated to push a specific point or to signal.
I've interviewed at a couple like that, but never worked at one. They are present, but there isn't enough of any 'one kind of place' for any description to be representative.
Is this an accurate description? I feel this might be more of the well funded ones but would not know.