The story from a couple of acquaintances that work there is that it's very much like a tech startup: doesn't pay very well, expects constant overtime without pay, and not very welcoming to female employees.
Even with a female co-founder? You would think that this kind of behavior would be less common with one.
(Though it might not be entirely surprising)
In this particular case: The people I have met and talked to were on the web programming side, not product development. Between their stories and my own experiences at other companies, companies that focus on Area Of Business X tend to be founded by experts in X, and have no clue what Y or Z are even there for. So if ThinkGeek were, say, founded by product developers, then IT would get the short end of the stick all the same as if it were founded by sales people.
The other interesting thing is since the 1970s orchestras have used blind auditions where the person auditioning is out of view. Since then females in orchestras have increased dramatically.
The idea of being a founder doesn't seem to mean much to them, so I think the scales tip towards the "not entirely surprising" side.
It's good to hear that you did your best to create a good atmosphere there for everyone, and I wish you all the best in your other endeavors.
(Example: You can't be a "exempt, salaried" clerk at a store if you are required to be at the store from 8am to 6pm and are required to do a specific set of tasks in a prescribed way.)
What sort of overtime pay do programmers at Google and Apple get these days?
Not sure why I hear disdain about recruiters. I find it flattering people want to find me a better gig.
Recruiters' incentives are just enough out of line with your own as a job seeker to make them jarring.
A potential employer's use of recruiters is a black-mark in my book. To me, it says they couldn't find anyone through their current employees' networks to fill the job. So either their employees have no friends outside of the company, or they are being honest about the company to their friends and their friends are staying away. Neither scenario is any good.
That, and I have never had a good experience with an employer that I came to through recruiters, while having had nothing but good experiences from working my network of friends.