Miley Cyrus: Ruthless CEO of real estate data powerhouse CoStar created toxic environment where 1,546 of its 4,200 workers quit or where fired last year

More than 1,500 employees have left one of the biggest real estate data firms in the country over the past year, and many say the ‘ruthless’ CEO created a toxic work environment where he openly favored young women while ridiculing others, and even pointed a gun at an executive during a Zoom call.

In interviews published by Insider, former employees each had their own horror story to tell  and claimed it was a workplace where humiliation and surveillance was common, specifically by CEO Andrew Florance.

Florance, 58, who started CoStar in the basement of his father’s Washington, D.C. home, has been credited with the company’s growth. But former employees say his leadership styled paired with the pandemic has caused discontent in the company and sparked a mass exodus.

Employees’ discontent with the company was also apparent in the form of memes on an Instagram account that mocks the company, many of them referencing their own experiences.

One former employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told Insider that dealing with Florance had always been difficult, but on once occasion found himself starring down the barrel of a gun.

In March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, the 39-year-old who used to be a communications director for the firm, said he was on a video call with the CEO and two other colleagues when the CEO suddenly pulled out a black semiautomatic pistol and pointed it at the screen.

‘It was inappropriate, quite jarring, and showed a complete lack of professionalism,’ the employee told Insider. ‘What if any of us had been the victims of violence in the past?’

The employee said Florance, who was working at home in rural Virginia, then put the gun down and explained he had seen bears on his property.

But the CEO also allegedly showed off his ammunition while on the call, and then months later sent a photo of a target riddled with bullets.

CoStar told Insider in a written statement that ‘the alleged incident you referenced did not occur’ and that Florance is ‘a well-trained and licensed shooter who is passionate about firearm safety.’

The former communications director texted his account of the incident to a colleague at the time, in a text thread obtained by Insider.

‘I’m on a call with Andy and he’s holding a gun,’ the text read.

‘He just pointed it at the screen,’ the next text read.

The recipient replied: ‘Is it loaded?’ and then added: ‘Whaaaaat??’

The then-communications director wrote back: ‘He was playing with a bullet too,’ before adding: ‘I was terrified lol.’

He said Florance told him he had a gun because he was in the mountains and ‘you never know what’s going to be outside’.

The director was one of the 1,546 of the firm’s 4,200 US employees who resigned or were fired, in what Insider reported as its largest exodus ever, according to data provided by a current employee with access to its internal employment statistics.

In a previous Insider article, CoStar characterized the discontent as a symptom of its high performance expectations.

‘We will not apologize for these standards, nor will we compromise them to accommodate a vocal few who decide that this level of expectation is not for them,’ it said in a statement in a February statement.

But negative reviews of the company online and a meme account on Instagram say otherwise.

An Instagram account dedicated to memes mocking the company was created by Nate Peterson, who was fired in 2021, and has more than 2,300 followers.

The content is submitted by current and former employees eager to share their own experiences of working at CoStar.

An Instagram account dedicated to memes mocking the company was created by Nate Peterson, and has more than 2300 followers