A really sad state of affairs, too much funding, no pmf, a mediocre team. - Recensione dipendente - Engineering presso Novi Connect

This took me a long time (since the layoff last year) to really compose myself on to write this one. Leaving was hard. You fully miss the mark on almost every feature of being a 'startup' and it is just depressing. Firstly. There is almost *nobody* at the company (possibly 0 now) that every had actual startup experience. And you can not say 'having an exit' as thing if you just worked at older company that went public. Some advisors even were basically giving 'big company' advice which is not helpful. Secondly. The few people with actual startup experience or who were 'super scrappy/lean' either quit early in their tenure or were treated so badly/managed out. Think about that. The few people who actually wanted to build a scrappy startup. You pushed out. This is not gossip. This is fully verifiable via linked in. Thirdly. A huge number of 'former' employees on 'linked in'. This is all public. Fourth. Top heavy and mediocre execs. A lot of the 'leaders' or 'execs' or advisors have come from the same company. They are *ok* but have 0 domain knowledge. This would be like a travel company having an exec suite from the medical background. It is very nepotistic as well. Also a lot of execs have pit their employees against the other and also talk about the founder, behind their back. This is a startup. The goal is to win. Still playing big company politics. Fifth. The last layoff. A lot us got laid off in the summer of 2022. The people laid off did not fully make sense. Pretty much most of the elder engineers (tenure) were let go. And newer ones were kept. Also you let go of an engineer with actual experience in this very domain. The only one, how does that even make sense, from a business?? And the people that remained, nothing agains them, but were not ideal fits to drive the business. The people who were let go feeds into the next comment. Six. Flavor of the month/week. The founder seems to blame everybody but herself for the failings of the company. Instead of trying to find PMF, she will fire/blame people on the team as 'inept' instead of owning your own stuff. Constant thrash and chasing the next big thing. It hurts. And you let go a few amazing people and kept around a lot of people that just kiss up. Seven. Nepotism - If you are closer with the HR people or worked at the former company where a number of people worked. You get preferential treatment. Eight: This is a huge one. TOO MUCH FUNDING. The founder here looks 'amazing' on paper and is like a poster child for over-funding. Had so many 'check marks' that can be thrown around. But in reality, being smart, good pedigree, etc does not equal actions at all. It is just vanity. All the past accolades is translating to a thrash heavy leader who refused to take real feedback. Finally. I had some exposure to startups in the past. After working here, I do not think I will work for another startup. It really really was hard.