Vantaggi
Significant Learning and Responsibility: Despite the chaotic environment, I gained invaluable hands-on experience. Originally hired as an AI intern, I quickly became an influential person in the company and one of the prospective stakeholders among the core team. I ended up building and refactoring core backend services (NestJS, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Prisma ORM) and crucial modules like AuthService, CardService, and UserService, which improved system stability and scalability. Product Definition and Collaboration: I was able to lead early product definition, mapping the full data model, conducting essential research, and presenting MVP specifications that directly shaped the project's direction through collaboration with cross-functional teams and even the CEO. Technical Deep Dive: Contributed to implementing robust Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), collaborated extensively with DevOps on Dockerized services, AWS infrastructure (EC2, RDS, S3, CloudWatch, SES), and CI/CD scripting, and maintained Postman API test suites. Real-world Problem Solving: Gained critical experience investigating and mitigating a bot attack by analyzing PostgreSQL logs, implementing dynamic rate limiting, and coordinating reCAPTCHA integration with frontend and management. Cross-Functional Integration: Facilitated seamless frontend-backend integration for the React + TypeScript frontend, defining API contracts and supporting features like wallet and loyalty card management, often bridging gaps across teams.
Svantaggi
Severe Mismanagement and Disengaged Leadership: The company suffered from chronic mismanagement, marked by erratic CEO engagement, unfulfilled promises, and a pervasive lack of clear strategic direction. Despite the CEO consistently emphasizing agility and continuous improvement, the reality fell far short. While he had numerous external commitments and personal health issues that contributed to his worn-out appearance, he visibly struggled to manage daily operations, often handing control to underqualified individuals with conflicting priorities. His engagement was largely limited to management meetings, leaving critical day-to-day issues unaddressed. Over-Reliance on Underpaid and Overburdened Team Members: A key challenge was the company’s dependence on a central figure who informally took on major responsibilities. This individual, despite good intentions, was visibly overworked, unpaid, and stretched thin, resulting in micromanagement and recurring team friction. The failure of leadership to proactively manage these dynamics created a toxic environment and contributed to mass HR turnover. When this overburdened contributor finally left due to the intense pressure and lack of support, operations began to unravel. Broken Promises of Equity and Uncompensated Labor: The company relied heavily on unpaid internship contracts, often tying paid employment to the vague milestone of securing a single paying customer. As one of the key early contributors, I — along with others — was promised a significant stake in the company, akin to a co-founder position. Unfortunately, these equity and contract discussions were either ignored or brushed off entirely. This led to demoralization and a wave of resignations. Despite repeated offers to pivot back to AI or contribute as a full-stack developer, I continued to work without compensation, which reflected a serious disregard for unpaid contributions and trust. Organizational Bottlenecks and Structural Inefficiency: Rigid team divisions and a siloed structure mimicked a large corporate setup, stalling the agile nature that a startup demands. Many critical roles lacked experienced professionals; interns and junior members were often tasked with shaping core product and infrastructure. This resulted in frequent rework and deadline slips. Security protocols, while in place, were inconsistently enforced, with DevOps workflows sometimes impeding development through excessive access restrictions and bureaucratic delays. Security Incidents and Lack of Accountability: The organization encountered serious security incidents — including an attempted credit transfer from AWS and recurring bot attacks. Responsibility for resolving these problems was often unclear, and individuals who stepped up to help were sometimes met with criticism instead of support. High Turnover and Disregard for Contributors: These systemic issues led to continuous talent churn, including key project leads, with many initiatives restarting from scratch. Products were frequently abandoned mid-cycle (e.g., the AI platform stuck on a "coming soon" page), and even after a year, no MVP had materialized. Toward the end, the CEO unilaterally revoked resource access from nearly all team members, including long-standing contributors. I personally voiced concerns multiple times and engaged directly with the CEO to address the situation, only to discover a separate team had been quietly working on isolated MVP versions in parallel, disconnected from the original contributors.