I worked for ChipperCash for two years. To be fair, I loved the work I was doing and was committed to seeing the founders succeed. Until things took a downturn. For reasons I do not understand to date, the two African founders began undermining my authority as one of the management people. On occasions when I needed to discipline, coach and ensure employees performed to their utmost best, they stepped in and stopped those efforts. Instead of empowering me to lead my team, the COO in particular did all he could to stall my contributions.
In one instance, I was trying to help the company launch a successful partnership with a large business partner in a neighbouring country at a time when the company was struggling with meeting regulatory requirements. I was on the ground and knew what exactly needed to be done, but one of the co-founder, the CTO, shot down rational proposals and even termed the effort to broker a working partnership as "Stupid". There were so many other instances when this specific co-founder exhibited hubris beyond words. We ended up missing out on launch and commercial partnerships. I raised this issue with the CEO but he swept the issue away. This was when I knew the culture of the company was becoming toxic and rotting from the very top. I was confidentially told by one employee privy to the matter that the CTO had become hostile after I refused to honor an unbudgeted lunch expense that he and his brother wanted our office to foot without my authorization. The CTO and the brother had abruptly visited the office and demanded for ad hoc lunch budget, to which I asked them to submit a requisition. They did not. The toxic company culture was just beginning and would eventually lead to my forced resignation.
The CEO brought in a white lady COO, who was disturbingly condescending and covertly racist. She micromanaged employees and took over operations of the subsidiaries. Understandingly the company was undergoing a major structural shift, so I deplored the CEO on several occasions to communicate this shift to employees especially those that were afraid their employment was in jeopardy, but most of these requests went unanswered or were met with "Don't worry about that, it's not important". That's when it got really interesting. Because the company had not prioritized culture, new employees who came in were rarely investigated in terms of their background so much so that we had a new toxic wave of office gossiping and backbiting. Most of the time, the founders gave an ear to the female employees, particularly one who had a checkered past.
The CEO and CTO meddled with the healthy working of subsidiaries, denied requests for budget and removed signatories from bank accounts without communication or explanation for those of us who questioned the capability of the COO. Employees began to disregard directives and worked as they pleased without consultation - even junior employees with ties to the CEO/ CTO carried an air of arrogance, working as they pleased and noting that “there was nothing one could do about it”. Questioning the CTO was tantamount to losing one’s job. Which eventually happened when the COO travelled all the way from SF to our office to deliver a suspension letter, which she tried to force me to sign but I refused.
The letter had claimed that I had blackmailed and intimidated an employee, which was interesting because the said employee had herself admitted to having been part of a money laundering syndicate, been dismissed from university, spent time in jail and had a record with investigating agencies. Upon realizing this, I approached the employee to ask her to supply police clearance records which she declined, and I communicated this to the COO and CEO. The CEO never responded to the issue, and the COO squashed any attempts to investigate the employee’s background. I believe the said employee is still with the company and has been promoted. The combination of toxic culture and witch hunting eventually made me resign.
I was denied compensation for my options which were never reverse-vested. I never received even a single dollar as severance package for my sacrifices in the two years leading the growth of the company. I had helped birth and raise the company, even taking a significant pay cut to help the founders succeed.
In fact, the COO delayed my outstanding payment of only $400 for 5 months opting instead to use lawyers to intimidate me.
Do I regret work working with this company? No, but I would like for investors to review the board structure of this company so there is more transparency and accountability. So many lives are at stake and for the two young founders who don’t have a family or have never had to struggle their entire lives because they come from rich families, they view destroying people’s lives as a game. The CEO, CTO and COO should resign.
