The epitome of the toxic fintech startup you hear about everywhere… - Product Manager Cherry Technologies Employee Review

Thank you for sharing your feedback and taking the time to write this review. Please see my thoughts below. On Work-Life Balance & Excessive Work Hours Cherry is no doubt a place for overachievers. However, working regularly 80 hours a week or weekends, is not, and has never been, the expectation. I’ve taken this feedback seriously and surveyed our team: no members of the Product team reported working over 80 hours a week; averages were reported at 50-60 hours. People at Cherry generally enjoy a high level of autonomy to structure their working hours, and we do our best to right-size goals to ensure balanced workloads. On Calendar Management and Meeting Schedules We understand the challenges of a fast-paced environment. To prevent meeting creep and allow everyone to maintain long periods of focus-time, we have 3 meeting-free days a week. I personally asked individuals to remove recurring events on such days to free up focus time for their own individual contributor work. On PTO Contrary to the claim, we do track PTO and do not discourage its use. On the Product team, I’m not aware of any PTO request ever having been denied and the average number of PTO days taken in the last year was 17 days. I support our team in taking necessary time off to recharge. On Changing Goals & Moving Targets Our dynamic startup environment sometimes requires adjustments to our goals. When this happens, we ensure team members are not unfairly penalized. Also, goal attainment has been high, the average bonus payout on the product team has been over 100% in the last 4 quarters. On Hiring I believe our hiring process is metrics-driven, fair, and focuses on recruiting top performers while providing candidates with equal opportunity: high achievers often thrive alongside each other, and this is the conducive environment I’m looking to build. This commitment to excellence has not led to a monoculture within our product team - which would in turn likely negatively impact the experiences we build for our customers. In fact, a large part of our product team comes from diverse backgrounds. On Team Culture I am proud of the collaborative and supportive environment at Cherry. We’ve had a low tolerance for toxic behavior and seek to take swift action against any such conduct. Our team’s cohesion and retention rates speak to this positive culture. In five years, only two people have left the product team: one voluntarily after five years and one involuntarily. Many of us here since day one are committed to our vision and values. This journey is much like a marathon. We prioritize outcomes while keeping an eye on work-life balance and embracing feedback to continuously improve. I remain open to discussing your experience further. Thank you again for your feedback. Charles Mourani, CTO & Co-Founder of Cherry Technologies