Dumpster Fire - Anonymous employee Zūm Employee Review

1.0
5 Feb 2020
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There is a real market opportunity for what they are doing with few competitors and they are TRYING to solve real problems

Cons

LEADERSHIP - Zum has the absolute worst leadership you can possibly imagine. The entire C Suite has no business leading a company. The CEO, CTO, and COO are siblings and they operate in a bubble, trying to hide their shortcomings and failures rather than handing over responsibilities to people that actually know what they're doing. They did a great job raising $75M from top VC's like Sequoia and Spark and they've done an even better job of burning through it. Staffing up a developer team that accounted for 1/3 of their staff that produced nothing. The tech the sell is not what they actually have. EVERYTHING is managed with spreadsheets and throwing more bodies at the problem instead of trying to find more efficient ways to operate. This caused SO MANY operating failures with children with disabilities being stranded without a ride. I would never allow my child to ride with Zum. Vivek constantly dismissed the competitors like HopSkipDrive and ALC and was constantly saying Zum was being approached to purchase them. They hired some great talent that could have helped them scale but they refused to listen to anyone or seek the counsel of people that can help them solve their inefficiencies. In an attempt to become profitable, they first laid off all the tech team (which they needed to do), then they throw an over the top Xmas party at a Vinyard, then they lay off 95% of their sales team. Favorite quote when Vivek was asked how they are going to get profitable after cutting sales... "I don't know how to answer that, we're literally building the plane while we're flying" Okie Dokie... good luck with that.

Explore other reviews about Zūm

5.0
29 Jun 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

One thing that stands out to me is the consistency. The schedule is predictable, expectations are reasonable, and the environment remains professional. The position has been a positive experience for me because I know what to expect from week to week.

Cons

I don’t have any concerns about the driving conditions.

1.0
6 Jul 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The office was in an accessible location. My coworkers themselves were not difficult to work with.

Cons

• The team's project management system was nothing more than a shared Google Sheet. • The supposed operational infrastructure did not exist. No database, automation, or real task tracking system. • Repeated requests for basic tools were ignored and met with empty promises about future budgets. • The role became constantly inventing solutions while manually doing work proper systems should have handled. • Everything was built on workarounds and personal memory, making growth nearly impossible. • After six months of creating fixes for problems that should have been automated, there was simply nothing left to improve.

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