Great way to learn what not to do in a startup - Software Engineer eBrandValue Employee Review

Here are some problems I observed while working at this company: - Lack of vision: The leadership did not present a consistent and compelling vision for growing the company. Top management demonstrated incompetency through insisting to use outdated technologies and solutions. - No technical leadership: CTO wasn't technical and suitable for the job, underestimated the difficulty of NLP-related problems, and insisted on using absurd solutions. He had very little comprehension of the NLP/ML aspects of the system, and top management didn't hire an engineering manager to become a bridge between executives and engineering team. - Making promises to customers without consulting the engineering team: Every other week, the team learned that top management made promises to customers without consulting the engineering team, and how disastrous it would be if engineers did not satisfy those promises. As a result, employees experienced a high level of stress, confusion, and feeling excluded from decision-making. - Asking for loyalty without offering equity (known as the "We're on the same ship" story). Well, this is common for Turkish startups. I know that many startups in Europe also do not offer equity. The crucial difference is that those startups do not act like employees have equity by requesting religious-like loyalty. - Adversarial communication and management style. - Lack of any software design and testing ethos. There were many problems when I was working at this company. Since the problems stem from the top management, they became ingrained in the company culture. To me, it is wishful thinking to believe that the problems could eventually be solved, since it's a startup -- top management won't change unless the startup fails.