Hot Mess, good people, not your average startup. - Solutions Engineer City Innovate Employee Review

1.0
27 Apr 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Everyone below VP level was a delight to work with. Company retreats were great! Good culture but poor value (that is why a 3 star on review for culture and value) Time off policy is great. Thanks to one vp, the company has healthy network to keep money coming in. 1 of the CEO's seemed like a good guy, but I also did not work under him.

Cons

TL:DR- 1 CEO bad, product bad, you lie to customer and get lied to by upper MGMT Oh boy, where do I even begin with this company? It was a disaster from start to finish. If I could sum up my experience in one sentence, it would be this: I spent more time lying than Pinocchio. We were forced to lie to clients so often that I started to feel like a pathological liar. Our "demo" was a pre-recorded PDF walkthrough of a product that didn't even exist. Can you imagine the look on a client's face when they found out that the product they were investing in wasn't even real? I'm surprised we didn't get sued for false advertising. But the lies didn't stop there. We promised our customers the moon and gave them a cheap knock-off version of a product. Our "minimal viable product" was so minimal that it was practically non-existent. We claimed it could automate their procurement from "soup to nuts" or "cradle to grave," but in reality, it could barely do anything. It was like trying to build a house with toothpicks and glue. And don't even get me started on upper management. We had two CEOs, which should have been a good thing, but one of them, let's call him Ramcam the truthful, was a massive liar. He would tell you to do one thing one week, and the next week he would get mad at you for doing it and deny ever asking you to do it in the first place. I'm pretty sure he was trying to break some kind of world record for most contradictory statements in a single day. Ramcam the wonderful was also unpleasant to work with. He played favorites with certain employees and ignored others completely. He set unrealistic goals for some people, like asking a salesperson to bring in a million dollars in revenue in two months, but only allowing them to contact 20 dead accounts. It was like asking someone to climb Mount Everest without any gear. To make matters worse, the company provided no training or onboarding for new employees. We were expected to know everything from day one and were given no support or guidance. Our software suite that we used for storing info was a mess. There were so many different programs to use that I felt like I was navigating a maze. It was like trying to find Waldo, but instead of one Waldo, there were ten thousand, and they were all named something different. In short, this company was a complete disaster. It was like working in a circus, but instead of clowns, there were liars, and instead of popcorn, there were broken promises. If you're thinking about working for this company, my advice to you is to run. Run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. You'll thank me later.

Explore other reviews about City Innovate

5.0
1 Nov 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

City Innovate has great management that trusts in their employees to do their jobs. There is no micromanagement and employees can expect their managers to ask "how do we support you" rather than "I need you to ...". City Innovate gives their employees a safe space to offer new ideas an innovation.

Cons

City Innovate is a startup environment through and through and sometimes there is a need to wear many hats.

1
1.0
10 May 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- They offer very fair and attractive compensation and benefits - Great team members

Cons

- Unclear vision for the product, customer strategy, QBRs. etc. - Its like talking to a wall with management. Instead of getting in the weeds with their team to solve issues, they prefer to go back to the drawing board as executives and try to devise a cure all that never works. When you come to them for insight and advice, seldom do you receive anything of actual use / substance. - They will throw you in the deep end with little to no preparation, and if you fail, throw you under the bus when it doesn't work out. - As someone who has taken the customer-first approach in my previous roles, that's not the case here. Feedback is very often given but it's either put on the back-burner or thrown into a void. - You're shut off from a lot of other departments which is strange for a start-up, because usually collaboration is crucial. Everyone operates on their own island.

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