Ditto; have an offer and would love an inside opinion
Can you describe how is working at Tempo?
Fast paced, high stress at times. young founders not always in agreement so it can pívot the company a lot, old school C suite that thinks in person work is 100% necessary.
Young founders probably made by board/Chinese investors to bring everyone in office
Quite honestly I wouldn’t join if I were you. Not an eng. In marketing. Pay is decent for early stage start up. Wlb—terrible across all functions from what I can tell. One founder is very nice, but clueless about how to run a company while the other generally comes off as kind of a dick. Neither know anything about running a company (ie, strategy, leadership, delegation, etc) and the rest of the ELT who are more experienced don’t push back. The board is very hands on and often keeps us spinning in circles and not really accomplishing anything great. Leadership is so reactive that I literally don’t know anyone who is proud of anything they have accomplished in the sense that they felt it was high quality work product. With our latest product, I know people are proud we got it out the door in a record amount of time, and that in that amount of time we all did the best we could. But many will tell you it’s a sub-par product, probably should still be in beta. C-suite has dug in on in-office/in person despite clear employee resistance and several covid outbreaks in the office. The covid protocols are a joke. I was exposed to someone w covid and wasn’t notified for several days even though I know that person had told HR right away. On top of that, the office sucks. It is in SOMA, on 9th street—not very nice inside (the ceiling leaks in numerous places, I even see men wearing their coats inside bc it’s so cold), basic things like the printer doesn’t work and the lighting is reminiscent of a cave. There is a serious transparency problem. Leadership chose to launch product we literally didn’t have ( imagery on the website was renders) and overpromise (aka lie) to consumers about when we could deliver it. At the end of the day, to avoid a PR/social media disaster and potential FTC investigation, they had to refund everyone 7 months after they ordered AND give them the option for still getting the equipment for free. It did stave off the pr/social storm but obviously calls into question LT judgement in the first place. Being out of FTC compliance and being fined on all counts would have more than bankrupted the co. It’s all unfortunate because the product has great potential, the company could have awesome acquisition opportunities (esp for IP if they really focused on delivering on the core experience), and the people are generally really talented and fun people. But we’re all working like dogs, mostly feeling like it’s all for naught.
The way this comment hits every point that I’ve experienced. Leadership was so reactive to the point you can tell the board/investors have a tight noose on them, and their negotiated terms weren’t very good. They used to make employees buy Studios!! So unethical. And hiding the COVID exposure seems like something leadership called the shots on, and they were SOOO insistent on everyone coming in the office 3/week right before thanksgiving where people go back home to see family. No one takes PTO for more than a few days either. “Even men wear coats” lol I used to turn up the heat up every time I was in the office. Felt like that was a public service. The office is also terrible. Also I bet the comment was saying the CTO was the 🍆
Do not join. Growth has slowed down significantly. Cost cuts are coming.
Thanks ! Was contacted by recruiter recently
The irony of this comment right before a massive round of layoffs
Yep
How has your experience been working at Tempo so far? Got an offer and trying to decide what to do.
Dmed you