Valuable startup learning experience - Anonymous employee Keen Systems Employee Review

5.0
Jul 5, 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Fast-moving environment and my first startup experience. Learned a lot about sales and marketing. Very valuable experience that has helped me tramendously in my next job. Looking back, I consider the CEO a mentor.

Cons

Tough industry and company had a hard time scaling.

Explore other reviews about Keen Systems

1.0
Feb 7, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I got the job easily. As a newcomer to the tech scene, this felt like a big pro. Long-term, it was helpful to get some SaaS experience on the resume. It was also nice working with a great group of people.

Cons

The CEO, Vitaly Golomb, had a knack for conning inexperienced people into free (or grossly underpaid) work. He sold us all on an idea, but it didn't take long to figure out that he wasn't working anywhere near as hard as he expected us to work. He was working hard on building his personal brand, traveling to Europe (we only sold to US companies) at least once a month to speak at startup conventions. Apparently, his ability to con people allowed him to sell the company. Unfortunately for the company that bought Keen, he failed to disclose that at least one of his previous employees sued him (Vitaly lied about making payroll late, then fired everyone on the day he was supposed to pay up). They won the case after the company was sold and are now collecting from the new owner. Vitaly is not stupid, so the consensus among the employees is that he took money from investors in order to travel to Europe, build his personal brand, and support his lifestyle (two kids, a wife, and an expensive Porsche). Very little time was spent on the business, with the exception of the time spent trying to raise more money. About a month after letting all but two employees go, we started receiving marketing emails (drip campaign) announcing the release of his book about how to be an entrepreneur.

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