WARNING: Not a place where unique ideas are appreciated and super high turn over rate. - Engineer Pi Employee Review

1.0
Apr 18, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It's a startup. So you will be very heavily involved in all aspects of the product and company. If the company is ever successful, you could reap those rewards.

Cons

This is a product company run by 2 young co-founders fresh out of college with no knowledge or experience developing a product. The CTO has that position because at the inception of the company, his algorithm skills were the thing that was going to make Pi's product successful. The product they are now developing no longer utilizes his algorithm, therefore his one skill set that was valuable, is no longer. With lack of leadership skills, baseline knowledge of product development, or any real world work experience the development process is not going well. This of course could all be fixed by the CTO relying on the technical expertise of the people he hires. But so far, he has made it clear that if you offer opinions that differ from his, then you are considered "being negative" and no longer fit at the company. In under 1 year, 7 qualified engineers have either been fired or left because they saw what was coming.

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Pi Response
7y
Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. As the co-founder and CTO of Pi, I’m glad to hear you felt there were opportunities to have a broad impact across the company and product and that you felt success was shared throughout the company. I want to clarify a few things you mentioned and address some of your concerns. Our products still rely on an advanced algorithm, which our growing firmware team continues to improve. We have not fired anyone for disagreeing with me or my co-founder. Regarding turnover, every company evolves over time and the team evolves with it. At the end of 2017, after successfully achieving a seemingly impossible milestone, a couple of people moved on to new things (grad school, a family move east, and a senior management position at a larger company). Any departure, even for personal growth, is bittersweet. My co-founder and I always reflect on what could be improved. We appreciate our Pi alum deeply, and thankfully many come back to visit. Our team continues to grow with five new amazing engineers so far in 2018 and a couple engineers celebrating their second anniversary with us (We are in operation for two and half years). I am humbled to work with such outstanding people every day. I’m sad to read you left us so disappointed in my leadership of the engineering team. It’s something I take personally and am always working on. I have intentionally surrounded myself with people with more experience because I value their knowledge and ideas, and I act on their input every day. Thank you for your contributions to Pi. We wish you the best of luck with what’s next for you. Lixin Shi CTO & Co-founder

Explore other reviews about Pi

5.0
May 28, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Extremely talented team that is hardworking and dedicated. This team is enabled by the management to get things done on a short timeframe not because they're forced to, but because they love doing it. All resources are ready to go, but not wasted.

Cons

The team is small, so sometimes it's difficult to throw enough manpower behind a project, and it also means that we don't have enough resources to do more than one thing at once.

5.0
Aug 24, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

What can at many startups feel like a stressful work-hard/work-smart culture is offset at Pi by the flexibility of working hours and the lightheartedness with which the team approaches their work. Because (at the time I'm writing this review) the company is racing toward a go-to-market deadline, there's a sense of liveliness and urgency that permeates everyone's work. I suppose this kind of environment isn't for everyone, but, for me, having an ambitious near-term goal that I could contribute to in a meaningful way made coming in to work each day an adventure. Everybody is great at what they do, so I was constantly learning new things. Everyone is kind, respectful, and friendly—and that's just it. The best thing about Pi isn't the product, it's the people.

Cons

There's not much I have to say in this area. They went through some employee churn in late 2017, along with a pretty significant design pivot. Earlier when I joined on, this history sometimes showed through. However, since they've hired on some fresh faces and solidified their new design, morale and motivation are both very high.

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