Pros
The idea behind Terbine is actually pretty cool. You can find a lot of different types of IoT data based on the metadata the company creates. The CEO does a good job of selling the possibilities of a data exchange while talking about theoretical future use cases. The CTO was fantastic to work with and had a great deal of technical knowledge. It was fun listening to his excitement as he described the underlying architecture of how Terbine works. I also felt that he cared deeply about the success of each employee and the company itself.
Cons
Layoffs (Before the Covid-19 pandemic). The biggest red flag that showed this startup was troubled was the layoff of the entire Sales staff in the fall of 2019. These employees often complained that their roles were not properly defined, and that the CEO failed to provide them with adequate resources. It was not long before the CEO became frustrated with their understandable lack of results and the “financial drain” on the company. So off they went. No real source of monetization or way to generate profit. Since Terbine takes IoT data that is already available on other data platforms, it is easy to trace it back to the source using the company’s own metadata. This was often a sticking point when trying to convince people why an IoT data exchange would suit their needs. There wasn’t a lot of users/organizations buying in or showing any real interest outside of the city of Las Vegas. Toxic work environment. The company’s office in downtown Las Vegas was always very tense. When the CEO was in the room, everyone remained quiet out of fear of being subjected to his odious behavior. He had a pattern of giving very open-ended assignments that he didn’t quite understand, and then compensating by nitpicking small things like the layout of a document or the wording of a message he received from an employee. If someone said or did something he didn’t like, it was not uncommon for him to send a tirade of Slack messages that demeaned you then hours later delete them and act as if nothing happened. I was actually impressed with how easily he was able to turn any non-issue into one that had the potential to “end the company” or “get back to the investors.” The only time anyone could breathe and relax was when he left the room or went home for the day. He would also yell at random strangers on the street for ringing the doorbell to enter the building (a doorbell he himself installed).
