(used to be) 10/10 leadership - Anonymous employee Shipium Employee Review

1.0
14 Jan 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The 2021-2022 version of Shipium was a rare beauty - a place where all were heard, valued, and fairly treated.

Cons

Aside from the commercial outlook of the company (which is grim at best), the culture manifested with new leadership has completely changed what it means to work at Shipium. If you're looking for the type of startup where you can to learn and grow, I strongly advise you look elsewhere. Within a matter of weeks after new leadership was brought in last year, all decisions were made behind closed doors, cross-organizational collaboration was extinguished, and communication between product and commercial teams was nonexistent. I'll just go ahead and say what everyone else is afraid to: Jason Murray has no control over his board. Instead of properly navigating pressure with a long-term outlook, he chooses to subject all the poor souls underneath him to their whims. At this point there are too many big company fat cats with the kind of mentality that can only survive in an organization with equally bloated margins (spoiler: Shipium is not one such organization). Senior leadership is overwhelmed and incompetent, I would seriously reconsider before joining the team.

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Shipium Response
3y
Thank you for taking the time to provide this feedback. I appreciate your perspective but would like to take this opportunity to clarify some of your concerns. As a rapid-paced startup, we are constantly changing and evolving, which includes bringing in members of management that can help build, grow, and scale their divisions. Shipium management consists of individuals with startup experience (from early to late stage) through more established corporations. A combination of this leadership helps us not only navigate our current stage, but thoughtfully strategize appropriately as we scale, and have been extremely effective in preparing the company for growth. To that point, like all organizations in our industry we’re navigating a volatile market; however, it is our current leadership team that has successfully guided us through and continues to deliver positive results. It is true that in the timeframe you listed we grew from roughly 19 employees to over 55, and we acknowledge that change is both inevitable as well as challenging at times to navigate. In that regard to keep communications open we added monthly All-Hands meetings, run additional cross-group meetings while maintaining team-based stand-ups, encourage employees to observe cross-functional sessions, offer recurring weekly People Ops office hours, provide skip-level 1:1s with the CTO, run eNPS surveys to understand sentiment to continually improve, rolled out performance management tools to provide a safe space to request feedback, hold 1:1s with peers & others in the company, and to discuss career pathing & growth opportunities, as well as published job descriptions and other tools to promote understanding, communication and collaboration. Just recently we launched an employee-driven suggestion box so that employees have an additional safe space to provide information to drive internal improvements. We value our employees and continually make adjustments to further support, enable, and empower our staff. I do apologize if these adjustments seem inadequate to you, and encourage you to directly reach out to HR, your manager, or leadership to let us know how we can better provide you with space to feel heard. We are here to listen, and will continue to do so. Thank you again for raising your concerns, and we look forward to speaking with you soon.

Explore other reviews about Shipium

5.0
10 Jan 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The people, the leaders, and the product. It's a tough market in a volatile industry, but we're growing because our product is good and our people are great at all levels. The sheer breadth of cumulative knowledge everyone brings is beyond impressive.

Cons

Startup life. Juggling flexibility and process, prioritization and 100 competing requests. Not everyone can be cut out for it, but you'd be hard pressed to find a better crew to spend your work time with.

2
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Shipium Response
3y
Thank you for posting! We appreciate the acknowledgement that our product and people are great - this is something we take tremendous pride in, and understand they are both core pillars of the organization. It is true that a startup environment is a bit different than a later stage, more structured org, but this is exactly what draws the level of people and expertise we currently have at Shipium. Every employee here has room to make an immediate and immense impact on the trajectory of the company, and we are all truly pulling in the same direction to build an amazing product. Everyone at every level rolls up their sleeves to get involved, and we heavily rely on cross-functional collaboration and communication to continue our success. As we continue to grow, we will always focus on our employee experience, our value to customers, and our credibility.
5.0
2 May 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Smart, thoughtful and experienced group of people who want each other to succeed. - Easy access to CEO, CTO and company leaders, i.e., no bureaucracy, if you need something ask and it will happen. - Flexible work from home policy with an easily accessible downtown Seattle co-working space. - Lots of autonomy to own your work, educate others about it, and chip in when you see an opportunity to help.

Cons

It's a growing company with a remote work lean, so getting to know new hires

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Shipium Response
3y
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review - we appreciate your feedback and will take your advice to continue an open dialogue regarding the industry, our products, and our future. It is an exciting time to be a part of the company, and we rely on our employees to provide structure and support for each other as we move forward. Although we do have our headquarters in downtown Seattle, we also have employees in many other states, all working fully remotely. This has been a challenge in getting coworkers to get to know each other, and we have recently implemented a platform through Slack to assist in building relationships between coworkers to foster additional camaraderie & collaboration. We’re consistently working towards making it easier to get to know one another! Thank you again for leaving a positive review!
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