-Poor leadership. The CEO, Charles, is a spectacularly bad leader. He communicates almost exclusively through email, text, or Gchat, literally cannot find a way to give positive feedback, hasn't an ounce of charm or charisma (which translates to a glaring inability to enlist the support of outside stakeholders or would-be partners), takes every opportunity to short-change the team both financially and figuratively, and fails in every sense to lend support to the team. Charles is equal parts arrogant and middling engineer - he finds it necessary to consistently and constantly change the code of the engineering team who is far and away more talented and skilled at coding than he is. He further refuses to lend any credence to the market forces that clearly say that his business model is fatally flawed (no one is interested in using a 20-foot drone to deliver 10 lbs of goods 200 miles - look it up; there is no demand). Charles also refuses to spend a penny he doesn't have to. The office lacks most normal (even large corporate) amenities. Sure, he'll occasionally order in lunch for the team, but in the office, there is literally no way to fill a water bottle or even drink water. Literally. On that note, a few other red flags:
1. The company offers no paid holidays. Even the holidays that are federally mandated, Skyways employees do not have off.
2. The pay is disgustingly low. The first conversation I had with the CEO, Charles, resulted in an offer of $35k/year. I'm an engineer. That's insane.
3. The benefits are terrible. Skyways barely pays anything for insurance, requires you to keep a receipt for reimbursement of your gym expenses up to $50/month (Charles does not actually pay the $50. He pays UP TO $50 with proof via receipt), and offers around 10 vacation days per year. Would you like Christmas off? Use your vacation days. Ridiculous.
4. Every little expense is critiqued even though there is no travel policy. There is no guidance given as to how much one can or should spend on flights, cars, hotels, food, etc. I recall a few instances in which I stayed in a five-star hotel because my AAA memberships often means I can book luxury hotels for the price of Best Westerns/Motel 6s. I often book for 50% LESS than the government GSA rate. Charles routinely scolded me, again, via email, text, or Gchat, for staying in luxury hotels despite the cost being lower than two-star hotels. That's nuts.
5. No problem, you think, you'll get a large piece of equity ("stock") for working so hard for so little. Think again, Charles is super stingy with equity. You'll get a tiny piece (if you make it four years) for you efforts. And if you run some numbers, you'll see the cost of capital in taking such a small salary with terrible benefits is not comparable to the equity. You're better offer staying with a large firm that dishes little equity but pays much better. Seriously.
6. But hang on, THE MISSION! In theory, the idea of drone delivery that leads to flying cars is pretty great, but in practice, Charles (the only "executive" in the company) is wholly out of his element. While other firms have already sold flying cars or have generated enough hype to go public, Charles is still trying to sell 20-foot wingspan drones that deliver 10 pounds. This is the sort of mission that was sellable 10 years ago. Commercial organizations have moved on to much loftier ambitions, as they have no use for 10-pound deliveries. Charles cannot see this. As a result, he's driving the team to build antiquated technology that simply won't sell. Skyways does have a deal with the US Navy, but it's a small deal that is more or less a test of the Navy's patience. Will the Navy stick around another 10 years while other companies continue to fly well beyond Skyways? Doubtful. Either way, Charles professes that he refuses to arm the aircraft, as that is not the mission. He fails to understand that selling to the US Navy is effectively arming the aircraft. Does Charles understand the mission of the US Navy? The US Navy is a combat force. The US Navy is employed to kill for the United States. It's that simple. In sum, the mission of any drone organization is pretty cool if you're into the industry, but Skyways is and will continue to fall on its face compared to competition.
7. The buck starts and stops with one person: Charles Acknin, arrogant co-founder and CEO extraordinaire. Charles founded the company as a Y-Combinator company (he'll tell you that any chance he gets) with a partner who joined solely to get the company into Y-Combinator, as Charles is a terrible marketer, salesperson, and leader. The co-founder - the skilled marketer and salesperson - jumped ship as planned after getting the company into Y-Combinator (sketchy, to say the least). Charles then took over the CEO role and acts as the only true executive in the company. Hiring, firing, expense reporting, everything goes through him. He models himself after Elon Musk (another red flag), but doesn't have the chops to push this company forward. His arrogance is off-putting to investors, partners, customers, and definitely employees. This company has insanely high turnover, even for a tech startup. Maybe it's merely the (lack of) benefits, but more likely, it's Charles. Charles is a bad leader who doesn't even know it. That's scary.
To top it all off, when I left the company, Charles short-changed me my last few weeks of pay and tried to argue I used my remaining vacation time the last weeks and was therefore not owed my biweekly check. Charles, in fact, put me on vacation without my approval to avoid paying my remaining vacation time. Though many states do not require unused vacation time be paid upon exit from a company (Texas included), it is almost universal standard practice to pay it. I can only imagine Charles refuses to pay out unused vacation time because he is just that cheap. I had to fight for weeks to get my paycheck. Yikes.
The bottom line is that this is a truly bad company. While my coworkers were fantastic talents with whom I loved to work, Charles made working here impossible. If I were you, I'd find another drone company - ANY other drone company - to join. Just stay aways from Skyways.
