My worst startup experience - Anonymous employee Zinier Employee Review

1.0
4 July 2021
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are some people in the company who are genuinely nice. Former management cared about the employees and used to offer good benefits and competitive salaries in the region.

Cons

1. There is no development program or career path. Getting promoted depends on how close you are to your boss. Therefore, this system created a very weak leadership in the product and development team, when a person who are not competent is in charge for decisions. It was really demoralizing and almost humiliating. 2. Managers often lie to their employees. 3. After the first layoff, the second wave happened all of a sudden a month after they said NO second layoffs would be followed. 4. Every employee receives a stock option after they work for some times. Unfortunately, people outside the US cannot exercise these stock options and they don't really tell this up front. Many employees only found out later when it's too late. 4. CTOs have a huge ego and are never willing to listen to anyone else's opinions. Almost impossible to work as a team so nothing actually coming out from development.

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Zinier Response
4y
Thank you for sharing your detailed perspective and feedback. We acknowledge that the changes / reduction in force were painful to everyone in the company. We have taken feedback from our current and past employees and have instituted the following changes: 1. Created a democratized and distributed leadership structure with accountability and clarity of roles, and brought in new passionate leaders into the company to take us forward 2. Forums for employees to share candid feedback and improvements to leadership 3. Regular cadence of town halls, small group meets, team forums, informal coffee chats and other such avenues that help employees understand the current state of the business 4. Better visibility to the product roadmap and technology initiatives, and how they align with the company vision and mission. We believe these initiatives are fostering a collaborative culture, transparency and set us up for success as a high growth startup. We wish you the best in your future endeavors.

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5.0
16 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

I have been very impressed with the recent steps taken to bolster the team and the foundation. There seems to be a very positive momentum and I can see the maturity curve.

Cons

We seem to be in the middle of the scale up storm. Prioritization will be key.

1.0
17 Nov 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The base salary and bonus they offer you before they lay you off within 6 months

Cons

Have no idea how the CEO of this company is a CEO for ANY company. He is less knowledgeable than the SC's on his own solution. They promise you a certain amount of money for bonuses and then never pay them out. The management here is very unprofessional with extremely poor leadership skills. Within the first week of working here, they FORCED us to give them a 5 star review on Glassdoor. Insanity. I do NOT recommend working here, ever.

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