Kepion Reviews

We sincerely apologize for any negative experiences you may have had with our company. In 2022, two employees decided to leave our organization. It is important to note that one of these employees played a role in recommending and recruiting the other to join our company. During that period, there was a disagreement regarding the distribution of our SEP program to former employees. Our SEP program is designed to reward and incentivize our active employees through profit sharing and promote employee retention. In previous years, we have been very generous, offering SEP benefits at a rate of 25% of their salaries, which is the maximum allowed by the IRS. The SEP contribution rate is discretionary and set by management on an annual basis. We have consistently distributed SEP to all active employees after the annual performance reviews, usually around March, without fail. However, it should be noted that we do not extend SEP benefits to former employees unless required by IRS guidelines. We are always improving how we incentivize our employees and how to retain the best talent. As a result, we have clarified our SEP policy with examples of when a SEP is to be extended to former employees (based on IRS guidelines) and when it is not. We sincerely regret any confusion or frustration this may have caused. We strive to provide competitive and inclusive benefits for our employees and their families. In addition to a competitive salary, we offer employees comprehensive benefits such as health care coverage (including dental and vision) and eligibility to participate in retirement plan on day one. We prioritize maintaining a healthy work-life balance by permitting flexible work schedules and providing a minimum of 4 weeks of paid time off to each full-time employee without any seniority requirements. While our salaries may not match those of large tech companies, our flexible work schedule and cooperative culture help make Kepion a better fit for many employees. The company offers the same insurance plan for both the management team and employees. The company fully pays health care premiums for all our full-time employees. We have been made aware that some employees had less satisfactory experiences with our insurance plan in recent years. We have taken this feedback seriously as we continue to look for opportunities to improve the benefits offered to employees. Regarding diversity, we agree that certain communities are under-represented in the tech sector, so we extend opportunities to all walks of life. As of the beginning of 2022, our company had a female representation of 39%, which exceeds the industry average of 22%, according to Google's data for the tech industry in 2022. Regarding the perception of nepotism, we would like to clarify that the individuals you mentioned are all company founders whose titles reflect their significant contributions. We have a meritocratic environment, conducting annual performance reviews to document and reward employees based on their achievements, including all levels of management. If there have been instances where management exhibited rudeness towards employees, we sincerely apologize. While we strive to be kind and accessible, we recognize that our interactions may not always be perfect. Any known instances of misconduct are reported to HR, or the relevant supervisor, as the situation dictates. Regarding working hours, as most of our employees work remotely, we have requested that they adhere to standard business hours for better collaboration and availability. However, we understand that this flexibility can sometimes result in colleagues missing each other due to varying schedules. Regarding testing, the individual who left was primarily tasked with development work, and their request to prioritize testing work ahead of that without obtaining management approval may have caused a misunderstanding. Our company encourages testing, including UATs (User Acceptance Testing), sample application testing, and test/dev endpoints. We acknowledge that more testing and automation can be implemented as we continue developing our product, but deviation from job duties should be discussed with the relevant supervisors before commencement. Regarding code reviews, we make sure that the software architect reviews all code changes to ensure alignment and consistency. We recognize that this process can result in a slower ramp-up for new hires as they familiarize themselves with our standards. To address this, we have already improved our review processes for more collaboration. Regarding source control, we agree that Git may be the better tool for our needs. That’s why we recently transitioned from Microsoft TFS to Git as the standard for our development team, aiming to streamline and improve our development workflows. Regarding the UI framework, we deliberately decided to build our own rather than relying on an existing one. Our past experience with a dependency on an off-the-shelf framework influenced this choice. When that UI framework got discontinued, it had a very detrimental impact on our company. Building our own UI framework allows us to minimize dependencies and prioritize the long-term maintainability of our platform. We have successfully transitioned to our UI framework. Regarding translations, we have in-house expertise in Spanish and Chinese, although support for other languages has been identified as needing more support. We are in the process of getting that support. While we strive to make objective decisions based on best practices, we understand some subjective preferences may arise. For example, we may choose a margin of 5 pixels over 4 pixels as part of our standardized best practices. We genuinely apologize for any negative experiences you may have had, and we value your feedback. We remain committed to improving our processes and addressing any concerns to provide a better working environment for our employees.