4y
Someone sent me a link to this review… geez, completely off base... I decided to respond to it personally since not only is it hurtful/mean, but it contains false/inaccurate statements:
The reviewer talks about people “cycling through”... do they have the right company? The average tenure of our team is over 10 years (!) - that’s much longer than industry averages. There are things we’ve done to improve over the years, and people recognize that, even if someone may feel their pay could be higher, they also recognize incentives, flexibility, lunches, quality of work, mission, and other elements... we do our best… and we don’t have a lot of people “cycling through” – fewer than 10 people have left from HQ in the past 10 years, that’s not a lot of “cycling through.” I know many companies in LA with high turnover, we’re not one of them, we’re actually the complete opposite (very low turnover), and we have very few job openings because of stability, it is pretty challenging to get an interview/job with us. We are an amazing team, very humble, low-ego, low-drama, good hearts, we get our work done every day, doing meaningful projects, with important partners, making a significant impact on the lives of artisans worldwide. If you’re reading this and one day would like to join our team and you’re exceptional at what you do and have a good heart, then we’d hope to welcome you some day.
This reviewer talks about how they left a bad review (in 2014) and then this new bad review (2021). Plus they’re anonymously trolling us online. I’d ask them to have some perspective. Is this really a 1-star situation? They should re-read any glowing parting words they sent when they left and think about why they stayed with us for 6+ years. Of course there are things we can do better, but writing hurtful and completely misleading statements is really tough for karma. I know it’s hard to be one of the very few people that we’ve had to let go, but it’s also important to move on.
I’m going to spend some time setting the record straight on some of the false statements in this review. “Consultants working for free” makes no sense, which consultants would be working for free?... and there’s not a general group of “consultants” - certainly not any of the various consultants that work with us, they span completely different disciplines from writing to finance, and they’re not working for free.
Artisans upset? What? That’s completely off base. This would have to be an extreme edge case based on either two possible things – 1) the artisan wasn’t accepted on our platform since we currently accept only one in three artisans or 2) their products didn’t pass quality control with our inventory teams. What we do is so positive and impactful to the artisans we work with, especially during the pandemic. If someone is breaking a ceramic pot in a parking lot (most of our regional offices don’t have parking lots btw) then that would most likely be because that item didn’t pass quality control for some reason and they were upset. But that’s an extremely rare occurrence. Ask any of our front-line region team members and they’ll tell you how artisans are counting on us to make ends meet, they’re grateful for their ongoing sales and the 0% interest microcredit loans we provide, that’s pretty unheard of and extremely appreciated. And the reviewer’s “these people” line is just classic… shows why this reviewer is no longer with the company - that’s a very self-centric view of the world, using the term “these people” to refer to our artisans is just insulting.
NG? Of course we’re associated to Nat Geo, they’re one of our original investors and we acquired their catalog. Preserving culture and saving traditional techniques is very much in their sphere of interest. Just because the reviewer never met a “Representative” in our offices, they’re willing to jump to conclusions and make a statement like that? Our recent catalog acquisition came out of many, many trips to Washington DC that were made by myself and others working on that partnership.
You also made some points about me that were way off base. Starting with my “Santa Monica mansion” - what? my home isn’t even in Santa Monica and calling it a mansion is a stretch. When I was in my mid-20s, I was the only one in my group of friends that took a leap and purchased a fixer condo for $10K down, tired of paying LA rents. This was 1998. That fixer paid off, it was a wise investment and then my wife and I re-designed it, doubled the value and moved to another fixer in 2000 and then moved to our current home (another fixer) in 2011, each time doubling in value. We’ve had to draw down on our mortgage on various occasions during the company's toughest financial moments in order to subsidize the company's costs and pay bills, there have been very stressful times which we largely shield from others, we’re doing much better as a company now, but it has been a tough road.
In terms of strategic vision, we’ve not only survived, but we’re also thriving, in an industry that is extremely tough. Growth companies need to try things out - there are some projects that haven’t worked, and there are other projects that have carried us to where we are today. So many people deserve credit for these great accomplishments, including this embittered reviewer who surely made some positive impact.
There are two sides to every story, we’ll continue working hard on our mission and every once in a while, amidst the accolades, there’s going to be someone who we’re just not going to please for some reason... and even though they’ll show one face to those around them, they’ll slam you anonymously online. All we can do is just wish them the best and continue on.
Thanks for reading this and if you’d like to reach out to me or the company, please send us a message @novica on Instagram, not here. Thx!
