OK solution for some on-demand companies, talented employees. Untrustworthy founders, worst sales org I've worked for
Pros
- Base salary is in line with payment and fraud industry standards. - OK solution for some on-demand players (some food delivery and ride-hailing companies). - Some great individual contributors and good middle-managers across many teams. - Some good perks (for UK employees only).
Cons
- Not a remote-first company and unfairness towards remote employees (gotten better since COVID-19): Remote employees have almost no perks and used to rarely be taken into consideration for anything (no links to Google Meet for remote employees, meetings cancelled without notice, no good microphoning system for remote employees to hear properly, important "corridor" conversations and info not really mentioned to remote employees, etc.) - Favoritism and bias towards employees who are seen often in the office (e.g. commercial terms exceptionally approved by the founders on a walk-by basis, and deals being passed on to sales execs who are seen often in the office, none of which happen for remote employees). - Really dysfunctional sales compensation scheme and sales organization, having been modified 4 times in less than 3 years, and commission rates being significantly lower than what was agreed when joining the organization. - Lack of SDR team for 1.5 years, making (Senior) sales executives become SDRs with 100s of accounts and many regions and verticals to focus on - Individual contributors in sales do not have possibilities to progress (many sales org and structure changes, but unfortunately not an evolution in terms of company approach/strategy - same exact approach and teams selling in certain regions for over 2.5+ years, qualification criteria more strict, leaving sales teams a smaller merchant pool to "hunt" for prospects). - Sales/Revenue leadership and founders completely disconnected from the reality of the market: trying to make it more difficult to close deals, having to turn away 90%+ of the merchants who are interested in working with Ravelin due to being too small, and sales only compensated under a very long list of pre-conditions, with many exceptions that are not standard in the industry (Compensation plan is a complicated 20+ pager!). - The very few large transformational deals that happen are directly closed by the founders, with no or limited involvement from the sales teams, so as to avoid 'wasting money' compensating them. - The founders are untrustworthy towards their employees and prospects/existing customers, which therefore means that the company is untrustworthy as a fraud prevention provider, and that value is ingrained in their company culture and in their business practices. - Directly related to the previous point, I was encouraged on several occasions by one of the founders during my 1st year of employment to breach the agreement with my previous employer, on the grounds that “it would be impossible for them to find out”. That clause prevented me from contacting any of their existing customers for 12 months after leaving the company (which thankfully I never did!). - Also related to the previous 2 cons, another of the co-founders displayed a high degree of disrespect towards sales and Ravelin’s board members/VCs, and also a very high ego: on several occasions during client and prospect meetings he was involved in he would suggest "not being part of the sales team, and not willing to have anything to do with the sales profession" and that he was being "being open and honest" (putting salespeople down), and also suggesting after some board meetings that he "wished that the board/investors were providing some actually useful insights and were more helpful for the business". - Very small stock option pool, which can be taken away without prior notice at the company's discretion. If you want to join partly because of making a little bonus should a big exit happen, better not join Ravelin at all!