Wio(UAE) Reviews

I have worked in several startups before. This company technically qualifies as a startup, with lots of funding, but it's run in the worst possible way. CEO: The exco team regularly are forced to do what "the CEO wants" rather than what's right for the business. Often this is shortcutting the normal route in order to get to launch faster. My impression is that he's driven to launch before a competitor does (Zand) at all costs. Many of his actions can be attributed to a big ego (he knows what's right, the department head with years of experience in the field does not). But apart from that the CEO has in my eyes instantly disqualified himself by shouting at his staff in front of others and calling people names behind their back. While the first member of the Exco team has now left the company (staying less than 1 year) all of the remaining exco team do not speak up to the CEO or give up really quickly. I understand they don't want to lose their jobs, but it's shocking to see how little effect they have on the CEO. Blame game: Because of the immense pressure from the CEO departments often go against each other when it comes to why the product is not ready or malfunctioning. This creates a hostile atmosphere and sometimes I feel leadership directly fosters this behavior by saying: "Product says it's working" even though they either didn't say this or it was just a plain lie. Audit: The company was audited for operational readiness. This was done at a point where literally nothing was ready yet. The app doesn't work or only if you use "the happy path", no procedures were complete yet or have not been tested, etc. The audit started and everybody knew the outcome would be disastrous and demotivating to staff. However, little did we know that the CEO hackled with the auditors so much that they started to use such eased-up language and accepted our "manual process for launch". This allowed him to wave a piece of paper at the Central Bank of the UAE to move forward with the application for a license. Maybe this is how a business has to be run? But it basically leaves a product and company operations full of wholes that will cause it to crumble under any real-world scenario. Vendors: The company is using a lot of 3rd party software to get off the ground. In meetings, vendors will be accused of mistakes that clearly were made by us. Bosses often send you to meetings with incredulous demands to the vendor and it is just embarrassing. On the other hand, we then ask to pause invoicing or to get further discounts. Artificial pressure: Building a bank from scratch is no easy feat. This needs careful planning and enough staff. If you get your product wrong, you're dealing with people's money after all. Since I've joined launch has always been a few weeks away. Then they push the deadline and say "some paperwork isn't ready yet" but still use the seemingly imminent launch to justify asking you to work long hours or even weekends. Once the CEO asked department heads to keep lists of people who do not work weekends. False promises: They need to hire a lot and lure people in with sentences like "we care about work-life balance" or 3 days work from home per week. In reality, in 2021 staff were often not allowed to take their holiday because "launch was imminent". This resulted in annual leave being paid cash in December 2021. Regarding the remote work, it is now tracked in sheets exactly how often you work from home. General treatment of staff: This has been the only area where I can see improvements in the company. There are now regular events and treats being delivered to staff (like fresh fruit) that make the environment a bit nicer. However, then at the same time, they adjust the bus schedule for the operations team, without reason. This would have resulted in staff staying one hour longer in the office (unpaid). Only after heavy protest did they revert this change. But it seemed like a sneaky move to get more work time for free. So overall not sure how much the CEO and leadership care about staff well-being. Future outlook: It is my firm belief that this company/product will not succeed with the current CEO at the helm. It's all about HIM and not about the product or the customers. He might launch the bank and an awful product, and then quickly step down letting someone else fix the mess. I feel bad for all the motivated staff that are still working very hard under these challenging circumstances on what would have otherwise been an amazing project. Starting a bank from scratch, how cool is that? However, many of the talent hired from startups abroad has already left, after the realization of what they've gotten into.