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Derive Systems

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Derive Systems reviews

3.2

43% would recommend to a friend

(31 total reviews)
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John Oechsle

40% approve of CEO

42% positive business outlook

Derive Systems has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 31 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Derive Systems employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

31 reviews
5.0
Nov 26, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Full stack development in-house (hardware, firmware, mobile & cloud) * Consumer and enterprise products mean diverse & challenging requirements * Quickly growing; opportunity to be involved in "big picture" discussions & make meaningful contributions as an individual * Close company culture * Company is not afraid to make changes when needed and invest in business opportunities

Cons

* Fast-growing team + dynamic development goals can lead to increased pressure to succeed * Lean team sizes offer the opportunity to make large contributions, but also mean support can be thin at times. Liking to work on your own for full feature development is a must

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Derive Systems Response
6y
Thanks for your feedback! We have aggressive goals to expand a number of engineering teams throughout the second half of 2019, so hopefully you'll find more support in the coming months.
5.0
May 18, 2018

A Bright Future

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Leadership team is very proactive and is as transparent as possible with teams across all three offices. Establishing a strong culture is undeniably important here and genuine effort has been made to empower employees to do their best work while enjoying the work that they do. The product has a strong legacy following and the product roadmap holds a lot of opportunity.

Cons

Innovation can lead to a bit of uncertainty which naturally causes concern. Nothing to truly worry about as the talent and dedication to future success far outweighs the hiccups and hurdles.

avatar
Derive Systems Response
6y
Thanks for the feedback! We strive to foster an environment of empowerment and innovation here at Derive, and it's great to see you recognizing that hard work.
1.0
Apr 3, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Direct/middle management was great and used to do an excellent job of buffering functional teams from the chaos up top, benefits (other than pay) is good.

Cons

Upper management is out of touch with what the business even does. They don't understand the performance aftermarket, and the board has no interest in resolving the issues around here. If you've ever wondered what being a red-headed stepchild feels like, try working in the performance automotive business that a PE fund focused on environmental issues accidentally bought. In sales, commission is both capped and low, and the goal posts move several times a month, regardless of what the goals start out as, making even 80-90% goal attainment (and commission bracket) impossible. The base pay is comically low, and there's no way to know until well after the end of the month what you're going to get paid on, because reasonable sales targets will be made unreasonable in the blink of an eye, and covering EBITDA for the absolute dead weight of the fleet business somehow becomes the jobs of the enthusiast team...in the last days of the month. When GEF was trying to sell derive, transparency wasn't even a consideration, and C-Level lied about what was going on - despite everyone already knowing and panicking about their jobs. You can choose transparency or confidentiality, but they chose neither. The sale they wanted (and failed to get a buyer for several times last year) seems unlikely, because the valuations are comically high, and the market is facing serious regulatory and economic concerns. There's no bailout coming from a new buyer unless they change their pitch entirely and reevaluate the business's revenue potential. It honestly looks like they're just trying to sink the performance business in an effort to write off a loss this year. If that's the strategy, at least it's not purely ineptitude? Which is a positive, I guess. Things turned quickly because of management changes, and not for the better. Morale took a serious hit, and the business is hemorrhaging cash; the company appears to only be interested in a "good money after bad" model, which is sad for a brand that held so much value for so long.

Viewing 7 - 9 of 31 Reviews

Glassdoor has 33 Derive Systems reviews submitted anonymously by Derive Systems employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Derive Systems is right for you.