Mar 21, 2019
Sensibill Response
7yWe appreciate feedback and, as we’ve said before, we believe that debate and discussion is healthy. We’re always aiming for transparency, and in the spirit of transparency, we thought it was important to respond to this review.
First, we’d like to clarify that our turnover rate is well within industry standards. We understand that startup life can feel turbulent at times, but turnover is part of normal company growth. Admittedly we’ve had some people move on to their next role/company over the past few months, but as a startup transitioning into becoming a scale-up, that’s not abnormal. As we grow, we’ve had to establish processes that may not have existed before, work more cross-functionally than ever before, and also work with many more people than we did when we were a small, scrappy company! Through all of these changes, we’ve had people that have been with us since the very beginning, newbies coming in to begin their startup adventure, and veterans from the corporate and startup worlds joining us on an exciting fintech journey. It’s never easy saying goodbye to people that have been with us as we grow, but we acknowledge their contributions and wish them all the best of luck as they move on to new things.
The second point we’d like to address is around the technical aspect of Sensibill. Our technology department represents more than half of our organization. Each team in that department is doing innovative work and contributing to a product that is helping real people with real problems. The Research team builds machine learning solutions to extracting data from receipts, the platform team builds the infrastructure upon which these solutions sit, and a product development team builds the SDK’s and API’s that leverage these solutions that we implement in the mobile applications of massive financial institutions. To be able to build a product that’s ‘bank tough’ is no small achievement and we’re extremely proud of the engineers that have contributed to our success.
A large part of this review focuses on our company culture. With respect to having a ‘cheerleader culture’, we do believe in celebrating the achievements and successes of our teams. That being said, we encourage our teams to engage in healthy debate, disagree until they find the best solution, and then commit to executing on a plan. When that process ends in a desirable outcome, then yes, we like to celebrate the hard work put in by everyone involved.
In regards to the comments about our COO, it doesn’t feel constructive to engage with ad hominem attacks. However, we will say that Izabella has been integral to the company’s success and she’s a respected leader and mentor to many.
We're not trying to fool anyone here. What we're doing everyday is building our product and making it better for our clients and for our end-users. We’ve been transparent about our growing pains in the past and taken tangible steps to address issues raised by our team. We’ve seen results from these initiatives and we’ll continue evolving and improving.