Sama reviews

Unfortunately, the company is rife with poor management and at times was borderline abusive. Turnover is extremely high-- 75% or more. The business model itself is problematic. While Samasource's delivery team is in San Francisco-- the teams of workers completing the jobs are in Kenya and India. The Sama team has a weak presence in the field where the jobs are actually completed-- this creates a huge gap between the realities the actual "disadvantaged" workers face and what the folks at HQ perceive. Aside from a small outfit they run called the Samalab in Kenya, most of the work is completed by small business process outsourcing (BPO) partners that hire workers who are best fit for the job. Many of the workers are not "disadvantaged"-- often they are middle class college grads who haven't found work elsewhere. The point is not that they should not get these jobs, but rather that the pitch Sama gives is highly misleading. The model is also not as scaleable as they'd have you believe-- most businesses cannot afford triple or quadruple redundancy for their internet connection in Kenya and Uganda (where they have attempted to set up), given how often the internet goes down in the region. It is not possible to run a reliable BPO out of an IDP camp without the appropriate infrastructure. This company is a lot of hype and has been running on the fumes of good story telling. Also to echo the reviews below, the CEO should have been replaced long ago. The whole organization seems to operate like a publicity stunt for her personal gain. Quite frankly this was the worst employer I've ever worked for.

CEO is self absorbed and motivated by fame. Lacks focus on core business Samasource and starts new ones, leading to distractions from mission and values. Lacks attention to detail, which has lead to misalignment between teams.