There are some really great people that work here. In fact, I've made some really good friends at SharpSpring. That, unfortunately, is the only Pro to working here. Sadly, the company is dictated by a CEO that does not care about the people who work for him. In fact, the only things that the CEO cares about are sales and his sales team (Director of Partnerships as they are called here). If you continue on reading the posted reviews, you will read many positive ones, which I can guarantee you are mostly written by his sales team. However, I promise you that if you had the chance to ask employees to answer in 100% confidentiality (as I have done) how they view working here, the results would align more closely with my review.
I will speak more closely on the Client Services side which consists of Support Technicians, Professional Services, Training, and the now defunct Onboarding Team. If you were to join either of the above mentioned teams you would sign on not being fully aware of your compensation plan. To elaborate SharpSpring pays client services a large portion of their pay on what they call a "bonus" plan. However, it is not uncommon for a new hire to either 1) not be given the actual details of the bonuses or 2) have the bonus plan change shortly after you sign on (there's the tiny disclaimer on your paperwork that says they can change it at any time). Regardless, the bonus is not a true bonus. Definition of a bonus: an amount of money added to wages on a seasonal basis, especially as a reward for good performance. SharpSpring's so called bonus system is based on the same metrics that are used to measure your performance as well as compare you against members of the team. So basically, if you are not earning a bonus, then in SharpSpring's eyes that means you are not doing well and are a low performer. The bonus structure here is also designed for you to lose said award money if you do not meet those certain metrics. Most of the metrics you are aiming for are almost entirely not under your control. For example, attrition rates.
In addition, there's really no employee training once you come aboard. You're pretty much are thrown to the wolves and it's see how you do type of deal. When you're new, the information can be difficult to grasp and this just shows the lack of commitment to helping employees succeed. You can believe that the Client Services side is a huge revolving door. I encourage you to take a screenshot of the meet our team page of on the SharpSpring website and come back and do that same thing in 2 months and see the new and missing faces.
Sr. Management also does nothing to listen to their subordinates. They will take your feedback with a smiling face and then nothing will happen. In my honest opinion, its because any feedback they actually do try to work with gets stuffed down from their own management i.e Rick the CEO.
Now onto the SharpSpring application itself. As a member of Client Services you will be working closely with the application and the users of the application on a regular basis. Wow, get ready for the biggest headache of your life. The application is built on a foundation of sloppy code. These are not just my words but words used by many of the developers, both current and former. Just wait and see how 90% of your day will be troubleshooting customer requests not because they genuinely have a question, but because the application is so unintuitive or broken half of the time. I forgot to mention, the sales team has a Slack channel called "demo-killers" so that when they are seamlessly showing off there scripted demo to prospective customers they can be sure not to ruin it by showing the true bugs of the application. The Product and Development Team, dictated by the CEO, continuously launch out new features with half decent code just to do what? MAKE SALES. As a result, you will be taking the blunt force of the customer complaints.
This all sounds so harsh writing it down but its the truth and sometimes the truth sucks. SharpSpring has built an illusion in the city of Gainesville that the whole company is so happy and great while truly they hide behind their social buzz events, free bi weekly lunches, and football tailgates and claim that to have great culture. Real culture is caring about your employees, helping to improve the application by actively soliciting feedback and doing something with it, and also not lying to your customers about everything. The CEO has literally been quoted saying "we do a real good job of selling our customers the dream of SharpSpring...".
To be honest I could continue writing but I hope you get the point.
If you choose to work here I wish you the best of luck and hopefully you have a better experience than most (or apply for a sales position i.e Director of Partnerships)
Good luck.
