Workplace reviews and discussion: 瑞保網路科技股份有限公司

Afternoon tea is provided every week.

I looked over the previous comments, and they’re a bit outdated, so I’ll share my own experience.

- There was previously a post saying that one person leaves every two weeks. Based on my own observations, it was roughly one person per week at the old office and one person every 1.5–2 weeks at the new office. People were treated as disposable chopsticks—there was really no difference. Things have been a little better in the past few months.

- Although the company name includes the words “Internet Technology,” because of the CEO, it is actually entirely a financial company. It does not have much of a technology-company culture.

Example 1:

If you have seen the offices of other startups, you would probably feel that neither the company’s location nor its interior layout is very startup-like.

The new office was chosen so it would be close to the CEO and CTO’s home (they are married), and also to present the image of a financial-industry company.

The layout of the new office is actually quite traditional. If you have worked at other startups, you might find it rather strange that an office with new renovations, partitions, and furniture was designed in such a traditional way.

If you have also worked in the financial industry, you can probably understand what the CEO cares about.

Example 2:

Regarding the rules on working hours, you need to completely set aside the norms of other “technology companies.”

The above only describes the more superficial aspects, but they are enough to give you a sense that something is not quite right.

The bigger issue is that ordinary startups rely heavily on every individual, whereas here it seems that all you need to do is listen to the CEO. The long-standing culture has left the people who remain either overly deferential or constantly spouting nonsense.

This has a lot to do with the CEO’s background. The CEO often pretends to be humble, but is actually very controlling and has an inflated ego. After seeing a few things, the CEO seems to think they know everything.

Another major issue is the CTO. Because they are married, the CTO cannot provide a professional counterbalance to the CEO, which makes having that position largely meaningless. The scope of the CTO’s work is actually more like that of an incompetent manager.

This may also have led to the departure of the VP who had been there since the company’s early days. Most experienced professionals in the industry who have worked here have not stayed very long. The conclusions I heard from people I spoke with were largely the same:

- This place is suitable for young people who do not know much about anything to stay for a while.

- Cultural fit is truly very important.

There is a P2P group on LINE. It includes investors who invested heavily from a very early stage. The consensus is that the CEO likes to do things privately: “I don’t care what you say. The market is huge. I’ll do my thing, and you can say yours.”

Finally, if you are holding onto the fantasy that you should endure it for a while in the hope that the company might go public and you could get an opportunity if the shares happen to be liquidated, I strongly recommend trying another industry instead. First, the amount of equity offered is relatively small or nonexistent compared with other startups. Second, the P2P industry has almost certainly proven unable to survive in the long term.