I've worked with the CEO/COO at Unacademy. AMA.
Though in all probability, what you've already heard is true.
What was the best moment and the worst?
Best moments were early on when we still had fancy lunches at work. Worst moments were working till 7am on Monday mornings after working through the weekend to meet ridiculous deadlines.
If lunches were the best thing or your entire career in a firm, says a lot about the firm. Good that you moved on.
What's your take on the COO, and working with him ?
Not too many good things to say here. Has the company on a leash. Listens to zero inputs and follows through whatever comes down from the CEO. Has been known to fire people at a whim. If you're working with him, it's like you're asked to not have opinions on anything. Treats everyone like garbage.
I remember Gaurav Munjal once for a role at Unacademy and he gave me a strong Lala vibe. I felt he will run the company like lala ki dukan. And it felt like Roman is there to bring them free publicity and connects of IAS officer. Is that true?
Roman is definitely the face and the brand appeal. I didn't work with him much, but I've heard he's checked out. The CEO has no regard for anybody, anything, or any time lines. He's surrounded by a bunch of insufferable YesMen/Women who live in fear of opposing him. Everyone is expendable.
More of a general edtech question but how do they not shit themselves with the massive losses and the fact that they're not really adding any value to people's lives with scammy courses designed so poorly that there's almost no practical application?
Inflated egos I guess. Plus there's not much in the way of actually checking the quality of their output. Direction from the CEO changes twice a month so there's never any time to make things of decent quality
How is Gaurav as a CEO? I read on morning context that he has a very aggressive personality. Employees are fearful of him.
Everything you've read is true and probably worse. Company direction changes every 2 weeks. Reports are thrown at people. It's not going to change since there's no opposition to any of his strategies.
Grapevine / gossip : it’s one of the company which has an executive recruiter that works very closely with the founders. When they want to get someone out who they are not able find reasons to fire, they get this exec recruiter to place them in other startups. It is a whole different story that at least 4 other new startups did fall pray to this ploy and hired these folks but cut to 3 months - regretted the hiring decisions.
People who they are not able to fire are the erstwhile founder entourage who are not competent at all but stayed bcos of being e yes-people.
I think the technology bit of the business is pretty much dead in the edtech space. Can they reach an IPO purely with their offline business? Also running a profitable brick and mortar business requires different skills. Do they have the skills required to run an offline business successfully? I think it is a sinking ship. Why are the employees not actively looking for alternative opportunities?
I don't think it's an exxaggaretion to say that the majority of the workforce is looking for opportunities outside.
They do not have the capabilities to run offline stores. They hired exceptional talent in leadership and asked them to do things that had nothing to do with their expertise. I don't think an IPO for a coaching centre is valuable. I'd be surprised if their current valuation isn't slashed by 60-70%.
How real is the Relevel program? I have heard that it is made tough on purpose so that, they can sell expensive courses after the test. How much of is it true?
I can't comment on the agenda behind courses, but the product team doesn't believe in it. The entire offering was built on an idea that the CEO thought was cool, not something that they could demonstrate a market for
relevel isn't tugh imo