![]() ![]() Making the tough choices and finalist decision this semester was our panel of incredible judges. However, in this Concept world, only 10 student teams were chosen to advance. Each team that pitched offered compelling reasons to be selected, and in an ideal world, we would love to fund them all. As per usual, there was a hearty debate in the judges’ room. With a 3-minute time limit, the students’ pitches focused on stating the importance of the problem, their innovative solution, the potential market size, why they have the right team to solve the problem, and how they would use the grant if they won.Īfter the dust settled and the pitches were complete, our judges hurried off to a separate room to decide the deserving finalists. Their goal was to convince the judges from the Student Venture Fund and the local startup community that their startup idea is worthy of $5K in funding. Over two action-packed nights, a total of 30 teams took the stage to pitch their innovative ideas. This competition is the successor to the Velocity Fund Finals $5K and it is the second time we’ve run it under the new Concept name. Poor exec decision making, grossly ineffective sycophant VPs, stressed and fearful managers and directors, overworked and underpaid sales people most with no career path and likely to be gone in 6 months to a year and a half, spread thin IT, constantly changing finance, mediocre at best mostly checkout and unprofessional HR.Last week, students from the University of Waterloo pitched their early-stage startup ideas at the Concept $5K Semi-Finals hoping to be one of the 10 teams selected to move on to the Concept $5K Finals on . The layoffs and restructuring was so poorly executed I just don't have any more trust or confidence in a company I have worked at for over 5 years. ![]() I've worked here for so long and have so many friends, but it's going to be over. How are we supposed to know what this company wants from us? I cannot recommend this company to anyone. Meanwhile, mediocre performers in the same departments still have a job? It makes no sense and leaves the survivors feeling scared. We're talking people who had nothing but glowing, positive reviews. Case in point for how out of touch and full of it VP's are, almost every single one? Top performers got cut. It looks shakier than ever with a completely tone-deaf and fake army of VPs who are completely full of it. The organization is more top heavy than ever with the recent layoffs so this house of cards doesn't look "leaner and meaner" to me. Not a single person in upper management has sold anything other than Medicare supplement and hasn't used the company's constantly tweaked Salesforce platform, constantly changing quoting and enrolling platform, constantly changing dialer, and constantly changing compliance and comp plans to feed their fat salaries in years. Reports from the inside paint a picture - more. I pray the decision was a tough one to make but it's hard to state that fact with any certainty. Trading valuable experience (and salary) for another year to try and right the ship and survive as a company. In early 2022, SVG downsized approximately 30% of its workforce (or approximately 290 individuals) without notice. Couple these losses with investors unwilling to invest further and the result, by all accounts, was a last ditch effort to save the company. In 2021, SVG had an extremely high attrition rate with newly hired agents. C level employees began jumping ship and the cracks began to evolve into crevasses. So too did the constant communication internally about how successful the company was and how much revenue was being generated. ![]() Unfortunately, SVG had neither.Įventually, the "best place to work" campaigns came to an end. To scale successfully, a company must have a solid foundation and senior leadership that is fully aligned strategically. SVG heavily invested in agent growth year after year despite multiple red flags and against internal department recommendations. Then came the rapid growth and the external investors that only prioritized the bottom line. In turn, the employees were proud as well and rated the company highly because they were working to make the business successful. The company was proud of this accomplishment and proactively encouraged employees to rate the company highly. SVG was once considered a "best place to work" in Kansas City. ![]()
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