I applied for the Country Launcher role at Feather Insurance and was invited to present a strategic market entry case study, which I had thoroughly prepared in advance. The process included a full day of meetings and presentations at their office, during which I walked the team through a detailed go-to-market strategy tailored to their expansion goals.
While the day was intense but expected, things took an unfortunate turn toward the end. Just before heading to the airport, I was unexpectedly asked to complete an additional task: outlining a 3/6/9-month rollout plan on the spot. This last-minute demand was not part of the agreed agenda and felt more like an attempt to extract free strategic consulting rather than evaluate a candidate.
Given my senior experience and the relatively modest salary attached to the role, I already saw this opportunity as a professional and financial stretch. Declining to deliver an additional strategic blueprint without prior notice was, in my view, a reasonable boundary. However, this seemed to be taken negatively by the team, and I was ultimately not offered the role.
What is most concerning—and the reason I am writing this review—is what followed. A few months after the process, I discovered through reliable industry contacts that key parts of the market strategy I had developed during the case were used in their actual launch. I have concrete proof that my work informed their go-to-market actions, despite not having joined the company and without any agreement on the use of that material.
This behavior raises serious ethical questions. In a startup and ecosystem where trust, respect, and transparency are paramount, reusing a candidate’s unpaid work without consent is, at best, careless and at worst, dishonest.