Unfocused, unstructured, unprofessional, unraveling - Anonymous employee ObEN Employee Review

1.0
30 Jan 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The food (when it was available). Also if the claim to fame of a company is their food... Smart folks...if you could smell the good ones from the bad ones Had a great time commiserating with the few folks that knew what was up

Cons

Management: Was dictated top down via the marketing team, which had no business running a tech company COO co-founder is operating nothing. Disappears for weeks at a time. Fights with the CEO. Has an odd interest on young Asian girls. CEO has zero boundaries for work-life balance. Forces everyone to use 8+ communication channels and then gets mad that no one can keep up. Doesn't take responsibility for the chaos the exec team causes Cultures: Tons of gossip behind people's backs Culture clash between Chinese and international workers Lack of respect for your fellow coworker and more about how to squeeze them for all they've got. Probably borderline illegal stuff happening but somehow the legal team keeps them out of trouble Weird nepotism to promote unqualified people to run departments they had no expertise in, mostly because leadership enjoyed aggressive people > collaboration. Product Blockchain + AI + avatar = mess. It was bits and pieces of each that worked in some capacity. End users of the product didn't need or want any of the products that came out. Leadership failed to understand or see why no one would want the products. Always pivoting, always selling ideas to potential partners, never focused on nailing down a strong product-market fit. Massive smoke & mirrors show

Explore other reviews about ObEN

5.0
24 Feb 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

ObEN is a very forward-looking AI company. Their AI technology involves applications in the entertainment, clothing and FMCG industries. I worked there for three years and had a great working experience

Cons

AI is developing too fast. If the company's market-oriented applications cannot keep up with the changes of the times, it will be left behind.

5.0
13 Apr 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

ObEN is an AI and blockchain startup making intelligent avatars that look and talk like you. I love working at ObEN because 1) surrounded by brilliant folks who are experts in their specific fields (speech, computer vision, NLP, engineering, product, marketing, etc) but very humble 2) collaborative environment that encourages innovation, growth, and personal development 3) coworkers are really fun and I enjoy spending time with them both in and out of the office 4) great opportunity for personal development. I've learned more in 6 months at ObEN, then I have in 2 years at my previous job. 5) ObEN is going places. Really visionary cofounders, and with investors like Tencent & Softbank in their corner, ObEN has the potential to become the next great tech company. Stock can be really valuable one day!

Cons

Startup pace is fast and hours can be long. Sometimes timelines are aggressive and hard to meet.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All