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I worked for a startup as a data scientist, where I built and managed one of our data measurement/reporting systems. The company would routinely overstate how w
by reureu 5y ago
I worked for a startup as a data scientist, where I built and managed one of our data measurement/reporting systems. The company would routinely overstate how well their product worked, but I largely chalked it up to "fake it until you make it" -- but, they also never really worked on the "making it" part. So, our metrics quarter-after-quarter were spun and contorted to make it seem like we were still doing well. It got to the point where there were three of us that knew the real numbers, and our c-level was the only one allowed to share numbers both internally and externally. I stopped going to all company meetings because I started getting physically ill seeing/hearing the lies being told to the company, and having people comment or ask me questions after.
A new employee came in to my team, saw what was happening, and reported it internally. They did an "investigation" (but, somehow didn't interview me or anyone else who would have backed up what they had reported). The investigation found no wrongdoing and the reporting employee was told to leave.
Then, suddenly, the company decided to IPO. And those horribly misleading numbers made it into our S1, the investor decks, and continue to be routinely repeated on quarterly earnings calls. I left the company because of these issues, and now vacillate between reporting it to the SEC but figure they'd likely do nothing except burn my bridge with one of my longest employer tenures.
Anyway, you made the right decision to leave. Companies like that will never prioritize the right things, even when they're in more stable places. There are always trade offs to be made in early stage companies, but there are some things that you still should be doing regardless... there are other companies out there that take this stuff more seriously and act more ethically, but this kind of behavior is shockingly prevalent in the startup world.
- ozzythecat 5y agoWait - hold up. You just wrote this company is defrauding investors and the government, and you are an insider who knows about it. The fact it made you feel ill isn’t enough. Do society a favor and name the company. Maybe pen a paper anonymously. Is there a concern that when this information does come out, it will come back to you as one of the pre IPO leaders?
- reureu 5y agoRemember how people inside Theranos knew things weren't going well, and if they tried to say anything they got bullied into submission by the companies lawyers? There's a very real cost that comes with saying something, and that cost is weighed against the "so what" factor-- there's a lot of fraud less egregious than (say) Theranos, which gets dismissed because it's difficult to prove or unclear what the damages are. I didn't do anything wrong - I did my calculations and analysis correctly, stated the assumptions and limitations of my data, etc. Executives in my division ignored the data I produced and just made shit up for their own benefit. By disclosing what I know, I open myself up to legal threats, bad references (including back channel references), damage to mental health, and potential repetitional damage, all for something where it's unclear it'd rise to a level that the SEC or FTC would actual investigate. I'm still not decided on what to do. I've been a whistleblower at other companies, which has made me a lot of money from rewards... but it wasn't without a ton of stress in the process. So, yeah, that's all -- in theory it's an easy decision, in practice there are other considerations that make the decision more murky.