I've see much more limited versions of this. Living a $150k lifestyle on $65k income. Basically, blending in with the 20-something white collar scene. Then, they throw a wedding, and it removes all doubt :)
The interesting thing about that company is how badly it failed at filling executive roles with promotions from within OR experienced hands.
Fundamentally, the CTO failed because in their previous success, they built it from the ground-up. They had zero experience trying to take over a large org, came in like a bull in a china shop, and worst of all, made a lot of very costly, morale-destroying mistakes.
But see also the Chief Product Officer who left in disgrace or the quasi-COO who also left in disgrace. They were both promoted from within well past their level of proven competence.
The common thread? The CEO who made all of those decisions. Executive hiring requires a CEO with the ability to reflect on their personal shortcomings and those of the team. And then, they need the ability to attract and evaluate candidates. And even if they do that successfully, they need the ability to meld a group of these execs into a highly functional team.
Our CEO only had the ability to hire people he saw as junior versions of himself.
Better is a mortgage lender, historically a refi shop. We are more recently also a real estate agency. We sit on the buyer's side of the transaction.
OpenDoor is an iBuyer. They give sellers cash offers for houses and then flip them, helping to break the chain of sellers needing to sell one home to buy the next one. Basically they're a market maker for houses.
This past week has been surreal. We went from verge of IPO to trainwreck. Instead of celebrating with my coworkers, I'm trying to help them find new jobs. Some folks on here are saying "it's covid, it has to be done over Zoom". While true, there are so many things that were unnecessarily horrible about it. He didn't have to do it ill prepared in a messy room. He didn't have to offer severance that ends in the middle of the holidays (rumor has it he wanted to offer no severance at all). He didn't have to insinuate that the people who got fired were a bunch of cheats.
Our CEO's mouth and arrogance finally caught up to him. This has been inevitable, ever since the articles last year about his past.
He's a classic brilliant asshole. I personally think the company is really good. At least most of it is. He deserves credit for that.
But he has no idea how to run a tech company or a traditional company of this size. He has failed to build a full executive team. We're a "tech company" without executive product or marketing leadership. The only execs who stick around are the ones who can handle his abusive and erratic behavior. Some of them are really good, but we also have leaders in positions way too big for their capabilities, who owe their position to being favorites.
The strategic mistakes that led to this layoff and the horrible way it was conducted are 100% his fault. What's public is like 5% of the story. If you could see our Blind forum, you'd see how much worse it is. And I'm sure there's plenty that isn't on Blind.
