15-year startup still struggling to get the business basics right - Not Recommended - Anonymous employee Oritain Employee Review

After many, many years with the business, it's been an incredible journey - and this next chapter of Oritain, for me, is the most exciting yet. Oritain offers the opportunity to work with some incredible minds, in a highly diverse, fast-paced and exciting environment. Very peronsable and approachable executive team, humble, low ego, accountable, and always on hand to support. Company has continued to support my career progression and can attest to that given my time in the business. Cliché to say but really is a company that stands behind it's values and tries to live them top-to-bottom - even during periods of transition that I've seen the company go through, but will be the first to recognise when we've fallen short. Love our broader teams, the cross-collaboration within the company, and of course, the opportunities it's provided me to travel and expand my horizons.

Can be a demanding pace at times as we continue to build out sections of the business, formalise some of our processes, and continue to grow at a rapid pace, but everyone is on hand to roll up their sleeves and support.

If you’re in with the boys’ club, you get a fat expense account.

Management can’t be trusted: New CEO has made significant staff reductions — roughly a third of the workforce within six months — despite earlier assurances to the contrary. There’s no communication as people are dismissed - it’s sport now to check the online org chart to see who has been the latest person to be axed. Toxic culture: The environment has become increasingly political, with employees feeling pressure to flatter management. New culture amounts to “the nail that sticks up is hammered down.” Operational challenges: The company faces structural issues typical of much larger organizations, despite its relatively small size (~150 employees). With operations spanning from New Zealand to London, the 12-hour time difference creates ongoing alignment challenges. People are routinely working well outside of normal hours. Very real risks to the viability of the business: The business is heavily reliant on a narrow testing niche tied to a single U.S. regulation. Competition from larger testing companies and trade disruptions from U.S. tariffs are putting pressure on both customers and revenue. Management’s recent strategic shift toward selling a “membership” model has been confusing to customers (because who wants a membership to a testing company?) Bottom line: All the classic symptoms of the Startup Death Spiral – bad decisions, yes-man culture, organizational chaos, no viable strategy for growth. Join at your own peril.