A Call for Change - Anonymous employee Testlio Employee Review

Dear TestLion, This response comes from the Testlio leadership team, including the Testlio founders. We first offer situational insights as context for others outside of Testlio who might have read your review. As you know, this is a hard moment for Testlio. Our company missed several financial targets from Q2 2022 through Q1 2023. With this, we made a series of tough decisions and financial cuts, inclusive of the elimination of 13 positions (~6% of our workforce) in May 2023. None of these decisions were made hastily and all of the work that we did behind the scenes was done with as much thought, care, generosity, and empathy as possible. At the same time, we’ve been working hard on improving productivity and efficiency. We gently wonder: are the criticisms you express above stimulated and/or amplified by the moment for the company? Have you shared these concerns directly within the company via one of our seven internal feedback channels? If you care for Testlio, why post an essay like this that uses negative terms generally, as if you’re able to capture the true feelings of each person in the company? Do you truly believe, for example, that the CEO of Testlio could micromanage a ~200-person company? And as you call for leaders to “stand up” to the CEO, how do you know that doesn’t happen every single day via a culture of healthy debate, aligned with our values of “challenge things” and “give a damn”? As we currently see it, your post offers generalized observations without specifics nor without what generally appear to be first-hand experiences. It places your personal perspectives on holidays and works over others who have different ways of being and working. It also repeats some things from elsewhere: there are a few other recent Glassdoor posts that offer similar perspectives. And we’ve gone into deep detail on our responses there. For example, you can read our CEO Steve’s response and perspectives, and the founders’ support for Steve, in a review from May 10, 2023. You can read Kristel’s response to a review from May 19, 2023. You can read Jaanus’s response to a review from June 8, 2023. Also, if you go back, you’ll see that Testlio’s Glassdoor rating was 4.6+ (as high as 4.8) and Steve’s CEO rating was 90%+ (as high as 96%) for a multi-year period. During that period, our financial performance was exceptional (using the Rule of 40 and other metrics). We grew, funded initiatives, and had fun along the way. Notably, many negative Glassdoor reviews have started recently, including the three referenced above, during our latest challenging chapter for Testlio, and for companies around the world. We are not offering excuses nor trying to shift perspectives. We are sorry that the business hasn’t performed better and that we’ve made decisions that may be disappointing, saddening, and even fear-inducing. As our CEO, founders, and leaders have said repeatedly: we take responsibility. And we are sorry. Yet, we also ask: if you’ve been with Testlio for more than a few quarters, might you reflect on our better and brighter days? If you care about the company and the people in it, along with the stakeholders we serve, might you lean into our internal efforts to make things better? There are myriad of ways for you to offer input and work directly to foster the improvements you seek. For example, Steve offers open office hours for anyone and does two 1-1 “Donuts” each week with TestLions of all levels in the company. We also have 7 internal feedback channels. Your manager is always available. As is your functional leader. We hope that our response to your post is understandable—and that you also see that we wrote it not only for you but for others who might read it. We conclude by asserting that we gently but firmly disagree with several of the points you’ve raised. Per above, we’ve also addressed criticisms elsewhere, on Glassdoor and within the company. Respectfully, we are focused on returning Testlio to sustainable profitability and growth, so that we can fund important initiatives, provide exceptional service to our clients, and reward the TestLions who work hard for our beloved company daily We hope that you reflect upon the questions, provocations, and invitations that we provide here; that you meditate on the beautiful 10-year history of Testlio and the essence of our company’s values, purpose, and aspirations; and that you find new energy to join us on the next phase of our journey. There are big things ahead for Testlio and we look with excitement to the future. Kind regards, The Testlio Leadership Team