Bleeding Edge Tech and Bleeding Staff Dry - Anonymous Employee XYZ Reality Employee Review

2.0
7 Jul 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work with some of the most lovely team members on bleeding edge tech. Team was great to work in, with a great range of products and broad range of complexity. The tools have real world applications, real promise, and could change the construction sector for ever. Monthly open forum for employees to anonymously ask the CEO questions. He does answer them all.

Cons

The team I worked in is understaffed and overworked, we had too many products and too few people. The expectations are astronomical for the team size. Other teams are now run extremely lean, leading to them being overworked. There is a real divide between software/hardware teams and the engineers in the field. The engineers are running as operators of the hardware and service so rarely interact with teams in the London office. Their teams are rarely hit by layoffs, shielding them from the moral and social impact of them. Some of them have drunk too much of the koolaid. Constant monthly all hands telling us how we're doing so well in terms of sales and profitability goals. Then follow up with the second round of redundancies citing the company "needing to respond to the market". Open forum answers might be vague or unsatisfying. You live in fear of the email appearing in your inbox titled "All Hands - All Employees Attendance Required". You will proceed to watch the CEO read a script from a screen telling you your job might be on the line. Poor management, constant layoffs, staff are disposable, promise to review your pay despite never doing it. Direction was constantly changing, leaderships appetite is too big thus making it unrealistic and often needing to pivot. My role was at risk despite me being the only one with that job title, so that felt like I was being targeted. CEO and other sales team members went to Cannes a few weeks after the layoffs, posting on LinkedIn on how great Cannes is and how good the conference was. This felt tone deaf.

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XYZ Reality Response
10mo
Thank you for your feedback. As with many of our fellow tech peers, we have indeed had to respond to tough market conditions with measures that protect the future health of the business and the majority of it’s employees. These are hard decisions and they are never taken lightly. As a redundancy process in the UK has very specific legal requirements, our CEO reading from a script is simply ensuring that XYZ Reality strictly adheres to these guidelines to ensure a fair and robust process. The start-up tech environment is not for the faint hearted and there are many ups and downs. We share both sides in our monthly all-hands meetings to ensure that the business is well informed on our progress and status. It is a shame that the posts regarding the conference in Cannes offended you. Conferences that build relationships with existing and prospective clients are a very important part of business and the fact that XYZ Reality had a touchpoint with so many accounts is a good news moment for the business which we feel is appropriate to share. We wish to thank you for your contribution to the business and wish you the very best in your next endeavour.

Explore other reviews about XYZ Reality

4.0
26 Sept 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

They have an incredible product that even though it sounds buzz-wordy, it sells itself.

Cons

Hard to reach accounts, fortune 10, FANG companies are the ICP.

1.0
12 Oct 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The technology itself is impressive — truly engineering-grade AR that sets a new standard for accuracy in construction. The vision and product potential are strong, and when implemented correctly, it can deliver significant value to clients in data center construction.

Cons

Sales at XYZ Reality is run by the marketing organization, which creates major challenges for experienced sales professionals. The culture emphasizes presentation “perfection” over real-world relationship building and adaptability. Sales representatives are expected to follow scripted slide decks exactly, leaving little room for individual style or adjusting to customer dynamics — a major drawback for anyone with authentic enterprise sales experience. The majority of opportunities are tightly controlled by a few individuals, leaving minimal territory or account access for new hires. The company’s focus is extremely narrow, targeting mainly data center owners and a couple of general contractors. Unless you can independently develop a new vertical (with little internal support), success can be difficult. For sales professionals, the commission structure is also notably low. The average payout is around 3%, and reaching the top commission tier (8%) requires generating roughly $6.3 million in revenue — a threshold achieved by only one person in seven years. To make matters harder, the product is the most expensive solution in the market — more than double the cost of competitors — making it an exceptionally difficult sell, even for seasoned professionals. For American candidates, be aware that U.S. hires are typically brought on through a third-party employer, which makes job security much lower than for European employees. Once you’ve helped bring in a few key accounts, your role can be reassigned or eliminated quickly. It’s much easier for the company to part ways with U.S. staff under “at-will” employment laws, so proceed with caution. During interviews, leadership may highlight how one individual brought in an opportunity within three months of joining as a Director of Mission Critical Solutions. What they won’t tell you is that this has only happened once — in the company’s history. It’s presented as the standard expectation, but it’s the rare exception. Compounding these challenges, there have been multiple rounds of layoffs (2024 and two times in 2025), including the firing of the CRO (should have happened a long time ago), one the top-performing SDR, and most recently, the company’s second-highest-performing salesperson left after 3.5 years. These changes highlight continued instability and leadership misalignment between marketing and sales.

3
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