Not My Cup of Tea - Account Executive zLinq Employee Review

Dear Not My Cup of Tea, Thank you for the feedback. We are sorry things did not work out between you and zLinq, but we do sincerely wish you the very best in your next endeavor. The zLinq team would like to respond to your comments and thereby provide additional insight for the readers. It is wonderful that you had such a positive experience with our CEO, Tatiana Finkelsteyn. She is a true visionary, an entrepreneur at heart and one of the greatest leaders anyone will ever have the chance to work for. She is committed not only to the growth of the company, but more importantly to the growth of her employees. Her personal mission statement is “To be the best I can be and help others do the same.” As you pointed out, it is very unique to have a woman-owned technology company, which is something many people are drawn to. We agree with you 100% that zLinq has a great service. We have a 93% customer retention rate which shows we have happy and committed clients . In addition, after closing our Series B in November 2022, we are investing in improving our software, automating more processes, and adding new offerings. It is a very exciting time at zLinq! Regarding our PTO plan, zLinq offers a strong package that has been benchmarked to offer 40% more PTO days than other organizations our size. zLinq believes our employees are our #1 asset, so our benefits are designed to make them feel valued, while also balancing the needs of the business, such as getting work done and achieving results. Over the last year we have improved the documentation used in the recruiting process to better communicate and highlight the following*: • zLinq has a Flexible PTO Plan with a guideline that each employee should take fifteen (15) days of PTO evenly spread throughout their first year. After one year of employment you also get to take the week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day off with the company making it nineteen (19) days of PTO total. • On top of that zLinq also has eleven (11) holidays, which includes one (1) floating holiday that can be used to celebrate a national or religious event that is not already recognized by the company. • We also have two (2) additional “zLinq Days” per year where everyone in the company gets a surprise day off together after working extremely hard to achieve a certain milestone or goal. • The sales team has a balanced, hybrid schedule with one (1) to two (2) days per week together at our office in RINO. We believe in-person days are crucial to laugh, bond, listen to and learn from each other. Plus, our office is dog-friendly so our furry, four legged co-workers bring additional fun and joy. The team also enjoys getting together outside of work for dog walks, happy hours, or team events. • Plus, the sales team has an additional benefit of getting to work from a remote location other than your home office three (3) to six (6) days a quarter, depending on your tenure and title. This means you can travel to see friends or family without having to take additional PTO, which provides flexibility while also balancing the need to be focused on getting results. zLinq works traditional 8 AM -5 PM hours because this most closely aligns with when our prospective clients are also working. There is an 8 AM company call on Monday led by our CEO Tatiana to keep employees in the know on all things zLinq. This is especially important because things change quickly in a start-up and the leadership team feels communication is a foundation for success. The sales team also has their morning meeting two to three days a week at 8 AM to walk through topics or agenda items that are more easily covered in a group setting or discussion, which promotes collaboration and allows Sales Consultants to give real-time feedback and share ideas. Lastly, we have our one-on-ones on Friday afternoons, because this allows us to see the results we achieved for the week, set our goals for the next week and ensure there are no outstanding deliverables (both for the Sales Consultant and Manager) before we start our weekends. We understand some people don’t want to work traditional hours, therefor we are very transparent about this schedule during the interview process allowing them to find a job that will be a better fit for them. The zLinq sales program is designed around the principles of building a high-performance team that delivers results and provides Sales Consultants with the skills that will lead to a very lucrative and successful career. Sales is a metrics driven career with KPIs and Quotas where discipline, drive and grit are required to deliver quantifiable results. We understand not everyone thrives in this environment, so we recently added a Sales Assessment to help us determine if someone is wired for a career in sales. The Sales Consultant role is a hybrid position that includes responsibility for pipeline generation and the full sales cycle to signature. It is a lot to learn, so we have a mentoring methodology and a Pathway to Promotion that allows driven Sales Consultants who are hitting quota to become certified to run their overviews, then demos and lastly the full sales cycle from start to finish. Each step in the Pathway includes a job title change, one-time bonus, and increase in both base and commission. To make it official the Pathway is documented in our Sales Consultant offer letter and commission plan. We think this is a much better model than the “sink or swim” approach that many companies use. In addition, with our Series B funding we added a Sales Enablement Manager who is building out our Training and Coaching program and will be starting an SDR team as well. zLinq has built a strong culture by living and breathing our three core values: Build Trust, Get Results and Have Fun along the way. Our Gallup scores confirm this by showing our employees are more engaged than 89% of companies our size. As a fast-growing start-up we know that things are never going to be perfect. While we inevitably encounter challenges along the way, we work together as a team to overcome them to improve who we are and what we do both personally and professionally. The start-up world can be glamorized with ideas of unlimited PTO, ping-pong tables, and late starts with early afternoons. The truth is that it is the shared experience of hard work, perseverance and accomplishment that bonds a start-up team together, creating that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that so many people crave. We are thrilled to be able to offer this culture to those who are up for the challenge! Again, we appreciate your feedback and wish you the very best in your next role. Sincerely, Vice President of Sales Note – This response was written in March 2023. All future candidates and employees should reach out to zLinq for current details as they are subject to change.