MarketFinance Reviews

Pros

People are nice despite working in an environment designed to keep people down despite the promise of progression. Managers even mention that staff are underpaid.

Cons

Leadership is shocking. Elitist and has no ability to relate to people in the company. Disengaged who love to use buzz words but always comes across as awkward. It's so poorly run the turnover is high and not because 'people cant cut it in the environment' (Why would you let those people in in the first place) People leave because there is no plan to make the feel welcome and people are thrown about and expected to learn on the fly with no training. No diversity on the exec team. My interview process was all men.

Pros

People you work with are great but so many people leave because the culture is poor so its hard to build good friendships.

Cons

Senior leadership need to be across everything within the business, ambition for growth is tempered as founders become blockers to decision making processes. Culture can't be one of ownership because co-founders need to be the final decision makers. Demonstrated by the fact 9 members of senior leadership from Sales, Risk, Marketing, HR, Tech left the business in 2019. No way to assess culture because mechanisms were removed eg. survey, town hall questions with opportunity for feedback. Leadership is reactive and only looks short term, so roles are precarious and insecure. Sales strategy and leaders changed 3 times in 2019 so there is no way for people to adapt and succeed. No commitment to diversity really outdated in a fintech - all male board & C-suite, no senior leaders responsible for diversity, this isn't of strategic importance. Quarterly outlook forces people to change gears every 12 weeks so no way to grow and plan your next role, also training budget cut by 50% in 2020 so basically unusable given the cost of external courses e.g. CFA. Business is too reactive so you can't take control of your growth. Office space is tired and untidy, resources and tech are limited e.g meeting rooms. Generally not a nice environment to work in.

Pros

The company has a great attitude toward celebrating people's achievements. When you pass probation, you get a free Amazon Kindle and free books. There is a high level of transparency from senior leadership regarding company decisions and the reasons behind them.

Cons

There is a high level of instability in the senior leadership team (C level), with members joining and leaving the company frequently.

Pros

There are some really good people working at MarketFinance and the business attracts excellent talent, great vibe on the floor, good Shoreditch office location, excellent at managing its brand, strong social media presence.

Cons

MarketFinance struggles to retain management team members and there is a hire-and-fire culture in sales. In pressure situations, the CEO defaults to micro-management and constant restructuring. As a result, his direct reports never stay there long, leading to uncertainty throughout the shop. During the second half of 2019, the head of sales, VP sales, chief commercial officer, CFO, VP Finance, Head of FP&A and VP operations all resigned, and earlier the head of talent also left. The CTO, CFO, VP People and COO roles were vacant for most of the year. No matter how you spin it, that is just not good business and some underlying business problems are therefore not fixed.