Unison Reviews

There is a dark side, however: A risk-happy, growth-obsessed, and feuding leadership that makes unnecessary moonshots without any plan B. It feels as if the company is just trying to hit all the generic markers of a fast-growing tech company, instead of starting with its own unique product and circumstances and building a strategy from there. So far, most big bets have failed spectacularly, and mostly resulted in a fattened-up pipeline of prospective customers who Unison has no ability to serve. Lack of a consistent, transparent company strategy. High-level growth goals were often (but not always) defined... but little of even the basic “how” was ever aligned on. Instead, shiny new projects and investments - some of which could be stand-alone companies - were launched without much attention to cost. This strategy incoherence stems from a deficiency in operational leadership and risk management, which is the root cause of most of Unison’s problems. (This is the dark side of being able to throw yourself into any project, by the way). There is NO single person or body orchestrating the gritty interdepartmental cooperation required to sell, generate, and finance our product. The result is a difficult and maddeningly wasteful process that, as another has pointed out, has spotty QC along the way--something inexcusable for an organization as large and well-financed as Unison. While there is a well-run “Project Management Office” of PMs to help execute on individual projects, there is NOBODY upstairs when it comes to company-wide coordination, a function direly needed to rein in the chaos of any growing start-up. Multiple re-orgs were not a substitute for attentive operational and strategic leadership. This operational vacuum produces a territorial culture of suspicious fiefdoms. The blame game was every day. People were even actively resistant to sharing their department’s policy or processes with others for fear their words would be twisted against them. And without a referee, who wouldn’t be? For months, hiring went at breakneck speed without even basic product training or company onboarding. The resultant chaos and waste did not seem to trouble management until the consequences were serious enough to initiate layoffs. Unison chronically under-resources service for its existing customers, many of whom are having unforeseen difficulties refinancing their first mortgage because of Unison’s product. This problem was left to fester with no whole-company response, revealing the same old operational vacuum, but also poor values and a lack of care for the customer once the money was made.

So many cons; Leadership. Product is too expensive. Culture is a “boys club” with a mission that nobody truly believes. Company is burning through existing funding. Ask yourself a few questions; why is it that I’m only hearing about this company now - it was formed in 2006, who is running this company and what prior success do they have, why are they growing so rapidly?