Pros
You become an expert in crisis management through any role at this company. You get some VC experience on your CV if you don’t have any yet. The suppliers realise how neurotic the founder is and as a result are generally sympathetic to you.
Cons
Due to the erratic and unpredictable nature of the founder, there is incredibly high turnover. As other people have stated, the previous reviews do not lie, and the founder is completely unstable. One of the biggest challenges of working at Valiance is having to work extremely closely with the founder. He frequently forgets the comments he made as recently as 5 minutes earlier, and when he becomes unhappy with changes in wording he specifically requested, he will launch into a tirade, bringing up any previous mistakes you have made while trapping you in a meeting room, threatening to fire you through his rant and especially if you try to leave the room while being verbally abused. If you work here, it is not a question of if but when you will have to endure this, and how often it will happen. This level of abuse creates division between the operations and investment departments, as the founder tends to single out specific individuals and subject them to intense scrutiny and hostility for extended periods. During these times, the rest of the staff tend to distance themselves from those being targeted, either out of fear of drawing attention or simple self-preservation. The result is a tense and fractured workplace environment where collaboration deteriorates, communication becomes guarded, and employees feel relief simply from not being the current focus of his anger. There is also a significant air of unprofessionalism as the founder will sleep in the office during the day and when he is awake in meetings he is unable to follow a coherent train of thought and will bounce from personal topic to personal topic while all employees are forced to listen for hours at a time, instead of being able to get through the extreme workload already on their plate. Although the founder insists that all staff work in the office and never from home, he is frequently absent for most of the day. As a result, he is often unavailable to work with you during normal hours and instead sends messages late at night, demanding your attention and showing little respect for your time. Due to the high turnover, either the operations team or the investment team is constantly understaffed. Despite the step up in your role that this understaffing requires the bonuses you receive are still under market, I would genuinely rather jump headfirst into the Thames at low tide while it’s infested with starving crocodiles than work for this founder again.
