Pros
Just to clarify upfront, I’m not in leadership. I’m an individual contributor on the AE team. I wasn’t prompted to write this review in any way. This is simply my favorite company I’ve worked with in my career.
I know that we’re ramping up hiring so I wanted to share in detail why I’m so excited and why it’s such a unique opportunity, because I have a vested interest in AskNicely attracting more inspiring and motivated people to join our organization as I’ll be working with them every day.
Product- We're the #1 solution on G2 Crowd (in terms of Customer Satisfaction) in the Enterprise Feedback space. We hold that spot because it's extremely well built, very intuitive and easy to use, fast and painless to implement, and we have a laser focus on customer success with a dedicated CSM for every account.
It's the easiest thing I've ever sold, because CX tech adoption is just hitting the tipping point, and being a leader, we get inbounds all day long. Besides this, it’s a simple value proposition and it really produces fantastic results and great ROI. “Getting to the numbers” and helping prospects figure out the bottom line impact AskNicely can have on their business is straightforward. After I bring on customers, they are always thrilled with the results.
AE Team- We're building a world class SDR program, so AE's don't have to do their own prospecting. I've been here 5 months, and I'm still pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. Team members collaborate and share best practices and wins.
This is not a sales culture where you need to worry about people fighting over inbounds and arguing about who should get what. We have a great Sales Ops team that has set up our Salesforce instance well, and with so many demo requests inbound I sometimes even see AE’s offer up a demo request they just received if they’re too busy that day.
Leadership- Our CEO is visionary, our VPs are excellent at their jobs and just quality people, and our VP Sales is the best Sales mentor I've encountered in my career. He's improving our skills at an amazing pace, and his techniques make the job infinitely more fun and less stressful.
Most important, as we evolve our plan on how to win the CX solution space, we all get to contribute in our own way. Every job role has a different perspective that can lend something unique, and those opinions are solicited and respected.
Culture- This is my favorite group of people I've worked with. There's a great balance of professionalism and authenticity/friendliness.
Everyone has the freedom to own their job roles and contributions, and be creative/take risks in solving problems.
I have never felt more invested in a company as I do at AskNicely, because my ideas are heard, and when useful, incorporated into our plan for how to win the CX market. Allowing everyone to make personal contributions that are recognized and appreciated is very motivating.
Compensation- For the AE team, the compensation plan is the best I've encountered. More than fair. Excellent design to motivate and provide ample reward.
Summary- This is one of the top 5 startups in Portland right now with the potential to grow into an internationally recognized technology brand over the next 3 years. We're at 25 people in the Portland office now, and we'll grow to approximately 2x-3x that in 2019. It's an inspiring, fun environment with quality people who are all motivated to work together to be a part of something great. Leadership is solid. The product is exceptional.
Cons
It's true that we're a startup, and there are things that go with that like a certain number of processes that haven't been tightly defined yet, a lack of formal training and policy around certain things, etc. So those could be cons for some people. These things are actually pros for me, because they give me the freedom to decide how to get things done how I'd like, and the opportunity to jump on things that need to get done where gaps exist so I can make significant contributions.
If you're someone who needs to color between the lines and have their tasks clearly laid out by someone else to be able to work productively, you probably won't be happy in any startup environment.
