Checkout.com

Nothing major. There are a lot of opportunities for this company, given the funds raised in their Series D. They can do very well with that money, only if they get their act right sooner. Read on.

I'll try not to sound too cynical.

1. The culture is getting increasingly toxic, and the will to wake up and come to work is not there anymore. I have given it a year myself. Others are not wrong to point out that there is a lot of favoritism here.

2. You'll notice a lot of people who were hired earlier have been promoted to be 'leaders' and 'managers.' It's probably the first company they ever worked for, but their approach to 'people' is lacking. If you've worked in other places, you will feel the difference.

3. Senior leaders (as they call themselves) have been hired based on friendships, and you can see that they are way out of their depth in managing their roles.

4. Very disjointed ways of working. It's mostly commercially driven, and PMs are only delivering the solutions.

5. The E-team, as they call themselves, attends regular monthly meetings, but for me, I can sense they enjoy that pedestal from a point of view of not fixing things, but more advising and 'leading' from the back rather than from the front.

6. Career progression conversations are driven off templates, so you cannot have a decent mentor-based conversation about career growth.

Unfortunately, the company has come to this stage.

There is a lot of opportunity in the payment space, and the culture in the company is not helping.

The management should think about their USP (last I checked, no senior leader had a direct answer) and advocate that down to everyone.

Review your middle management and leadership team. Doing AEMs where someone filters questions doesn't really help.

Most are here as they still believe in the potential of this company, but if the markets look up, everyone will leave except the people holding stock options, eagerly waiting for an exit.

The company is where it is now due to the actions of certain folk who have found scapegoats to sack at their will.

So, until this doesn't change and the company continues to foster this toxic culture, I don't see the company lasting more than 4-5 years.