AVOID THIS NIGHTMARE AT ALL COSTS - Anonymous employee BroadVision Employee Review

1.0
18 Sept 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are a few nice folks here who got suckered in to making the horrible decision to join BroadVision.

Cons

BroadVision is by far the worst company I have ever worked for in my 30+ years of experience. I don't know where to start... The CEO - Pehong Chen was successful in the 90's and continues to have a huge ego based on his past accomplishments. He has not accomplished anything professionally since Gain Technology sold in 2002. He insists on having his fingers in every aspect of the day to day operations and constantly degrades and demoralizes employees out of fear that his precious company is failing. On the rare occasion when he does come into the office he arrives at 2pm and leaves by 4pm. The Company - BroadVision was once an e-commerce platform and has completely lost its way since then. In the last few years we've been trying to sell a knowledge management and collaboration software called Vmoso to no avail. The UI is horrendous, it's extremely complicated, and the industry is already saturated with far better products. The engineering team is constantly redesigning insignificant features per request of the CEO, the marketing team is non-existent, and the sales team can't sell Vmoso to save their lives. The business practices are terrible. Out of desperation for revenue, we forced existing customers of our other products to purchase Vmoso against their will and despite them having no desire or need to use it. BroadVision is no longer profitable and is almost out of money. There will be no additional funding and the money we have left is enough to pay salaries and keep the lights on for only a few more months. The Leadership - The egos and attitudes of the leaders at BroadVision is just one aspect of what has buried this company into the ground. The narrow-minded thinking and the repression of good ideas from new talent is toxic. It is their way or now way at all, and the leadership has no problem internally humiliating any outside of the box thinking. The Culture - It is non-existent. There are no team building activities, no social events, no happy hours, no lunches, and drinks and snacks are only for purchase. You are expected to eat lunch alone at your desk while you work and regardless of the hours you work in a day, the last person in the office "wins." It's ironic that we are trying to sell a knowledge management and collaboration software while there is very little internal collaboration and the thought of managing our internal knowledge is a joke. For the love of God, do not work at BroadVision!

Explore other reviews about BroadVision

5.0
22 Nov 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

* Talented and interesting people who have worked together on many different products * Interesting projects - New products and projects come all the time; you'll never get bored * Flat organization - The company has gone out of its way to flatten itself; so you'll never get pigeon holed

Cons

* If you are looking for a start-up w/ people in their 20's, this isn't it * If you are interested in building consumer apps, this isn't it * If you are looking for cushy job and remains constant, this definitely isn't it

2.0
17 Jul 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great location. The Pacific Shores Center is an amazing space...too bad it will all belong to Google soon. Friendly people...even if they have given up hope on the company.

Cons

Little to no chance of long term success. Outdated understanding of the market from management. While the CEO is a nice man, he does not act like a CEO. He seems more interested in how people perceive him than actual success. What CEO discourages feedback?!?! He's created an environment where no one feels comfortable sharing ideas. They simply build whatever the CEO thinks is a good idea that day, total chaos. The result is a completely unusable app that no one would ever purchase in a market that is already saturated. If the Product and Engineering team had the freedom to build something functional several years ago without executive interference, they might have something now. However, at this point, even if by the grace of God they were able to release a functional app, it's too late. They're spinning their wheels, unsuccessfully trying to create something that many others have already done.

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