Showpass FAQ

Pros

- The people and management are honestly great! Smart, fun, and driven - The work is challenging and interesting; goals for the future are motivating and exciting; I feel highly valued and trusted - Lots of opportunities to take on new projects and for advancement - Great compensation and benefits (stock options, regular salary reviews, lunches, events, gorgeous office, unlimited lots of vacation time) - Awesome culture; not just because of the benefits, but because I feel my team is all brilliant.

Cons

Open Office is not my favorite

Advice to Management

Continue transparency as the company grows

Pros

- Surrounded by a hard working team who are all amazing at what they do - New department leads are making a real difference in bringing processes and structure to the company - Unlimited vacation policy that you are encouraged to take - Real opportunity to grow and develop professionally, taking on new projects, working with different departments - Constantly learning new things - Feel like the company is really taking off & they have some real exciting things ahead of them.

Cons

- you are sometimes needed to work weekend and evenings, but this is to be expected in the events industry as that’s when most events take place. - Pre COVID the workplace wasn’t particularly flexible

Pros

You will be given lots of agency over your work and can shape company growth Flexible vacation policy Mostly open and fun personalities to work with You will wear many hats and use many different technologies which will fill your resume and build your career You get the chance to have your work used immediately by real people with feedback loops of customers appreciation and suggestions In house chef is a nice perk when working in the office. There are usually many snacks available as well You have opportunities to work alongside big tech companies such as Facebook and Google

Cons

Compensation has been historically average or lower than average for new hires compared to other opportunities. Options are the preferred method of getting you involved in the company but the long vesting periods on them are not compelling IMO. Brain drain was an ongoing issue during my time at Showpass No objectively stable senior talent across the teams during my time at Showpass. Spurts of long working hours which included weekends. No overtime or formal time tracking. Small gifts were sometimes given (food, drinks) in lieu of stressful times. A nice gesture still but felt like it was out of touch. No formal performance appraisal or process when I worked with Showpass. You have to have the confidence to ask for compensation adjustments on your own which can be intimidating for certain personalities. Flexible vacation policy is great but experienced push back when asking for time off depending on the season, ongoing work, and your involvement in it. No flexible work hours or work from home policies. An open office concept and pet-friendly office can be distracting. Many projects are spun up to acquire more business but then are abandoned or pushed to the sidelines. This left a feeling of "running in place" and it felt as time and effort investment had no returns.

Advice to Management

I think the biggest benefit Showpass could have is taking a more cut down approach to its scope, projects, and customers. It feels like Showpass is straddling the line on operating and identifying as an endearing company looking to grow steadily and outlast the competition, and being a hyper-growth focused company. Hands are in so many baskets which leads to a company that is so-so at many things but not truly distinguishable in the competitive ticketing market. Investing time in polishing what is currently supported and doubling down on customer support and user experience will lead to more natural growth and referral acquisitions. Showpass is positioned as a technology company, so having a CTO or more senior talent to drive the technical side of things would play nicely to support a more formal business direction. Keep doing 1 on 1 meetings between management and employees, use more anonymous feedback, and make it a priority to truly understand employee sentiment and involvement. Formal performance appraisals and feedback would have been a great asset at Showpass. Once performance can be measured, compensation adjustments and training would be a great thing to be implemented. An employee can then objectively know what it means to fill their role as a successful Showpass employee. The long cliff on options was not compelling and is not the norm for startups in my experience. I understand why they are used for newer employees but the same cliff was applied even after years of being at Showpass. This left me feeling uninvested and not feeling like a true owner even with great time and effort investment. Rethinking vesting periods for long-standing employees and implementing new ways for employees to be actually invested in the company would be of great benefit. Calgary needs more technology companies and I think Showpass has everything going for it to be a clear leader in the tech community here with a few tweaks.

Pros

This is an excellent place to grow your skillset, you will be met with new challenges every day. There are very talented/dedicated individuals in every single department and there is lots of room for career progression. Your input and contributions are actually valued. Meals everyday, dog friendly office, spin wheel with prizes for the whole company after sales. Overall a fantastic culture!

Cons

Work/Life balance can be difficult, but that comes with the startup territory and should be expected.

Pros

- Software is fairly easy to use & learn - In house chef is a nice perk - Can be a fun atmosphere to work in at times, feels like you are a part of something interesting - Access to events that can be attractive for some - Attempts to be a disruptor in the market

Cons

- Company lacks any clear direction which became even more apparent during the pandemic - Lack of transparency & leadership from the top-down - Salary is well below the industry average for most, if not all positions. Conversations around compensation don't go well. - No performance reviews meant that when it came time for raises, there was no reasoning or information to explain the lack of them or the amount - Developers & Product team were constantly pulled on and off projects, leaving inefficiencies and not knowing where they stood or what their focus should be Often felt unnecessarily overworked during the sprint sessions - The product suffered immensely from a lack of direction and also suffered from having a young leadership team in place that chased the big client again and again - Too many features were being developed too often instead of focusing on the core product offering and refining those features - Client Success team looked to be overworked with too many accounts asking too much of them - Everything related to third-party applications or hardware was hacked together poorly - Onboarding clients looked to be ineffective & lacked any real process - Sales would overpromise to make the sale and then Product & CS team would have to deal with it - What tech company doesn't have a CTO in place? - Employees were expected to work on weekends regularly - Teams don't work in cohesion & are not on the same page, departments feel siloed and independent of one another - No opportunity to grow or move up within the company, feels very stagnant - Company has an employee turnover problem but will blame it on the US exchange rate and not on lack of job progression, compensation, leadership & company culture - A great example of the lack of leadership within the company: During the BLM movement in 2020, the leadership team completely ignored what was happening and would not discuss it at all. Given that the majority of employees are 23-30, most would have liked to see them at least discuss internally and brainstorm on what the company might be able to do. Slack messages were sent to management and ignored. Yes, it is a sensitive subject but you lost a lot of respect from employees when this happened.

Advice to Management

- Focus on your niche product offering instead of doing whatever your biggest client needs at the time. Your product team will thank you. - Ditch the millennial tech company perks for better pay & better benefits - Engage employees in performance reviews so they have an idea of what is expected and how they are performing - Put a CTO in place