Smartness Reviews

4.5

90% would recommend to a friend

(35 total reviews)
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Luca Rodella

90% approve of CEO

85% positive business outlook

Smartness has an employee rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, based on 35 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Smartness employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

35 reviews
2.0
31 Jan 2025

Good potential wasted

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some talented and supportive colleagues make the work environment rewarding, offering valuable opportunities for learning and growth. Remote work options provide flexibility and a good work-life balance. There’s a strong chance to expand your professional network, as you can collaborate with a variety of people across different teams and disciplines.

Cons

The CEO has no real training or meaningful experience outside of Smartpricing and a series of likely failed micro-startups. Despite this, he forcefully inserts himself into every project and team—including development—offering opinions that resemble those of a stubborn 10-year-old rather than a competent leader. Even after hiring internationally experienced managers, he disregards their expertise, leading them to leave within months. I’ve witnessed him lecturing former Amazon-level professionals on how to write emails or why his demos were superior—an astonishing display of arrogance and incompetence. His leadership is nothing more than a thin layer of flashy slogans masking years of poor decisions and failed ideas, creating confusion and driving talent away. The company stays afloat thanks to a handful of truly skilled individuals, like the CTO and a few overworked, underappreciated all-rounders scattered across different teams. These people silently take on real problems and try to keep things running despite the chaos.

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Smartness Response
1y
I know who’s writing, and I genuinely feel sorry about this message. If my approach was inconvenient in any way, I sincerely apologize. I'm also sorry that we had to part ways and that the last performance review was negative (and that you probably didn’t expect it). That said, I truly appreciate the feedback—it will definitely help me refine my approach and deepen my understanding of how to better support my colleagues in the right way. A few points about what you mentioned: I don’t give lectures during demos—that’s actually my co-founder, Tommaso, our CRO. Why does he do that? Because he has an incredible amount of experience in selling our product and the highest conversion rate in the company (well above 50%). No one else has achieved that level of success, so even if someone comes from "Amazon," Tommaso can still add value to them. The same goes for emails, response rates, and follow-ups—his track record speaks for itself. Some of the world's top founders had never scaled anything before building their first big company (which makes this assumption quite offensive), and many weren’t technical founders (or experienced CTOs)—think of the CEOs of Airbnb (industrial design), Amazon (who never wrote a line of code for the company nor was a famous CTO), Apple (Steve Jobs), Virgin (Richard Branson), and Alibaba (Jack Ma). So I’d say I’m in good company (and I've been studying these topics for the last 15 years) :) Sometimes, smart people assume that solving hard problems requires complex, time-consuming, and overly structured solutions. But that’s not always the case. More than once (actually, many times) in our company, we’ve over-engineered things, only to realize that the solution was much simpler—and sometimes, the "problem" wasn’t even a problem at all. Very glad that you liked our tech team so much :) I’d be happy to jump on a call to chat and dig deeper. With love, Luca
1.0
31 Jan 2025

Unstable Leadership and Micromanagement Create

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are some genuinely nice and talented professionals in the company, though unfortunately, many of them don’t stay long. Most of roles provide opportunities to start working on different tasks, which can be valuable for someone looking to gain experience and expand their skill set.

Cons

The work environment is often impacted by extreme micromanagement, making it difficult to take ownership of tasks or work on personal pace. Every call and message is being monitored, sometimes it looks like result has less value than control over people.

1.0
14 Jan 2025

Looks can be deceiving

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Remote work flexibility with opportunities to meet in person. - Timely payments.

Cons

- A significant lack of marketing knowledge within management, which disrupts workflows and impedes progress. - Disrespectful and unprofessional behaviors that hinder productivity and create a toxic team dynamic. - No clarity or roadmaps. While I understand startups evolve quickly, going in blindly without providing even a basic strategy for the incoming quarter to the team creates confusion and inefficiency.

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Smartness Response
1y
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We truly value honest input as it helps us improve and create a better environment for everyone. Here are some points we’d like to clarify: - Glassdoor Reviews: Employees are invited to leave reviews only after their first 30 days of onboarding, allowing sufficient time to form a genuine perspective about the company. Additionally, leaving a review is completely voluntary and no pressure is applied. - Clarity and Roadmaps: We acknowledge that startups can face challenges with rapid changes and evolving priorities. That said, we are actively working on improving clarity by providing more structured roadmaps and better communication on strategic plans to avoid confusion and inefficiency. - "No Jerks" Policy: We are firmly committed to upholding a respectful and professional workplace culture. If there have been behaviors that contradict this principle, we take such concerns seriously and encourage employees to report issues so they can be addressed promptly. We sincerely appreciate your feedback and are committed to making the necessary improvements. If you’d like to discuss any of these points further, please feel free to reach out to us directly. We’re always open to constructive conversations.
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Glassdoor has 176 Smartness reviews submitted anonymously by Smartness employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Smartness is right for you.