Comments on: Fiver Media: Technical Team Lead

By: slateblue

slateblue — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:02:40 +0000

Horrible place to work. Software dev manager who never even once bothered to talk to actual devs (and who got fired later). Paranoid team lead who would second guess you every day. No thanks, I prefer to spend 8 hours a day at a place that treats me like a professional, not a 5 year old.

Some truly talented people worked there and still do (they are called something else now), but I have no clue how they do it.

By: Mustard Man

Mustard Man — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:26:43 +0000

What I read here, half is the theory, the other half…

- Riptown was changed to Fiver to disolve any assets related to the company
- The company went to down hill starting with the domain dispute, causing major disruption in new traffic/customers
- Payment processing issues – ok, let’s just call it laundering. Flipping through multiple processors to hide the funds.
- The kicker….the US federal seized +24million in funds, all customer money with the major difficulty to accept new deposits.
- Riptown/Fiver, the same company. A lot of good talent, alot of bad talent. To many rookies promoted to titles and responsibilities with no experience that a 10 year senior would take to achieve
- 2007 marketing run by an 10 year old kid in a 70 year old body. This guy caused many frustrations with employees, didn’t have a clue on what he was doing, not business plan in place and the list goes on. Somehow we got on Calvins good books and he helped destroy a good company. Golden kneepads anyone? Aside from constant advise from many intelligent people at Riptown/Fiver, calvin would not hear of it if it involved this guy (a hem, Peter Karol). One would have thought he was Calvins kid and no matter how many times he screwed up or how many ridiculous and unprofessional dealings he did, he still got the pat on the head. Thus, to the deminse Music and Fight had potential….only if the captain behind that ship wasn’t viagra induced 70 year old kid.
- And now….yes, the empire has fallen. Many offices letting people go and attempting to rebuild out of Kanawake indian reserve, which will only last as long as the Canadian govt. continues to accept them as a “sovereign nation”. But with all things, it will come to an end unless they someone regulate the legal issues behind the industry.

Wow, have the might fallen from a little to much ego, and a lot of blindness.
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By: Insider

Insider — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 02:58:43 +0000

The inside info is that this company has ran its course and all personnel will be fired or pushed or forced to move to Europe (Spain/Ireland shell company shops similar to this one) as the US DOJ and Canadian RCMP are gradually clamping down on this operation, and the future of this business is the UK, not North America. They still have gobs of money to waive around for top talent; however, this is not a top firm and does not hire top management. Historically management is an utter disaster of nepetism, personal agendas, and seedy values. If you are a top talent and you do elect to work at Fiver/Riptown/whatever current name they have, get a bonus up front and don’t make any long term planning around it.

By: wuddup

wuddup — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 05:16:31 +0000

Riptown/Fiver was a good place to work. I worked with some seriously talented developers.. It was an absolutely positive experience working with top talent. I learned alot there and really don’t have anything to complain about. I won’t comment on management or company direction, but nobody in product development can honestly claim it was a shitty place to work.

By: ex-developer-fiver

ex-developer-fiver — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:15:20 +0000

Nope, at least I didn’t get notice and in fact I noticed them when I see a stupid director of software was hired and pay no respect to developers who are doing the real job. I sensed it would go wrong and took off. And you know, last time I heard he got fired. sooner or later. It is pretty bad if you hire those self-claimed semi-technical manager, it could be a disater as they think they are so righteous.

By: Suzy Wong

Suzy Wong — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:17:01 +0000

Fiver has been a great place to work… for so many people… me included.

Most people on here ranting must have been given notice. Oh well… time to turn over a new leaf eh : – )

I would say 3 months working notice is decent… what do you expect? To retire rich? If you want complete control of your employment try being self employed or starting your own business… problem is most people dont have the balls. Then they spend the rest of the time wishing they had what their employers have… the ones that actually take the risks and have the drive and talent to put things together.

Stop griping get a life!!

By: ex-developer-fiver

ex-developer-fiver — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:58:09 +0000

It was an different and interesting environment to work. I liked it. I have met lots of good developers, good managers, I.T. support people, enjoyed the beer friday. It was a bit of usual place to work, maybe even unreal.
However management at the time got a lot room to improve, such as putting the wrong people in charge of technical teams is suicidal. Aside from legal issues, I don’t think they would be long term place to work as a developer. However there are worse place to work, to be fair.

By: sixer

sixer — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:18:19 +0000

Geoffrey, it’s true.

By: Geoffrey Wiseman

Geoffrey Wiseman — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:26:13 +0000

Wow; I can't find any confirmation of that online as of yet, but it wouldn't be shocking given the money seizures.

By: Fiver

Fiver — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:16:42 +0000

They just fired 200+ employees in Vancouver & Toronto….no notice…no severence (unless you call working notice a severence deal). Stay away form this company.