He reinvented himself in Silicon Valley. Some say he's running from his past.

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/17/1081201040/domm-holland-fast-stripe

by tempsy • 4 years ago

9 2 4 years ago

Investors encourage this kind of behavior because they respond to it so readily.

ttyp3• 4 years ago

'Many cars that were towed were not worth much, so owners never showed up to repossess them, which created a massive unpaid bill to the tow companies. Holland said the government should pay, while the government countered that it was Holland's responsibility.'

'When Holland was running out of cash, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he had planned to sell the personal data, like bank accounts and drivers' licenses, of more than 21,000 people obtained through his towing app.

"A driver's license detail on the black market is worth $80 and we're talking tens of thousands of these types of records," Holland told the ABC. "It is hugely valuable information for people looking to obtain that kind of detail."'

'Andriske was one of them. He received a fraction of the amount he says he was due. His lawyer wrote to Holland's company in March 2018 stating that Harvey's Towing was still owed $594,477.39 in Australian dollars (or about $423,000 in U.S. dollars), according to a document reviewed by NPR.

"He made a promise, made a promise. We get a small payment then he disappeared, mate," Andriske said in an interview, referring to his correspondence with Holland after Andriske said he stopped getting paid. "He then jumped on a plane and he's flying to America."

Andriske decided not to sue Holland. He tried to move on. Yet, he said, seeing Holland's publicity stunts and his startup's soaring valuation rankles him and other small business owners that never got paid.

"There's a lot of people he ripped off. They want their money. I know I want my money," Andriske said. "So if he's got several million over there, how about he sends a bit back over here?" he said.'

'"Domm embraces Tow as part of his journey," Alderman said. "It has made him a better CEO and Fast is a stronger company as a result."'

'Two venture capitalists who backed Fast told NPR they knew how Holland's towing startup dissolved, but did not see it as a red flag.'

'Other Fast employees describe a workplace culture not unusual for a Silicon Valley startup: Growth and sales goals constantly shifting and sometimes completely unfeasible, or "utterly irrational," as one former employee put it. Workers felt like they were sidelined for trying to align quotas with reality. When issues were raised about data and security practices, these employees said the company was slow to respond. And at the center of it a bombastic founder whose penchant for hijinks did not impress everyone at the company of some 400 people.

"The one time a week we heard from the executive team, Domm was often not there because he was skydiving," said one ex-Fast employee who, like the five others who talked to NPR, requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. "I always thought that was a great metaphor for how the entire company was managed."

Another former Fast worker said Holland seemed more interested in slickly-produced commercials featuring people snowboarding and surfing than anything else.

"They've been able to spin up an image around this company that has nothing to do with payments whatsoever," this person said. "It's just branding and optics."'

'In Fast's early stage, it contracted with about a dozen experienced Nigerian software engineers to build out a prototype of the company's product. Holland offered the developers $800 a month, or about $5 an hour, to work full time on designing and building the company's website, mobile app and features, according to a 2019 email Holland sent to engineers in Nigeria that was reviewed by NPR.

Contracting foreign labor to keep costs down is not uncommon for startups. Still, the way Holland handled the relationship raised eyebrows among Fast employees.

Fast has claimed it paid market-rate wages to the engineers in Nigeria, but two engineers in Lagos countered that the rate is lower than what many other U.S. tech companies pay. They said Nigerian tech companies pay about $1,000 a month to entry-level developers, but that this work demanded more advanced skills.'

'One of the Nigerian engineers said three months into his contract, he tried to log into Fast's Slack, a workplace communication service, and his credentials did not work.

"We just got kicked out with no notice. Slack stopped working. Domm stopped replying. It was really weird," the developer said.

But the biggest insult, according to the developers, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, was that Holland never credited them for their work. Instead, Holland, a self-taught engineer, told investors he had built the prototype himself.'

'"He fired everyone from Nigeria. He completely erased us even though we built the first version of the app he was demo-ing to VCs," one of the developers said. "A lot of people were really, really pained. It's like we never existed, but we didn't want to speak up, because we didn't want to develop a bad name in Silicon Valley."'

He reinvented himself in Silicon Valley. Some say he's running from his past.

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