The fired employee of the fintech startup Longstreet received a lawsuit for $ 1 million due to negative reviews about the company on Glassdoor, Reddit, and the anonymous forum Blind.
Wyatt Troy left a negative review of LoneStreet in July 2021.
It says that while hiring Wyatt, they promised to charge an option after a year of working in the startup, but after 15 months he was fired without paying anything. It turned out that the options for LoneStreet employees are accrued only after 16 months from the date of hire. According to Wyatt’s calculations, he thus lost about $ 100,000.
Earlier, in April 2020, Troy, still working in the startup, had already left a negative response about him. He accused management of lack of experience, suspicion of employees, and building a bad corporate culture. Shortly afterward, he was released.
“If you’re not in despair, stay away from this startup as much as possible,” Troy wrote a year after his release. “Longstreet is a burning dump, and you will burn in it like never before.”
On Reddit, Wyatt wrote that the reason for his release was a conflict with one of the programmers – favorites of Longstreet. He allegedly made a mistake in the code, and Troy fixed it and reported it to management. Later, intrigues began to be woven about Wyatt, which ended in his release.
Longstreet denies the allegations. On July 19, the company filed a defamation lawsuit against him. According to CEO Ian Lampel, Troy even paid for advertising in Google Ads, so that at the request of “Longstreet” users give negative comments about the company. The lawsuit alleges that Troy was fired “for the poor quality of workmanship, lack of teamwork, inability to work with colleagues and follow management orders.”
Troy’s posts on Glassdoor and Reddit on LoneStreet called it a “shameless defamatory online campaign” and added that they could “destroy the well-being of more than 50 employees” of the startup. The head of the company even began to write insults and threats in private messages on LinkedIn.
It is noteworthy that the negative reviews on Longstreet were written not only by Troy but also by other anonymous users. They called the management of the startup “evil and vindictive”, and also claimed that Longstreet employees are forced to write positive comments online.
Meanwhile, Wyatt is going to defend himself in court. He started a crowdfunding company and has already raised more than $ 5,000 out of $ 200,000 per lawyer.
