I went there for a job interview in 2008. They had a vague idea of what they should do, which was more or less "revolutionize global e-commerce by facilitating cross-border trade", I guess fueled by the realization that gee, stuff is cheaper in some countries than others. They had ideas of solutions for things like shipping, price consolidation, translation and customer relations. They were also planning to take what I thought to be an insane commission per trade. I'd worked with European SMEs a lot in the past with the world's biggest search ads product, so I thought I knew what they were ready for and what they needed, and the three chats I had at Fruugo didn't really reflect this at all.

Most alarmingly, while they were in really early startup mode, they had a very front-heavy team of 'top talent' and loads of telco-pedigreed 'old boys' in the helm. I dropped off the interview process when I was told that to continue, they'll do a psychological profiling by an external consultant and that they do that for all candidates. Really. First, wow, that's expensive. Second, in a startup, the recruiting process should be all about the team and the product, not a standardized test. I told them this.

Now, I almost regret not going in for a bit more, maybe even to work with them for a while, to have a better idea of what all went wrong and if there would've been a way to save the company. Will make for a great case study, no doubt.