BEYOO ONLINE - Meeting Mathieu Gouanou in person

He came to Sofia, indeed. I was quite surprised when I got a SMS on my phone from Mr. Mathieu Gouanou, saying he wants us to join him for dinner.

When all of the BEYOO ONLINE team members gathered, he asked us to do a challenge. What he wanted us was to tell him our values and imagine they are bricks. We all stand in front of a river where some crocodiles are hiding under the waters. You cannot kill them with the bricks, you cannot sacrifice team members, and you cannot even kill yourself. Metaphorically, of course.

Ultimately I revealed the answer of the logical game.

He said he believes in us. He said he wants to empower us more. He said he has huge hopes for BEYOO ONLINE and especially the team in Bulgaria.

The next two days I spent running from one side of the city to another. I made sure everything was flawless and the tasks he had written down were completed. I became a translator, negotiator and a city guide.

Everybody were excited, because we met the behind-the-skype CEO – Mr. Mathieu Gouanou in person. We thought BEYOO ONLINE will succeed. We showed him around the city, we had some ice cream and cheesecake. Everything was great. Nobody expected the huge disappointment which eventually came not long after our first meeting with him. 

Until something else happened.

BEYOO ONLINE - First Signs of Poor Management

The first project I received was beyond exciting for me. It was the overall online reputation creation of one of the best surgeons in Switzerland. I was thrilled! Medicine has always been something that I was interested in, even though I chose another path in terms of professional development.

I did my homework. Research, report – done. Creation of his social media profiles – done. The frame of his website with a great amount of information, both for him and his field of expertise – done.

Then my boss – Mathieu Gouanou decided to intervene. He set his priorities like that: 1. BEYOO ONLINE’s corporate website; 2. Clients.

This was the first sign of poor management that should have make me think is staying at BEYOO ONLINE a good career start.

My excitement was high, so I decided that since I am the one who has almost no experience, I should listen to the person who decided to develop a business himself. Big mistake. Remember, when your gut feeling tells you something, the years of experience do not matter.

The team I was working with at that time was great, but unfortunately we did not have a professional wordpress developer, who could help us set up the corporate website. At that point, our SEO specialist was doing his best to create something from scratch, even though he is good at optimizing the content, not creating the page itself. He was spending nearly two thirds of his time reading about the development process, so he could put what he has learned to work. The results obviously were not impressive, but were not shockingly poor. He did his best.

Even though we kept telling the BEYOO ONLINE’s CEO Mathieu Gouanou that the company needs a professional WordPress developer, he kept refusing to look for that specific specialist profile with the excuse that he will want a higher wage. The tricky part was that all of the company’s potential clients would need this type of specialist to work on their websites in the future.

Meanwhile were still working without contracts.

Mr. Mathieu Gouanou promised he will come in Sofia, so we could work on that aspect of the company’s further development.

BEYOO ONLINE - The Team in the Beginning

The two weeks at BEYOO ONLINE left me with mixed emotions. The beginning I spent on Skype without taking any break. Ten hours straight. No lunch, no time to chill. My eyes were blood red from the time spent in front of my computer. I was dehydrated, moody, tired, but really excited. I wanted to leave an excellent first impression, because hey, I was in a desperate need of a job.

Mr. Mathieu Gouanou introduced me to two other BEYOO ONLINE team members, who were also working from home. One of them was a girl currently living in Germany. She was "dealing" with the German region, building a strategy to target the businesses there. The other team member was living in my town - Sofia.

Apparently their work time was different the one they have previously discussed with the company owner - Mr. Mathieu Gouanou. The girl who was living in Germany was supposed to work 4 hours due to her busy schedule. She has spent more hours than what she has agreed on working.

The other girl was busy writing a content for one of the BEYOO ONLINE's clients. She was the one who was supposed to give me something like a skype training, even though I have spent a great part of the time, talking with Mr. Mathieu Gouanou. This was the reason to nearly faint in the end of week 1, after all. No lunch breaks, remember?

I was full of hopes. Eventually, all of them got broken a year and two months later.

BEYOO ONLINE - The CEO Mathieu Gouanou

After the first week of the so-called training and introducing me to a bunch of strange software was over, I started to learn more and more things about the BEYOO ONLINE's CEO - Mathieu Gouanou.

He claimed he has extensive experience in developing different IT solutions across the globe, including projects in Asia and Africa.

He said he was fortunate enough to study in Princeton. Fancy, huh? I was impressed. I thought I was lucky to have the chance to work for an Ivy League student. Well, turned out he was nowhere close to that. But I had to learn this the hard way.

Mr. Mathieu Gouanou told me different stories about projects he has been managing before BEYOO ONLINE. He said he has worked for the tobacco industry and was originally an engineer. He had the skills to sell, though.

I was left with the impression that as a Swiss citizen and an Ivy League he is very rigorous, strict and demanding. He was constantly pushing and pushing everyone.

"BEYOO ONLINE is not a management school", he said. Even though I have applied for the position of Researcher & Blogger I had to start performing completely different tasks, such as image editing and SEO. "We are in a startup mode and I have no time to perform my own tasks, because I am spending way too many time coaching you, guys", he said. We never managed to satisfy his obsession to get everything out of everything.

Nobody saw what was coming. Mathieu Gouanou was about to turn into his employee's worst enemy within a year.

BEYOO ONLINE - ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT SCAM Pt.1

I am telling this story as a spokesperson of all the people who have been lied. I don't want my name to appear anywhere close to the CEO I am going to tell you about.  

I want to tell you about a company owner, who decided to play a sick and twisted game with a dozen of great professionals. 

The story starts in the late spring of 2013. I was looking for a job in the digital marketing and socail media field. Ideally the dream job was related to copywriting, making and editing original photos and promoting those unique materials across the web. 

I lended on a job opening in one of the big Bulgaran job portals. The position was titled "Online Researcher & Blogger". BEYOO ONLINE is a company owned by a Swiss citizen named Mathieu Gouanou. This is all I could find. His LinkedIn profile didn't say that, though.

On the scheduled date and exact hour, I was online. An English speaking gentleman with French accent called me. He said he is originally from Switzerland, but his aim is to work with talented people in Bulgaria. He said this is where his French accent comes from. He introduced himself as Mathieu Gouanou - the Founder & CEO of BEYOO ONLINE. 

He explained me in detail more about his company. BEYOO ONLINE came from the phrase: "be you online", even though nobody knew how to pronounce it properly. He has been a victim of defamation himself, he said. This is why he wanted to help other people protect their image. Later on I found some information I will share soon. I have the feeling this was not a defamation at all, given his subsequent actions later.

After two hours of talking, I was welcomed on board. Thirty minutes later I got my first client. Mr. Mathieu Gouanou seemed happy to have me in his team. 

If I knew what I was dealing with, I would have never agreed on the interview to start with.