How are senior leaders perceived at AKUNA CAPITAL?

- Young company that will give you serious responsibility fast if you "earn" it. - Incredibly bright and surprisingly chill coworkers. - Fantastic tech stack, at least in terms of trading engine latency. You will not be getting picked off by faster competitors for the most part. - Office is pretty, good location. - Some of the higher ups seemed to be moving things in the right direction

- Real lack of mentorship as most of the extremely competent people leave and a lot of the leftovers in middle and senior management. At least in the trading department, you got the sense that anyone who had 2 of 3 (mathematical intelligence, trading wits, coding skills) was gone within 3-4 years or on the index desk, so it was difficult to get real mentorship if you are a forward-looking trader who wants to be evidence-based and as systematic/automated as possible. - Some of the desk heads were completely insane and/or extremely narcistic and it just really feels like there is not much you can do about it, though I'm sure this is the same at many prop shops. I had one desk head who basically ran a completely autocratic desk despite probably not being able to define standard deviation or really anything remotely technical, and everyone who remained on the desk was just fully meatriding as there was nothing actually difficult involved in the job besides the hours if you agreed with him (long gamma). - Hiring too many traders and not enough SWE. If they just had hired the top 5/10 traders in the class and 5 additional swe to work side by side with them I think the direction of the company would look a lot better. I personally felt like the over hired traders without a clear plan and made many of the new hires feel like they didn't really have a role to adding value. - 52 - 55 hours a week all in person is extremely standard, which may seem fine but understand that you don't get a real lunch break or really any significant break at all and you are looking at a screen the entire time actively thinking. Don't expect to feel energized when you get home on the weekdays unless you actually love trading. - The data storage and pipelines are a complete joke. Spend months trying to read through their documentation and understanding the db setup but the reality is it's a poorly organized mess. I spent way too much time randomly unpacking json returns that could have been simple data types if schemas were better. At least partially because of this, there was sometimes a lack of a refined rationalist/evidence based mindset and this would leak into a lot of decisions being made by theory and intuition by the people who had "earned" respect instead of that but also data, which often meant convincing other traders you were smarter than them or being louder or something.

There are definitely a lot of perks, though many are industry standard. Monthly catered lunches, free coffee and snacks, hybrid schedule, happy hours, and regular company events keep things social and enjoyable. The tech side of the business is more diverse and forward-thinking, which can make collaboration interesting. The pace is fast, and you can gain exposure to challenging projects early in your career.

The Operations side struggles with both representation and diversity of thought. Leadership and staff are overwhelmingly similar, and it’s noticeable that when cuts happen, they often affect employees of color more than others. Even if not intentional, it sends a message about the kind of “fit” leadership values. Leadership often fosters an environment where different perspectives or approaches are dismissed as “wrong” rather than valued. They hold employees to very high standards but don’t hold themselves accountable in the same way, and performance issues (even slight ones) can quickly end someone’s time at the firm. There’s been significant turnover in both leadership and employees, which speaks to the culture that’s been created: one where mistakes are not tolerated and employees feel replaceable.

There are a lot of intelligent and kind people there.

There is a lot of politics going on.

In my five months at Akuna, I can confidently say this has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in quite some time. Coming from a large hedge fund/financial services firm, the contrast in culture is truly amazing. From day one, the onboarding process was clear, structured, and I felt fully supported by my manager and team. The culture at Akuna is exactly what you want in a workplace—one that motivates you to continuously strive for excellence. I also appreciate the transparency around career progression, which is something I feel many other firms fall short on. The level of management support and exposure to leadership really pushes you to perform at your best and is one of the many ways Akuna sets itself apart.

Akuna has high standards for its employees and demands excellence. The fast-paced environment can sometimes be overwhelming, but it’s what keeps you on your toes and challenges you to always be on your A-game. It’s not for everyone, but in just 5 months, I’ve learned more here than in the last few years at my previous employer. If you're looking to seriously grow and challenge your skillset, this is the place to be.

Opportunity to learn about high frequency trading industry, leading-edge HFT tech stack, comfortable office with full service coffee bar, kitchen, frequent catered meals.

Chaotic, unstable organization with very high levels of turnover, frequent layoffs and insensitive hiring/firing practices (even history of rescinding offers days before a new hire start date). Bonuses on low side compared to peers. Limited upside career growth potential. Myopic, clubby leadership team that doesn’t invest in developing its people, preferring to favor a handful of insiders who were amongst the firm’s original hires when it was a start-up. Many of these people are unqualified to be in the leadership roles they occupy (CTO and CEO). As noted in pros, Akuna’s tech stack is modern and leading-edge as you would expect at a tech-centric HFT firm. However, the 100’s of repos and revolving door of engineers has produced a bewilderingly complex and fragile platform with a heavy technical debt load. Lots of support hours required to fix code other people wrote who are long gone. Not fun! Hiring strategy is centered on recruiting large number of smart interns and graduates from top schools, most of whom need sponsorship, work them hard, pay them modestly and then repeat when most of those people leave to make more money elsewhere in 1-3 years. Beware of joining as an experienced hire / senior engineer / engineering manager! You will be disappointed, and likely looking for a new job in a year or two, perhaps involuntarily.

Smart colleagues, fun environment with a start up feel.

Inexperienced senior management and decision makers

Great office location, really good colleagues - felt like I was working with some really clever and innovative people. Good challenges and lots of opportunity to solve complex problems. Work From Home arrangements were fair and reasonable.

Recently gone through a few leadership changes - some colleagues felt unsettled as a result. Arbitrary quarterly deadlines for software rollouts & engineering fixes - created unnecessary pressure when trying to solve for complex problems.

Nice onboarding, options theory wasn't too deep. Coworkers generally smart.

Relatively undefined organization with upper management churn and misalignment. Not a huge problem at the IC level. Advancement depends on desk.

Started with good leadership and direction.

Unable to thrive in the current economy lead to decreased bonuses and high leadership churn.

There are definitely a lot of perks, though many are industry standard. Monthly catered lunches, free coffee and snacks, hybrid schedule, happy hours, and regular company events keep things social and enjoyable. The tech side of the business is more diverse and forward-thinking, which can make collaboration interesting. The pace is fast, and you can gain exposure to challenging projects early in your career.

The Operations side struggles with both representation and diversity of thought. Leadership and staff are overwhelmingly similar, and it’s noticeable that when cuts happen, they often affect employees of color more than others. Even if not intentional, it sends a message about the kind of “fit” leadership values. Leadership often fosters an environment where different perspectives or approaches are dismissed as “wrong” rather than valued. They hold employees to very high standards but don’t hold themselves accountable in the same way, and performance issues (even slight ones) can quickly end someone’s time at the firm. There’s been significant turnover in both leadership and employees, which speaks to the culture that’s been created: one where mistakes are not tolerated and employees feel replaceable.