Lilt: Another Silicon Valley Cult - Anonymous employee Lilt Employee Review

Thanks for taking the time to write hard feedback. It's true that 2019 was a very hard year operationally, as we grew headcount by 3x and transitioned from founder management to a leadership team. However, the hard work paid off with our strong revenue growth and fundraise in the second half, both of which happened ahead of schedule. Re: your specific feedback: - Turnover - we revised our sales motion and operations in 2019, which meant that we had to say goodbye to teammates hired in 2018 who were no longer a good fit (for either them or us). Explanations of departures differ by case since our principle is that everyone gets to leave the company on their terms. - Unprofessional environment - I'm saddened to learn that you felt that personal lifestyle choices were judged publicly. This isn't consistent with my expectations for the team. I'll pass this feedback to our management team. - Double standards - In 2019 we did not have a WFH policy as we believed that the best way to improve operations was to work in close proximity. In 2020 we've opened two more offices, and our ability to communicate virtually has improved considerably, so we may revisit our policy. I don't agree that "many of the exec team, including the CEO often took vacations." It was a hard year, and I personally didn't take a vacation in 2019, and most of the leadership team took less than their allocation. We strive to be more balanced in 2020. - Product — Technology-enabled services is a hard business with many moving parts. Root-cause analysis is essential for improving. Findings of these analyses, which we conduct regularly, can be received as blame if they aren't presented correctly. I've had to work on this, and I've passed this feedback to our management team. - CEO 1:1s — I conduct the final-round interview for everyone who joins our team, and then follow-up with them on their onboarding experience a few weeks into the job. First impressions really matter. We do strive to constantly improve, and to my knowledge, these meetings have yielded great ideas for improving our recruiting and onboarding processes. - Understaffed teams — Our services team, which I led, was understaffed in 2019. Since our fundraise we've increased the team size, and hired a veteran leader from the industry. As someone who works long hours, I can't say that I witness anyone working 70+ weeks on a sustained basis. - Poor management — I agree that industry leadership expertise was a significant gap in 2019. Since the middle of last year we've hired an industry veteran to lead our services team, and hired a half dozen senior teammates with significant industry experience on our sales and account management teams. In 2020 we'll continue to make strategic hires from the industry. - Work-life balance — Again, as someone who does work long hours, I can't say that I've seen anyone regularly work 60-70 hours / week, and that certainly isn't my expectation. There are times—ahead of a product launch, a major customer delivery, or before the close of the quarter—when certain people do work longer hours, but that is to be expected in an early-stage startup. Unlike most startups, we do have a defined vacation allocation, and we encourage everyone to take it.