Lyst FAQ

Good benefits - health insurance, training budget, food in office.

The company doesn’t set you up for success. It’s incredibly top down for a startup. In a company of 100, there are about 8 levels on the hierarchy, and the CEO doesn’t talk to anyone below a certain pay grade. Senior management (bar a few) have no people skills and lack the leadership skills to run a company. Meetings are stifling and confrontational. Some huge egos. They say they don’t tolerate ‘brilliant’ jerks which is one of the biggest running jokes in the company. It’s a B2C company where no employee actually uses the product, let alone believe in it. A lot of people with zero understanding or respect for the fashion industry. There is no commitment to diversity. It’s a real shame because there are some very talented people there, but the turnover is ridiculous - probably for reasons listed above.

Very interesting projects and people to work with. Clear career path with line managers dedicated to help you grow. Flexible working hours / WFH The company looks after you (free food all day, free coffee, ping pong, video games area, yoga classes, Friday socials, hosting meetups, summer/christmas parties, etc.). People look after the company too! Nice onboarding process HR and the social committee are very dedicated to make sure people are happy, and always come up with great social ideas.

Cross-teams communication between engineers could be better, improvement in progress

Tons of UX research and feedback Customer oriented development Consistent codebase Great team spirit all through the company

Rapid changes of team structures lately

Office location in Old Street I met some incredibly smart people there (but then they'd just leave or be made redundant, see cons) Dog friendly until it was not anymore Training budget Some food in the office.

Oh dear, where do I start? Nothing innovative with the product at all, no value add to anyone, it's more a mega influencer "check my links" kind of business with a problematic SEO strategy, full of errors. Lyst positions itself as a fashion company, well, it is not. The company does not breathe fashion at all, it is subpar tech. It is just ads. You're fine shopping direct on Asos or Gucci or whatever online shop tickles your shopping needs. Like another review said, I have NEVER EVER, in my entire career, seen so many people leaving. After 2 years, the employee count was the same. Some weeks, we'd receive the traditional email "Someone is moving on" with 2 or 3 names at once. Then it would be "guys we decided to make this department redundant" or "we stop this project now". An HR manager left only after a few months alongside the VP of HR and talent and a talent manager. You read right, all at the same time. Good sign right? If a "friend" refers you to work there, they do not have your best interests at heart. You'll get tired of the tornado of idiocy, the cliques, the questionable and uncomfortable atmosphere, the favouritism (some promotions did not make sense at all), you'll want to get out of there as soon as possible. There was an emboldened problematic employee, going against the "no brilliant jerks" Lyst values but you would be shooting yourself in the foot thinking the execs cared about the costly values they came up with when it came to that person. They kept him over all the complaints against him. Great people left as they grew frustrated at the bad management and illogical decisions from the exec team. The exec team, most of the talent attrition is thanks to them, I suspect one of them would not pass a Turing test. They live in their own little bubble. By the way when they heard about this feedback, they decided to spread around the building. The CEO would sit somewhere without talking to anyone but another exec. When not talking, headphones it would be! What was the point man? One woman in the senior management team was just vindictive, trying to undermine any other women who proved to be better than her. Fun fact, she'd be the most vocal about women empowerment and diversity. Just laughable.

They never listened since they don't value feedback.

Company full of smart, motivated and passionate people. One of the culture values is Humble Trusted Owners, most of us fit that description, as such you are not required to scream your lungs out for someone to see your progress and achievements as we can all see it. But if it's constant praising that you're looking for, I would look elsewhere. Engineering wise, we practice internal open source, so if you see a problem in code from another team, you are within your power to go fix it, make a PR and explain why it's good. Some managers are better than others, but manager training is being rolled out, so looks like Lyst is ensuring that everyone's manager gets the support they need to manage people better. There's no blaming at Lyst as it goes against the culture, instead we work together to look at the causes, find solutions and ensure we don't have the same issue again. CEO is very approachable, it may just be a bit of a scary step to make that first step and reaching out (something I urge others to do). The offices are amazing too, makes having lunch in such a setting is quite the experience.

There's been a few hurdles Lyst has been through and it left people sour at times. Lyst failed to handle those situations properly, however it was a lesson we had to learn so that we can handle them better.