Pros
Startup culture can be a quick way to gain skills independent. Distributive Ledger Technology shows value into the future.
Cons
As you consider Lukka as a potential employer, the stark realities of the company day-to-day contrast sharply with the company’s advertised values. Lukka lures you with the promise of joining a team of “hardworking, collaborative, and data-driven problem solvers”. My tenure at Lukka was filled with opaque management practices and inconsistent leadership. Performance evaluations were ambiguous & inconsistent with data, former evaluations, and stated performance metrics. They left me and other members on my team grappling with indeterminate expectations, or feedback we were hearing for the first time. The CEO's hands-on style often translated into decision-making deadlocks, as well as the apparent absence of a coherent strategy for middle management to guide individual contributors. This leadership disconnect extended to (what seemed to be from the outside) extravagant expenses on sponsorships and travel, signaling a misalignment with company risk associated values. Additionally, disconnect came in the form of ESG issues (in my experience) as the HR department was undertrained and ineffective in mitigating employee concerns. Financial compensation was also problematic for me. From my experience, recruiter promised bonuses and raises evaporated amidst executive travel/networking/optics, in addition to unclear targets to achieve ill defined success. Occasional sparks of my collaborative success and innovation with my peers were sadly overshadowed by the organizational climate of managerial inconsistency & selective recognition. If you’re contemplating a future at Lukka, be cognizant that despite the company’s status as an up-and-coming player in fintech innovation, Lukka harbors an internal culture that (in my experience) starkly deviates from its publicly stated principles. It is an environment (again, from my experience) where standing up for equity can be daunting; ‘yes-men’ are prioritized over innovation and hard work; and where one’s contributions can be minimized or dismissed based on external perceptions versus intrinsic achievement.