Luno reviews

Thanks for leaving such a thorough review. Let me begin by apologizing that you didn’t have a good experience at Luno. We try incredibly hard to make Luno an amazing place to work and progress, and where it doesn’t work out for some people, I really take full responsibility. Also, I can assure you that we’ve spent a lot of time reading and reflecting on this review to ensure we draw the necessary truths from it to ensure we make things better for people in a similar position. As you know we’re scaling super fast and sometimes we don’t get to fix or do things as fast/well as we should. But scaling shouldn’t be an excuse for everything, and there are many areas that we can improve on. To address some of your specific points: Different offices with different culture: this is true. Bear in mind though, a big office wasn’t like that in the beginning, it took many years to get there. Most of our other offices are much smaller and new and will take time to evolve its own culture. Some offices have grown well, others more challenging, but it’s all a work in progress and we’re spending an incredible amount of time and energy to do it right. No autonomy: ‘no’ is probably a bit of a superlative, but there have certainly been challenges across some new offices. I am under no illusion that there are many initial bottlenecks, which is understandable given our stage and pace of growth. The important thing is that the strategy of all our new offices is to ultimately be fully autonomous, but it takes time, and it’s often 3 steps forward, 1 step back. This is a high priority on my agenda and over the past few months we’ve done a huge amount to speed things up. Processes ‘designed to be concentrate power in the hands of early employees’: It's definitely not ‘designed’ like that. Like any fast scaling company, it does sometimes happen that some early employees are challenged in a certain area, and then this could become problematic. But it’s not some evil power mongering going on, it’s usually just someone out of their depth that is insecure or worried about their job etc. We have a track record of asking people like this to step aside where needed, but at the same time, in some cases it is missed or we try to first give the person a chance to develop, and then it might take a bit of time for them to get better or for us to make that change, but it is always dealt with one way or another. Free lunches ‘designed to keep you in the office and only 15 mins. Again, not ‘designed’ in any way, it’s just free food and (if you would like it) and an opportunity to sit and have lunch with your colleagues if you want to, but you can take however long or wherever you want. Collecting people from prestigious companies for pitch books: if you look at the data on Linkedin for example, you will see that there is a huge range of Lunauts, some from so-called ‘prestigious’ companies, many (if not most) who are not. We hire based on merit, and often they will be from these companies, there is no bias. When I do investor pitches, I have a team slide (that you presumably refer to), which includes logos of companies that people previously worked for, which is standard. It’s also standard to include the companies that other people would know vs ones that are not so well-known. So nothing unusual. Do time as a prison sentence: no-one is forcing anyone to do anything or be anywhere. Like any other company, we’re a good match for some, not so good for others. But there is no gun to anyone’s head. No dialogue with management and that it’s ‘one way’: I think this is a gross generalization. Can we all do better at communication generally? Yes of course. It’s something we’re constantly working on, especially in many new teams and offices where communication is a bit weaker because people don’t know one another that well, hence trying to invest more into that. Product doesn’t differentiate, marketing expected to drive all, big bet with established players in space - this is quite a lot to address but in short, if you understand our business model you’ll understand why we’re so well set up for success in our industry. For example, we are no 1 in many markets across the world, by quite a significant factor. And we’re actually the total opposite of relying on marketing for growth, almost all of our growth is organic. Act faster on toxic employees: something I 100% agree with you, we don’t always do it fast enough, and we should be better at it. Again, I sincerely apologize that you had such a bad experience at Luno. Please know that there are a lot of people working tirelessly to make it better for current and future employees, and that we’ve taken your comments on board to make sure we improve. It would be useful if you could discuss your views with me in person so I can get more detail and act better where necessary, so please whatsapp or email me if you’d like, you have my contact details. Marcus

Hi there, Thank you for taking the time to write your review. As I mentioned at our Luno all-hands in September I am grateful to have joined a company in which our employees aren't afraid to challenge and raise the questions to which there may not be a straightforward or easy solution. This is an incredibly important area of focus for both myself and the S-team. At Luno we want to create a culture of belonging, in which all Lunauts have the opportunity to become the best versions of themselves and are able to be educated about each other's lived experiences. Which of course are different for us all. At our initial Inclusion workshop in October we created a space whereby Lunauts could share their thoughts and frustrations and have created an action plan off the back of this. Firstly, to ask a group of Lunuats to review our Life at Luno guide through the lens of inclusion, and secondly to create a cultural calendar for 2020 whereby we take the opportunity to celebrate and educate others on our differences. There are of course many other actions we will be taking, and the People Team has a large responsibility to ensure our people experiences are inclusive and reviewed through the lens of intersectionality. But this is not a project with an end date, and as you point out, we cannot fall into the trap of tokenism. So, inaction is not an option for Luno, but it will take all of us to create the culture and opportunity we aspire to. Thanks Kelly