May 29, 2018
Formlabs Response
8yI'm disappointed to hear that you had such a bad experience working at Formlabs. Formlabs is not for everyone, but no one should leave with such a negative feeling about their time here. We've made a concerted effort in the last year to add structure around performance and growth opportunities. On compensation, we've been taking a financially responsible approach (as opposed to tech startups that have raised huge amounts of money, paid big salaries, and failed quickly) which means salaries haven't been as high, but have always included significant equity which has rapidly grown in value. As we've gotten to the point where we pay salaries with our own sales and profits, we've raised compensation. Ultimately, it's an individual choice whether it's a fair deal, but many people continue to think so, including most of the best people that we've ever hired.
We are explicitly trying to hire and retain people who want to define their own careers and are motivated by working with other very talented people on challenging problems that make a real impact in the world. So far, we've executed on that. We intentionally focus on nurturing the best talent and have built a core of excellent people to drive the company forward. (Link: https://www.nolancg.com/blog/spend_the_most_time_with_your_best_employees) This has created great opportunity for many individuals to grow, despite being fairly early in their careers. We prefer to develop internally where we can (though we've certainly hired many experienced managers). This is a tradeoff, but it's a conscious choice that we believe rewards very talented people and ultimately builds a better leadership team.
The last thing we want is for people to drink the Kool Aid. Our culture of vigorous debate, rapid and direct feedback, and focus on results is how we've gotten as far as we have and how we will go much further.
-- Max Lobovsky, CEO