Pros
I have worked at Lampo for almost 8.5 years now. In my time at Lampo, I've had unbelievable opportunities for advancement and have interacted regularly with leaders at every level in the organization—up to and including regular meetings with Dave. I simply cannot say enough good things about this place, but I'll try to break it down to some key highlights in random order: 1. ADVANCEMENT: Within nine months of being here, I was asked to help lead one of the company's biggest initiatives to date. At the conclusion of that project, I was asked to change roles and create a brand-new team within the company. A year later, that position expanded to even greater responsibilities, and it has continued to grow since then. I've never seen a company go to such lengths and spend so much time investing in their young leaders. If you work hard and have a great attitude, the leadership notices. 2. INCOME: The leadership has proactively changed my entire comp plan for the better four times so far, and my personal income continues to grow every year. Today, in fact, I received the biggest single paycheck of my career. I LOVE the way Dave and the leadership share profit! It helps all of us experience the ups and downs of doing business. We rise or fall together! 3. INTEGRITY: I've been in countless "behind closed doors" meetings with leaders at every level, including regular meetings with Dave. I've seen and heard firsthand how this place deals with business, product, and personnel problems, and I'm always blown away with the incredible integrity they demonstrate every time. Even when it comes to the painful experience of letting a team member go, Lampo errs on the side of radical generosity. 4. CULTURE: I can't imagine a harder-working, more encouraging, more hysterical, more supportive group of people. We are all champions of our culture, and we'll all defend it with everything we've got. 5. MISSION: The work we do matters. We never lose sight of that. Leadership constantly connects our work and our success to the individual lives on the other end. We're not here for ourselves; we exist to serve other people. That's a great way to start the day.
Cons
One of the biggest cons that people may not expect in coming here is learning what it's like to work for a nationally known figure. Dave is definitely in the public spotlight, and believe it or not, a whole bunch of people out there don't like him. Of course, those are mostly people who have never met him, never sat in a meeting with him, and never really heard his heart on anything. They make assumptions based on nothing but rumor and speculation, and they throw it at him. If you work here, you take some of the brunt of that hate, too. We all have to have thick skin around here, because people always love to take shots at Dave and, therefore, at those of us who work with him. As others have said, the growth of the company has put us in a bit of a squeeze space-wise. It stinks that we all can't fit in a single building anymore. And parking can be an issue if you come in a little late. This isn't a con to me, but it is to some: We don't shy away from conflict. We deal with problems around here. We don't suffer laziness, poor performance, or gossip. If someone has a problem in those areas, they're sometimes shocked to learn that we actually address those things head-on, whether it's "comfortable" or not. Watch your expectations. We have a blast, but we're serious about the work we do. Don't come here if you're scared to work hard, if you're just looking for a J-O-B, or if you don't believe in what we teach. If that's you, you won't be happy here. Last, if you're checking out the cons because you've seen a few of the horrible reviews, I'd encourage you to check the dates on those one-star reviews. There was a concerted, intentional, rather public smear campaign against Lampo in the spring of 2014. A handful of former and, sadly, current team members got caught up in that. Use your own judgement, but at least be aware of the fact that a lot of those bad reviews are clustered within a month or two of each other.