Don't work here unless you want to cut your teeth in digital media/ad ops - Marketing Content Manager Lumenad Employee Review

Thank you for your feedback and for acknowledging that LumenAd has some of the best people you can find. I agree. I wholeheartedly agree that clarity of vision is essential in any business but especially in a startup like LumenAd. The company Vision and Mission define the long term ideal outcome and a high level roadmap to get you there. To be clear, our Vision is to power advertising with a standardized operating system for marketers. Additionally, our Mission is to empower marketers to make faster and more informed advertising decisions. We’ve certainly improved on our ability to articulate those over time but those changes are in pursuit of clarity not in pursuit of a Vision itself. I was therefore bummed to read that you felt as though LumenAd lacks vision. I try to find opportunities to present on our Mission and Vision regularly. For example, the last two Quarterly All-Hands both started with this specific content. I do however respectfully disagree that having a vision means being able to answer the questions of “what are we making? Who is it for? Why do they need it”. These questions speak to product strategy and go to market strategy which startups necessarily have to iterate on and test over and over again in order to determine what is the right model to scale out. At LumenAd, we’re building the world’s first Advertising Intelligence platform. We’re pulling all of the essential functions out of data viz tools, data warehousing tools, ETL tools, and ad tech firms into one single solution purpose built for managing and understanding modern ad campaigns. There’s of course no road map for this. The very nature of creating something new means that there is no “right way". There is no way forward other than through hypothesizing, testing, learning, hypothesizing, testing, learning and so forth. My job isn’t to try to avoid this process but instead to lean into it. Some individuals thrive in this environment and some individuals prefer a more mature organization that already has answers to these questions. One is not better than the other, they’re just different. LumenAd is made up, in large part, of individuals who are motivated by this environment and find it to be a great opportunity to learn, grow and advance their careers. My recommendation to job seekers is to know what type of environment you prefer and refine your search accordingly and ultimately ask the right questions in the interview process. With regards to “yes-people culture” and “no appreciation for work that takes months to see a return" - This is the first we’ve heard of our culture being characterized this way. Not at all my intention to build a company that doesn’t listen to its employees or one that gives off the impression that all efforts require immediate results. It’s for feedback like this that I hold open office hours for anyone at the company to come to ask questions, give feedback, surface concerns, etc. I would have loved for you to have used those office hours to share this. Regardless, the LumenAd leadership team has never pretended to have all of the answers. We’re always striving for improvement in the areas of management and leadership. One of LumenAd’s core values is “You have the courage to give and receive candid and honest feedback” as we really rely on everyone at the company, regardless of seniority, to surface concerns so that we can diagnose and improve together. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and best of luck on your next adventure.