Pros
Interesting idea to start a business on alternative datasets. Except hundreds of companies are doing the same thing.
Cons
Do NOT be tricked into joining this company. The vast majority of its problems originate from the CEO Erez Katz. In a nutshell, I have never seen a CEO so easily mislead employees and interviewees, waste time controlling every minutia of everyone’s work, waste money on an outdated janky product that he stubbornly clings to, or drive away talented people with his condescension and threats. A good way to assess a CEO is to look at their track record. His previous company Lucena Research, which has plodded along for many years but hasn’t been a success (in an era of booming fintech companies). That speaks for itself. When in doubt, find former employees of Neuravest/Lucena Research on LinkedIn and ask them what it was like. They would LOVE to tell you. Here are the details: The Lies 1. Company financials --- your bonus will be tied certain revenue targets. So naturally you'll ask what current revenue is, and he'll claim a certain amount. Surprise! None of this existing revenue counts to your bonus. Some new hires left lucrative opportunities because they believed this very big lie. 2. ML capability --- during your interview, he’ll exaggerate the firm’s ML capability. Surprise! The few ML experts left the company after being fed up with the CEO. With ML in such high demand, why would they tolerate being controlled, lied to, and intimidated with termination on a regular basis? This retention problem is why he resorts to hiring naive students as interns to do the bulk of the work. 3. Work from home --- during your interview he might say the work from home policy is flexible. Surprise! Another lie. 4. Job description --- forget your prior experience. Forget the job posting. Your job will be to do whatever arbitrary thing he says on any given day. 5. Read the reviews for Lucena Research. There is one honest (negative) review and then a slew of forced positive reviews posted on the orders of the CEO. This is typical of how he misrepresents himself and Neuravest. The Constant Control and Rules (in a startup?!) 1. Morning meetings as a form of control --- you’ll quickly learn he just wants to oversee everything you do. He also uses meetings to openly belittle or intimidate employees. 2. He makes up rules on the fly and then scolds you for not following them. Be prepared for constantly moving goal posts that you didn’t even know exist. 3. He regularly threatens people with termination. 4. He is based in Atlanta so you’ll be miserable if you’re placed there. But apparently he now takes regular, wasteful trips to NYC in order to micromanage the NYC employees also. 5. He will message you late at night to give you an arbitrary order that directly contradicts or disrupts any progress you made. 6. While every major tech company in the world has instituted work from home, this CEO demands people work in the office to ‘build company culture’ .... but you’ll learn there is no culture and he just wants to constantly oversee employees. Note that Neuravest has no requirements for vaccination, testing, or masks. It’s demoralizing to walk into an empty, dark building as everyone else in corporate America safely works from home. 7. As you sit miserable at your desk, don’t even think about glancing at your phone. Not even once. He’ll threaten you if you do. 8. Coworkers talking with each other in the office even for 10 minutes is not allowed. 9. The benefits, vacation days, and sick days don’t activate immediately, and your vacation days do not carry over each year. Consider these policies while the job market is smoking hot. The Lack of Expertise/Self-Awareness 1. He does not deeply understand machine learning or finance. Ironic since this is a fintech company. He knows enough buzz words that might convince some people that he’s an expert in something. When you interview, ask him questions about ML or finance and you’ll see he lacks depth in either field. 2. He speaks to grown adults as if they are children. 3. I have worked for brilliant, inspiring, empathetic managers.... he is not one of them. The end result is a struggling company that tricks talented employees to join, only for them to quickly leave as they become disillusioned with a demoralizing, incompetent CEO.
