Pros
Magic Leap has achieved incredible feats of technical milestones as various systems come together. Engineers are very bright, energetic and driven. With so many different technical areas, not all of them are going without hiccups. That said the overall product is coming together beyond my wildest expectations. We are truly working on a cutting edge product that has a chance to make a dent in the world. In the last year or so, there were giant leaps of improvements in areas that used to be severely behind. To name a few: - Both IT and HR are actually becoming functional (previously, they were underperforming to the point of severely impacting engineering development). - The previous marketing team is no more (they were... ungrounded, I’ll leave it at that). The new marketing team is actually promising (despite the self agrandizing video release IMO), but the product launch will be the real test, so it’s too soon to tell. - Engineering infrastructure teams (such as build and release) now providos a minimal set of reliable services that doesn’t critically block work. - Product mentality is continually improving. Great leaps of improvement in form factor, UX, software security, and underlying software stacks, to name a few. - A lot fewer issues related to lack of equipment and resources for engineering development. - Our CEO (Rony) recently started to focus on culture and people. There was a big splash on the unveiling of company values. Company all-hands with QA sessions are becoming more frequent. It sounds good on paper, and there are some early signs of improvements (along with firings of some of the toxic individuals), but only time will tell if these will actually stick. With 1.9 billion in investment, the company is very well funded.
Cons
- While understandable, given the aggressive schedule, privacy protection still seems to be very timid in the product design. This is a critical area that Magic Leap can’t afford to overlook, given the digital threats that the world faces today. - Product vision is coming together, but every now and then, individuals who have no check-and-balance inside the company can barge in with a different product vision and waste a lot of engineering time across many teams. - Unlike our peer companies, we have to prepare/bring lunch to work almost everyday, or go drive out for a lunch break. It's one of those pennywise pound foolish strategies: save some dollars on food, and force employees to go out and take an hour long lunch break. - Unlike our peer companies, don't assume that Magic Leap gives equity refreshes (it doesn't).