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And RT has been around for about twice as long as Google. Has a headcount of around ~300.

by infecto 3y ago

belter 3y ago
We had leaks from even the NSA...But never from the RT fund.
- danielmarkbruce 3y ago
  There are leaks.
  - kolistivra 3y ago
    Could you share some?
- vsnf 3y ago
  From Wikipedia: “Employees: Classified (est. 30,000–40,000)” Obviously the number of people working on the super secret stuff is smaller, not to mentioned each project has a compartmentalized staff, but keeping secrets at this size is going to be a tough ask. They seem to do a pretty good job, but we know they’re not infallible at it. I imagine RenTech at 1/100th the size would have a vastly easier time.
  - infecto 3y ago
    That and I believe RT has a low turnover rate.
FredPret 3y ago
It's truly inspiring that they've been able to keep their headcount low over a long period of spectacular success. Most organizations would have choked themselves on tens of thousands of bad hires long ago.
- keiferski 3y ago
  That's one thing I find interesting about hedge funds and (some, not all) finance organizations: their ability to make huge amounts of money with small staffs. IIRC RenTech's revenue per employee is something entirely absurd, in the millions.
  - danielmarkbruce 3y ago
    It's just leverage. You can leverage people, capital, technology. Many companies were built leveraging large numbers of people. Many companies leverage technology. Many companies leverage capital. Gotta lever up.
  - karmakurtisaani 3y ago
    Yep, they don't have products they need to maintain. Just enough infra to figure out the next profitable trade. Once heir models stop being ahead the curve, they can be just scrapped.
- djtango 3y ago
  Probably because it was run by mathematicians who I assume have no love for managing lots of people. Combine that with how most the company spend all their time thinking about making money and that's probably why the company never succumbed to bloat
  - FredPret 3y ago
    I think you're right. I also think they have sufficient career progression (in terms of problems solved and $$$ earned) that nobody feels the need to build a big team. Pure speculation though, I know nothing about RenTech except that the pay is... generous.
- mgfist 3y ago
  The incentives at rentec favor low employee counts. The main fund is both limited to insiders and limited in total capital, so every new hire is judged by how much they can improve returns, if they cost more than they improve, than they're a pure net negative. This is different from most orgs who can grow revenue through expansion of some sort, in which case the incentive often favors adding new employees. Not to mention the tendency for people in tech to be evaluated by how many people are in their org, further incentivizing adding headcount to signify your importance.

And RT has been around for about twice as long as Google. Has a headcount of around ~300.

belter 3y ago

We had leaks from even the NSA...But never from the RT fund.

danielmarkbruce 3y ago
There are leaks.
- kolistivra 3y ago
  Could you share some?
vsnf 3y ago
From Wikipedia: “Employees: Classified (est. 30,000–40,000)” Obviously the number of people working on the super secret stuff is smaller, not to mentioned each project has a compartmentalized staff, but keeping secrets at this size is going to be a tough ask. They seem to do a pretty good job, but we know they’re not infallible at it. I imagine RenTech at 1/100th the size would have a vastly easier time.
- infecto 3y ago
  That and I believe RT has a low turnover rate.

FredPret 3y ago

It's truly inspiring that they've been able to keep their headcount low over a long period of spectacular success. Most organizations would have choked themselves on tens of thousands of bad hires long ago.

keiferski 3y ago
That's one thing I find interesting about hedge funds and (some, not all) finance organizations: their ability to make huge amounts of money with small staffs. IIRC RenTech's revenue per employee is something entirely absurd, in the millions.
- danielmarkbruce 3y ago
  It's just leverage. You can leverage people, capital, technology. Many companies were built leveraging large numbers of people. Many companies leverage technology. Many companies leverage capital. Gotta lever up.
- karmakurtisaani 3y ago
  Yep, they don't have products they need to maintain. Just enough infra to figure out the next profitable trade. Once heir models stop being ahead the curve, they can be just scrapped.
djtango 3y ago
Probably because it was run by mathematicians who I assume have no love for managing lots of people. Combine that with how most the company spend all their time thinking about making money and that's probably why the company never succumbed to bloat
- FredPret 3y ago
  I think you're right. I also think they have sufficient career progression (in terms of problems solved and $$$ earned) that nobody feels the need to build a big team. Pure speculation though, I know nothing about RenTech except that the pay is... generous.
mgfist 3y ago
The incentives at rentec favor low employee counts. The main fund is both limited to insiders and limited in total capital, so every new hire is judged by how much they can improve returns, if they cost more than they improve, than they're a pure net negative. This is different from most orgs who can grow revenue through expansion of some sort, in which case the incentive often favors adding new employees. Not to mention the tendency for people in tech to be evaluated by how many people are in their org, further incentivizing adding headcount to signify your importance.