Secretlab MAGNUS Desk launch: An insight into Secretlab's culture

I’ve been awake for almost 36 hours straight now.

24 hours ago, we launched the Secretlab MAGNUS desk, something that we’ve been developing for 3 years. It was a rollercoaster ride. Audience reception was opinionated and mixed even though sales were through the roof. However, we were blown away by the media reception — the team was understandably nervous as this was our first-ever desk, but the media who received and tested it out loved it, with some even calling it the best gaming desk. The 5/5 score from T3, 100% rating from TweakTown, and a 9/10 from IGN, to name just a few, are testament to the thought and hard work the team has put into the desk over the past few years.

As crazy of an experience as it was, I’m not writing this post because of the MAGNUS launch. It’s about how I am reminded of the culture we’ve built here at Secretlab. 

You should read on if you’re curious about joining us.

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We decided to launch the Secretlab MAGNUS at 1am SGT, in order to cater to the American and European timezones. No one complained about this. 

Two hours prior to this, over 50 of our staff, regardless of whether they were involved in the launch (those involved already had all systems go), showed up to our internal Discord channel to either talk about the launch, play League of Legends, DotA, Dead by Daylight, or simply spectate and chat, and everyone had a blast.

At 12.45am, everyone stopped their games and tuned in to the Live Premiere on Facebook, while remaining on Discord to witness the launch.

At 1.10am, the Secretlab MAGNUS went live. Community, operations, customer service, communications, marketing, tech teams all started breaking out into their own groups to fight the inevitable post-launch fires. Product leaders and executives were hopping around channels to share information and solve problems together with the head of departments, managers, and associates. 

We saw many aspects that could be improved on all fronts. Almost everyone stayed up until at least 4 am to do the best they could, because we all knew that this was primetime traffic-wise. By the time the last person logged off, it was 6 am. This was unplanned for, and no one was asked to tune in to the premiere, or stay up so late to fix things. Once again, no one complained. Everyone did this despite being exhausted, because we care a lot, and were all fueled by adrenaline.

Thinking back, I realized that this is a prime example of one of the core pillars of Secretlab’s culture: Ownership. Everyone takes full ownership and responsibility for their work at Secretlab, and receives massive fulfillment and career progression as a result. Most of our Glassdoor reviews seem to corroborate—our folks take ownership of their work in a fast-paced, fast-progression environment, with a focus on critical thinking and the best ideas winning.

In my recent interviews with candidates, instead of selling the company (Glassdoor already paints a rosy picture), I find myself often warning candidates that they need to listen to us carefully on what our culture is like — if they are up for a challenge to find absolute work fulfillment and achieve a fast-tracked career. If they’re just looking for an effortless and easy ride, they should definitely reconsider. 

At the end of the day, everyone has different wants in life, which can be dependent on what stage of life one is in, and that’s completely OK. But the Secretlab culture has worked well for many of us here. The very low turnover rate, the high employee satisfaction ratings and the company’s meteoric performance (our valuation has grown 10x since our last round 2 years ago) speak for itself, and we very much want this to continue.

To all Secretlab folks: Thank you all for being a part of this incredible journey with Alaric and me, and for being amazing people to work with.