Two Sigma still wants to be "geeky", despite unusual CEO appointments

Two Sigma has historically been a hedge fund of the quants, by the quants and for the quants. The departure of its founding, feuding CEOs and their undoubtedly non-quant replacements has shed some doubt on this, but the fund has stressed that it's still the fun, chill destination it always was for STEM experts.

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In a recent insights article from the fund, it revealed that finance incumbents are actually the minority, with "more than 55%" coming from a non-financial background. It attributes this to "advanced technology, and scientific rigor," and notes that this disparity is most pronounced "in engineering and modeling roles." 

Larisa Sawyer, an MD in software engineering, says the fund's tools are "similar to what you’d see at other large-scale tech companies," the implication being that Two Sigma aligns itself more with big-tech than the hedge fund industry. Indeed, when Two Sigma calls itself a "financial services" company, it puts it in quotations.

Sawyer doubles down on this comparison, saying Two Sigma has a "very different culture than you might see in a typical investment manager or investment bank," with "geeky" types common. The fund has touted various quirks like its 'hacker lab' and a recording studio, which you aren't likely to find at another hedge fund.

This makes the appointments of co-CEOs Carter Lyons and Scott Hoffman all the more bizarre. The former is a CFA charterholder and former Blackrock MD, the latter is an ex-executive at Lazard. Hardly the geeky types. There doesn't appear to have been any drastic changes in culture yet, nor complaints from the geeks over their new leaders. Reviews of Two Sigma since their appointment on both Glassdoor and Blind continue to say it is a "great place to work", calling its work-life balance "hard to beat."

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