Healthy culture, genuine people and a killer product - Engineer Manager Capsule8 Employee Review

4.0
Apr 3, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Regardless of their primary responsibility, engineers have a unique opportunity to learn a ton about Linux, compilers, security and so on while being a visible, key contributor to the company's success. The company has some (literally) world famous ICs and founders. They're yours to learn from. There is free reign for ambitious, hard-working folks to take ownership and make their mark. Historically, the company has also done well at weeding out harmful elements. The product is the only real one in the market. The company does not believe in FUD, actively educating the public on intelligent security practice and technical details. The founders are extremely smart, thoughtful, great people. All of the executives are mature with families and they've been through this all before. While the sales cycle took a little while to gain steam, it just gets easier over time. The company has a number of very high profile customers and that number is growing quickly. It is a very exciting thing to be a part of. Furthermore the company is very open to criticism and new ideas from anyone. It's on you to make a good point. They are generally very transparent about decisions after the fact.

Cons

The engineering and product organizations struggled for a while to develop the right level of communication between executives and core teams. Too many decisions (for example, on hiring) are made at the executive level without coordination or buy-in below. The engineering organization hasn't done a great job of actively distributing trust and ownership past the executive level. For example, customer interactions are handled (and bottle-necked) by one or two individuals in engineering while many other capable engineers receive no training or exposure outside their teams. Additionally, this lack of engineers exposed to market problems has led to inefficient scheduling of work over the years. For years the engineering organization also struggled to hire capable senior engineering managers. This means engineering teams are sometimes forced to optimize locally at the expense of globally smart decisions. From time to time, the engineering organization has also turned over all responsibility on key matters such as hiring practice, employee growth, and technical planning to HR, project managers, product managers or sales. The entire company is the worse for it. These groups should be treated as peers and partners, not authorities. It is not their fault. This can be reasonably fixed by building up capable, dedicated senior engineering management.

Explore other reviews about Capsule8

5.0
Apr 21, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I am a frontline manager who is part of the revenue organization. tl;dr - very happy that I absolutely made the right decision in transitioning from a bigg(er) company to a startup like Capsule8 The top two areas that I am most impressed by are: 1. Leadership Accessibility 2. Leadership Enablement Leadership Accessibility: I've never had more than one CXO be accessible. Most CXOs are very political, transactional, and brief. The CXOs at C8 are best in class; in experience, acumen, & resumes; but even with all of the accolades, our CXOs are very human and easy to approach and speak with. They are simply ambitious & passionate people who want to achieve goals. When someone who is not in the VP+ approaches them, it is such an engaging conversation. Impact? - I have visibility into what is actually going on in the business. I feel that I truly have a "seat at the table" and more skin in the game to make an impact. I am heard and know that my opinions carry weight. Leadership Enablement: From the moment I started conversations with my hiring manager (HM), enablement was integrated into the core of our conversations. When I say enablement, I mean it in the sense that someone is actively listening and painting mental images of what it looks like to achieve the goal. It is beyond a binary, "yes we can do this/no we cannot"; it is a conversation that delves into tapping into one's full potential to achieve the goal. The HM shared about the role/expectations but the conversation quickly transitioned into what I was looking for and what direction I was heading towards. There was alignment on my career trajectory and how we could see it happening at Capsule8. Thing is, HMs are notorious for making promises at the onset of the hiring process but then not delivering. Here at C8 - it is tangible, metric driven, and clear in regards to what my trajectory looks like. The promises were not empty, the promises were more so clear/reasonable with space for "things out of our control that can deviate the trajectory" but it is going well. I've been part of teams with phenomenal commercial operators that know how to build engines but lacked the leadership acumen. I've also have been part of teams that were the opposite. C8 is provides the best of both to execute on the plan.

Cons

No cons have come up for myself at this juncture of my career at Capsule8.

1
5.0
Mar 11, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Capsule8 has an extremely talented engineering staff, a large market opportunity, and a unique product in the space. Leadership is accessible, personable, and committed. The company's initiatives are pointed in the right direction.

Cons

Capsule8 has challenges that most startups face. The product needs to continue to grow to expand its addressable market, which it is, but it does take time. Competitors are targeting the space and that introduces risk, though the competition has yet to produce effective competitive offerings.

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