Pros
As one of the co-founders, I'm a biased reviewer, so I'll focus on some of our unique practices that I think make us the best startup to work for in Austin: - Financials are open. Employees and prospective employees have full access to our financials and as much time with our CFO as they want to ask questions. We also regularly discuss the successes and challenges of our business as a team so that if we ever experience a downturn our employees will know far in advance of any layoffs, and we can prepare for it together. - Compensation is open. We use an objective, consistent, and transparent formula for defining compensation by role, and all employee compensation (cash and equity) is available to current and prospective employees. This practice reduces inequity and bias with compensation and it encourages open discussion if something seems off. - We have a policy of 'open doors by default'. Our team is invited to participate in all levels of conversation in the company. If a conversation has to be private, there should be an explicit reason why. - Our benefits are advanced for our age. Joining an early stage startup often means passing on benefits like high quality health insurance or parental leave. With us, you'll have access to premium health insurance and 3 months of paid parental leave along with many other benefits that help support a healthy work-life balance. - We hold ourselves accountable. Two years ago we were a fairly typical tech startup with a single female employee on a team of eight. Our team recognized this problem, and we set the goal of achieving gender parity. Today, women make up 44% of our team and hold nearly half of the leadership positions. We still have a number of ways in which we fall short on our broader goal of reflecting the community we serve, but our success with this goal gives us the confidence to set ever higher ones.
Cons
While we try to mitigate many of the downsides of working for a startup, there are still many that remain: - We're first time founders. We regularly question what's considered normal, which can lead to good changes like the list of pros above, but we don't always know what we're doing and make mistakes as we learn on the job. There will be times when you'll have to 'manage up' and help us improve. - Change is constant. Most of the roles we fill didn't exist before we filled them, so new hires often help define the roles they step into. If you're uncomfortable with a little chaos, our company will be a frustrating place to work. - We don't offer a 401K. This deficiency is due to financial constraints, but we plan to offer one next year (2021) - We have limited resources. At a bigger and more established company every one of our roles would be an entire team of people. The positive side of this is you'll have many opportunities to learn and grow your skills, but this environment can be stressful at times. - Our future is uncertain. We’re trying to do things that haven’t been done before so there’s no established path to success.