Pros
The mission of helping small businesses was truly evident and created a level of passion among many of the employees that you may not see elsewhere. The people were great - people cared, were friendly, were always willing to help. Lots of great employees with varying experience to learn from. Very open organization - anyone can (and was encouraged to) look at data, talk to customer, ask questions about the product, provide suggestions, etc. If you were really interested in a certain area, you could very likely get involved in some form of fashion there. The culture committee did a great job of keeping people connected while being fully remote. The swag was pretty sweet, including a Patagonia sweater. Benefits were decent. Unlimited PTO, decent health/benefits. They were fairly generous in the purchase of office supplies for a company of their size. There wasn't an official budget for education but if you could make the case for something helping your role, they would support you. My work life balance was pretty good - though I know this varied greatly. The team was very open in terms of when you work. There were shared hours for meetings for collaboration but parents would often pop out in the middle day for kid pickup, and non-parents could likewise take time to run an errand here and there and make up the work later. Many of the 5 star reviews on Glassdoor came from engineering interns. The intern/co-op process is very well developed and given many of the engineers came from this program, they are very supportive and understand the types of projects that will create a positive experience. I would guess those who are happiest at Alignable are IC devs. Lots of cool opportunities in the product and lots of users since the product has been around for over 8 years. Many users who are also willing to talk and tell their interesting stories.
Cons
Logistics: There is no HR department - one of the founders takes this on, no 401k match, and no documented parental policy (they will work with you, but I would have rather it written down). My biggest struggle was working with the founders and the culture they created among the exec team that trickled down. To sum it up, they did not follow servant leadership principles. - Shiny object syndrome was strong here and as a result, prioritization was all over the place. The answer to this or that was always both. - They used their veto power pretty much any time they disagreed with a decision. There was even a hire made by one of the founders that everyone else on the hiring panel said no too. - Their communication style when people did not agree with them was often aggressive and patronizing. - They often said contradictory things and didn't seem to know what they wanted. It's fine if you want to be a top-down company, but do what you say. Don't say you want empowered teams and then override every decision you disagree with. Don't tell people to make the decision and then reprimand them when they do. - The exec team, to their credit, often recognized when things went sideways and would have discussions about how to fix it. This was great until the next time a similar situation arose and it was like that past conversation never happened. It's like if your significant other constantly cheats on you, and they apologize after every time. It's some consolation they feel bad, but you take it less seriously when they repeat the behavior. The great resignation is real, but when employees leave, it is an opportunity to learn how to do better. I had hoped to give this feedback privately but did not receive an exit interview and have heard many others didn't as well. I rarely got the sense they were willing to look inward and reflect on how they could do better; it was always not a fit, or the employee's personal issue, or some external factor.