Pros
Lots of companies consider themselves `fast-paced, start-up environments`. You might see `work hard, play hard`, `self-starter`, and other buzz words that usually indicate the company overworks their employees. But things are different here. I have to say that after going through numerous launches at Mastermind.com, that our environment is very fast-paced. We simultaneously hold code standards while having to pivot in order to reach deadlines. It's not easy, but success is rewarding. Because of our incredible culture - I have never once felt overworked, unappreciated or like my concerns were left unacknowledged. The culture that the COO (Josh) has helped shape trickles from the top down. We are treated like human beings, supported and encouraged to do our best work, and be our best selves. This is especially true on the engineering team where we have worked long hours for software launches, and after celebrating our success we were given bonuses, time off, and paid for food/happy hour. I believe the reason why our software team is a successful one is that we are given the tools to succeed. We are often recognized for our achievements in company meetings. We have interesting work and responsibilities that touch every portion of our company from marketing, sales & events. We are given advancement and growth opportunities based on merit and treated like human beings when things come up in our personal life that might affect our work life. We are paid well and are able to find a strong work-life balance during non-launch periods (80% of the year). Oh, and they cater food in the office - they are very generous.
Cons
I only really have two gripes in my tenure here so far: 1) Sometimes it takes a while for middle management to weed out underperformers or those who are not culture fits (pretend to work hard/be busy, but very little output). I understand why - they are busy and do not see everything that goes on - and we have a culture that doesn't encourage comparing yourself to others (only to yourself!) but I wish we had a better objective standard for work performance in the engineering team. 2) Growth - I would like our team to grow in order to give us more manpower to crank out projects. Right now we are a lean and mean team of developers.