Pros
As the headline states, working at Impira truly offers an earnest, challenging experience that one can only get at a scrappy startup.
+ An incredible team of smart, but most importantly, caring people.
I don't think I've worked at a previous company where I legitimately enjoy working with and respect each and every one of my coworkers. We're a small enough team for that to be the whole company! Everyone here is someone I'd want to be friends with outside of the office and that I'd enjoy working with again. There is a high culture bar, and we really do commit to it, even entering the > 40 people range.
+ Broad exposure to all parts of the business.
One of the many pros of working at any well-established startup is really being able to see the planning, execution, and overall operations of any arm of the business. At Impira, there really are no barriers preventing someone from learning more about how our sales team is generating leads and demo-ing the product, or learning more about how we're testing product market fit. This transparency is baked into our culture and is also facilitated by our small size.
In many cases, I've seen coworkers go past observation and actually help out on the ground floor. In my own personal experience, I've been able to grow my knowledge around the sales pipeline, how we think strategically about our finances and financial burn, and how we execute on our marketing.
+ Lots of low hanging fruit.
Engineering. Having come from a medium-size "startup" beforehand, I was excited to join Impira and leverage all of the knowledge I had gathered from my prior work at larger companies. From improving DevX, helping establish best practices with debugging, monitoring, and alerting, to even low-hanging product feature wins, there really is a ton of opportunity here for engineers of all levels of experience to come in and make an impact.
Product. As we are still an early stage company, there is a *lot* of room for product visionaries to come in and help shape the product. I believe that the problems we are trying to tackle have not been solved well at scale, and this green field presents a real opportunity for individuals who care passionately about developing product hypotheses, contributing to the go to market strategy, and working closely with engineering and design to actually make something.
+ Rational Decisionmakers
From experience, our culture leans heavily on doing things for the right reasons and accountability. Employees who work here are challenged to reason through and provide thoughtful, reasonable justification for their decisions. We don't do things just for the sake of doing them. I personally am grateful for this culture, as it has helped me grow autonomously as an engineer when reasoning through technical decisions - both in the context of engineering but also the business's bottom line.
+ Strong investors & leadership.
Our investors are top-notch and have backed a variety of successful, big-name companies with exits. With their support comes a network of resources, ranging from potential leads to guest speakers that one wouldn't have access to individually at a larger company.
Our exec team is very strong with lots of accumulated experience in relevant industries. From my own observation and experience, they care passionately about the success of the business and the individuals working at the company.
+ Investment in Personal Career Growth
In my personal experience, leaders at this company care deeply about the individual success of all members of the team, and take care to collect and remember your feedback, action on it, and create growth opportunity when possible.
+ Great place to learn more about what it takes to be a founder, grow a business.
I came to Impira to learn more about what it takes to really grow a product and organization from scratch. In my time here, I've learned an incredible amount - both technically but also business-wise. I've been challenged to think about business problems beyond my own organization that I would never have had the opportunity or reason to at a larger company. If any of these things appeal to you, I would strongly recommend considering Impira for your next workplace.
+ Benefits
Love our health insurance.
Cons
Many of the cons that come from working at Impira are common among working at early stage startups. Depending on your perspective some of these may come across as pros.
- Less defined, more fluid career progression
Unlike big, well-established tech companies, we do not have as strictly defined career tracks. Within engineering there are clearly defined levels and goals to work towards, but these are subject to change if the company's overall trajectory accelerates or changes.
If you're looking for very secure, well-trodden career trajectories, Impira may not be the best place for you at the moment.
- High weighting of autonomy
While Impira cares deeply about internal mentorship and support, the realities of the business and its scrappiness mean that you may not get well structured hand-holding and career support that you would at a larger company.
- Work/life balance
This is incredibly common among startups, but the work/life balance at Impira is variable. There are individuals who work tirelessly, and those who take extra care to protect their personal time away from work. In my experience, Impira has been extra supportive and encouraging of individuals to take time to themselves and has never forced someone to work beyond their capacity. However, the burden typically does fall to the individual to make sure they use their time wisely and also take time to themselves.
- Flexibility
As Impira is an early stage startup, sometimes difficult and rapid decisions need to be made to reposition the business for success. This could involve changing the product focus, killing and switching to new bets, etc. These shifts can require a certain amount of flexibility. As the business matures, this will be less of a con.
