- Chaotic direction. Pivoting every 6-9 months on everything that isn't the main product. The new Head of Engineering brought more stability and vision, but there is still work to be done.
- Last 2 years were hindered by a lot of spaghetti code left over from the beginnings of the products. New features are built on top of old features so 60% of the time is spent on making it work using the old code. There were internal initiatives to improve the processes, but high-level decisions are still politically motivated.
- Used to have 0 path for career progression. Promotions were given on tenure, not necessarily job fit. Things are changing for the better now, but it's still a con from 2018-2020.
- Work-life balance only works if you don't feel peer-pressured by people that completely disregard it. The company mostly looks the other way and does the minimum in terms of legal liability (voiding days off not taken within 2 years of accruing them and having everyone declare they did not work too much in a given day/week/month). You still regularly see people working 8am to 8pm with 40-50+ unused days off.
- A big promise for many people was the bonus, which would be a good incentive for the average salaries. They are now paid in April-May for the months worked the year before, but this year it was felt necessary to cut them in half. Not many were happy about this decision and I'm curious to see how it holds out next year.
- Last and only valid con for the future I'd say is that they seem to have lost their spirit. I guess success and the new focus on the US made everything less wild and more... corporate. 2020 was a sobering year to see a lot of the fun people leave and with them the culture of the company. Values are there, culture isn't. Now it's mostly a mix of early employees (true believers one would say, I would say staying because it's comfortable and because of that sweet Seed/A series/B series stock) and people that ride along a comfortable 2020 surviving "start-up" that's almost anything but one at this point.
