Vantaggi
Experienced management who have all done successful startups before. Management is fairly accessible, with a weekly all-hands meeting and a regular all-hands offsite.
Great team of Hadoop engineers, operators and architects. If anyone can make Hadoop run smoothly, this team can.
There are plenty of perks, including Friday lunches, flexible hours, unlimited vacation, and snacks/drinks.
The company has many customers, and they seem to be happy. It seems most are increasing their purchases over time.
Svantaggi
Altiscale is not immune to the typical challenges of a startup. Sales are not landing as fast as the company had hoped, which has led to a layoff. Management continues to work on the product mix, moving up-stack in an attempt to sell to the business versus IT, forcing us to develop product and land customers at the same time. It's a juggling act that makes it difficult for everyone in the company. These cons are real, but they are pretty typical of a startup.