Vantaggi
My direct managers were definitely great to work with. They created an environment that allowed me to grow professionally very quickly. Being a small company allows for flexibility, and the opportunity to learn a lot. I definitely learned different aspects of how other roles did their jobs at Drobo which was pretty neat.
Svantaggi
Upper management was always the issue. I went through 2 acquisitions while I worked here, and neither of them worked out. As evidence of them later sold off again after I left.
During the first management staff there, the environment was pretty upbeat, and positive. However, we didn't have the right focus on marketing, and there was just a lot of shortcomings with the product. This ultimately led to a hostile takeover. With over 50% staff reduction.
The next management team that took over was actually led by the original founder. I thought he would bring a more realistic approach to handling marketing and sales. The original founder is a top flight engineer, so I was under the impression he would bring the engineering team to heel. Well that didn't happen at all. The team that was brought in was questionable at best. The CFO was probably the only executive I felt was right for the job. The folks brought in to handle marketing & sales, support, and engineering were not good for the company.
Sales and Marketing was originally led by a group of guys who actually knew what they were doing. One of these guys left because of clashing with the CEO, then other was forced out even though he had the right vision. The following management was definitely not right, as they burned relationships with long standing resellers, and focused solely on Amazon for sales.
All the other teams were led by folks who just weren't right for the job. Nothing actually improved with the newer management team.
I even stayed on for another 8 months to see if things would improve. Which they didn't. This ultimately led to me moving on, as I knew that my position wasn't going to be needed with the direction the company was going.