Vantaggi
Shapeways is a great place to come as a very-junior technologist looking to get some cred in the startup world. In exchange for cred, you will be underpaid deeply and sold a vision for the greatness that you can achieve by working hard. The CEO claims it is a bottom up company, and I wish it was-- the lowest levels of Shapeways are the true spirit of the company. The people you will work with who aren't in management are smart and genuine friends that you can count on to commiserate when the overarching misery settles in on you. Keep them close-- the people who have left are all doing big things at great brand-name companies. The only reason to work here is to get a "cool" venture-backed "start-up" on your resume, and work with some really wonderful people for a year or so. You'll have a lot of autonomy to figure out how to do your job and think strategically, though it is a bit of a farce as you'll never actually get to act on these plans.
Svantaggi
Slowly, you will realize that the vision you were sold was probably thought up when someone was high, not the long term strategy for a company.There is deep bureaucracy even for a small company, brought on by lack of shared goals and trust between teams (and likely the corporate history of most of the management team.) You will see that the quarterly goals are a pipe dream and no one is ever truly help to them, as there aren't enough resources to get things done-- be it a tiny budget, not enough developers, or an unwillingness to spend the money on anything but factory operations. The focus of the company shifts wildly each 4-6 months as the management panics about one short-term concern or another, while letting the long-term growth and community of the business rot. Whiplash and feeling stretched too thin are a common feeling. The company doesn't care to remove had leaders, and bad managers stay for years despite many people leaving directly due to these people. The blatant lack of a clue as to how to run a business is astounding. Employee turnover is high due to these reasons, and once you get some experience the recruiters know where to look.