Vantaggi
Design-focused company, with a niche market in their grip. Overall lovely, passionate people to work with at the IC level. Feels good to contribute to a social platform that encourages creativity over commodity and maintains a stark refusal to have ads on platform.
Svantaggi
Leadership is a, "we used to work together at [X]" club where new senior people are consistently brought in who have no experience with the target vertical simply because they formerly worked with one of the other execs.
Antiquated process and jira-over-attachment run the show, with many well-meaning, but slow-moving processes. Processes that harken back to the early 2000s waterfall-era, are enforced and monitored to the point of micro-management with the net result being ICs and managers spending more time checking boxes than accomplishing outcomes.
Execs steer the company with the whim of a day-trader chasing the next windfall. Objectives often shift drastically mid-quarter, shaking up team dynamics, hierarchy and reporting lines with little clarity beforehand of what the impetus is, or after, what the measurable outcome was. Leaving the "us vs. them" pointed inward in company discontentment rather than outward in competitor-focused togetherness.
Given all of this: it's hard to value the work you'll do, or the stock options you'll be granted.