Pros
I spent five years at Alley and recently left at the end of February to pursue other career opportunities. My time at Alley is something I will always be grateful for and it gave me the chance to grow at a fast pace very early on in my career. I'm appreciative for Alley's CEO, Jason, who has been supportive in helping his employees thrive and actively thinking about how Alley can create value for its community. While Alley certainly experienced large amounts of growing pains during my five-year tenure (what growing company doesn't), those challenging periods taught me so much. Overall, my five year experience was incredibly positive. I'm proud knowing that the new team cares just as much about the business as the founding team members did when the business started. Change is natural and as a founder or early employee, you are just trying to do the best with what you have at the time. Not everyone will agree with your decisions, especially as the founder, but growing a company isn't for everyone. I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to be be apart of the team that helped build Alley and am excited to see how it continues to expand and creating value and accessibility for entrepreneurs.
Cons
Growing pains are a natural part of scaling a business. Things weren't always easy, but building something great never is. I had the unique opportunity to be apart of Alley through all major life cycles (pre-investment, post-investment, team growth, major partnerships, etc) and each of those periods brought on a certain set of challenges and issues. But, I do believe that building a company isn't for everyone and experiencing challenge is what you sign up for. While it's important for me to be critical, I will never have negative feelings towards my time at Alley because all of the ups and downs helped the business get to where it is now and helped me grow, both personally and professionally. Success is not a linear journey.