Pros
- Interesting technical problems to solve in multiple different product areas
- Architectural stack is relatively modern
- Management is flexible and enables you to work on the skills that you want to develop
- (This was my particular position) Great stock option packages
- Revenue is growing fast and steadily. It certainly fits the mold of a J-curve startup.
- No politics; I truly came to appreciate this over time
- No inflated egos in engineering
- Management team is composed of industry veterans (Amit Pandey, Murali Basavaiah, etc.), who are competent and experienced with multiple successful acquisitions under their belts already.
- Backed by tier-one VC firms (Asheem Chandna from Greylock, who invested in Rubrik and AppDynamics, and Barry Eggers from Lightspeed, who invested in Nimble Storage)
Cons
- (Not necessarily a con) I've noticed that the people who really thrive here tend to be more self-directed. Although management has provided more structure over the last couple years in engineering, you need to proactive to chase the best engineering opportunities within the organization. Frankly, this just comes with the territory in any startup.
- (Also, not necessarily a con) The engineering culture really functions based on "shoulder taps". Of course, although engineering documentation exists and was a valuable asset for me during my on-boarding, the easiest path to ramping as an engineer is grabbing people with a shoulder tap, call or Slack message. I have noticed that this is firmly baked into Avi's engineering DNA.
- I wish there were more diversity amongst the workforce. Folks are truly friendly at Avi, and I wish that more underrepresented groups in technology could share the same experience that I had.