Pros
Geez there's a ton, where to start... Hands down some of the smartest people I've worked with. You won't find someone who's incompetent here. Which is highly valuable. No one wants to waste their time dealing with a coworker who doesn't know what they're doing. Work/life balance is never a challenge. If you're stressed and need time to go visit your family... your manager will give it to you. If you've gotten married and want 4 weeks for a honeymoon in Europe they will give it to you. If you just want to explore South America for 2 weeks, pack your bags, because they will give it to you. The time off policy is very flexible, because our leadership understands that sometimes taking some time off and taking no steps forward is better than burning yourself out and taking 5 steps back. Benefits and 401k. The 401k is not company matching, but for a startup to have a 401k and full benefits? That shows they really care about their employees. And as someone who's doing invisalign and lasik this year, I am highly appreciative. Catered lunch? Sign me up. This is hands down one of my favorite things about DataFox. Everyday we get a tasty lunch, and we get to chat with the rest of the team. Have you seen our roof deck? Free lunch in the sun with good people. It doesn't get much better. The work is exciting. We're solving a series of problems that no one else is. And that means not only is the work challenging and interesting, but that there's money to be made! And I am nothing if not a capitalist. =) Frugal/scrappiness. Maybe you've experienced this as well... working for a company where things seemed to be going great. Happy hours every week with an open bar, your coworkers ordering $100 in shots every 5 minutes. We must be rolling in money right? Then suddenly the company runs out of money... the rugs pulled out from under you, and everyone's out of a job. DataFox is different. It's not that we don't celebrate our victory's. We're just fiscally conservative in doing so. That might be because our CEO is Dutch, but it is something I cannot agree with more. Team activities and celebrations shouldn't break the bank. We're trying to build a profitable business. A bonfire on the beach, playing pool at Jillians, bowling at Yerba Buena. These are all examples of things we have done that are great team building activities that also leave the company with lots runway between fundraising. I have no doubt that given this, the company will be profitable in a few years. Which leaves me with a great sense of job security.
Cons
Our biggest strength could be considered our biggest weakness. Being a startup inherently means that sometimes things are going extremely well and other times things are on fire, broken and disorganized. The difference between Datafox and other companies I've worked for is this... when things are broken, management is transparent about it. Everyone in the office knows about any issues that arise and what we are doing to fix them. We also learn from these mistakes and use them to refine our goals and strategy going forward. Because of this transparency there is a great deal of trust and respect in our office. That is insanely valuable and unfortunately all too rare in the workplace. Processes are also work in progress. I personally love getting to wear lots of different hats and helping to lay the groundwork for future employees, but if you want something more established, you don't have to have to problem solve, then Datafox isn't for you.