90% of people have quit or been fired in last 12 months
Pros
Depending on your entry level, you'll have autonomy over your day to day Most people are genuinely nice Central location / easy commute, both to factory and office Company operates in a "green" space which gives good job satisfaction Possible to negotiate a good % equity in company, everyone still gets equity Salary in line with market rate Prior experience in your position often not needed, but a culture first approach, which gives good stepping stone opportunities and looks good on CV (don't expect a reference however) If you get annoyed at anyone within the company, they're probably now fired!
Cons
You'll probably be fired, or quit (this is a genuine point) Unfortunately. the culture is very centred around working long hours and not taking holiday. At first, you get a lot of autonomy which seems great, but also no feedback on how anything is going, and then the 9pm-1am messages start coming in on Slack from the SLT saying an urgent problem has arisen and this needs solving now. Company has gone from a headcount of 100 to 25 or so in last 12 months, through various firings or people being smart enough to quit before being fired. This includes various Chief of's / SLT and 2 out of 4 founders. (Just check LinkedIn and you'll see who remains and how long your interviewer has been at Hypervolt) Sales have dropped around 85% from the peak just before the OZEV grant was taken away, and the company almost folded just before an individual investor rescued the company. This lead to a redundancy round of about 40% of staff. Then, over the next few quarters, any excuse to fire / make redundant / request people leave started. The way to remain in your position is to befriend the CEO, and comfort him that he is indeed the next Steve Jobs, while he sits and plays video games and watch YouTube in his private booth of the office, in which any vision of what he's doing is shielded by various Apple Mac boxes. The moment you stop this however, you will be on the chopping block like all others. The CTO is an incredibly smart individual who has had to watch while the company has haemorrhaged cash on various poor decisions, such as ordering 2-3 years inventory in advance "hoping" for sales, a contract for a 200 person office being signed for 2 years (with 10 people in it), competitor products catching up with all tangible features now, random job roles being hired for such as a PA to the CEO to book flights around the world for him (who got fired 5 months into the role as there was actually nothing for them to do), a full advertising campaign that was never released (because it wasn't actually very good), and now seems to have actually lost motivation or confidence in the company. The CTO is almost a reason to give the company 2 stars instead of 1. The CEO is a spineless keyboard warrior who will say one thing to your face, and then do a completely different action behind your back relying on other individuals to deliver the message. An utter coward who struggles to look you in the eye. A poor businessman who cannot deliver anything tangible, repeats unoriginal catchphrases to you over and over, and recants stories of the old days at his prior company and what the future will hold while completely ignoring the reality of now. This company won't be around for much longer than 12 months.
