Pros
Highly skilled technical talent Fast-moving team willing to take risks and challenge the status quo Transparent financial information to all employees (we all knew the runway and our monthly spend) Active effort to hire diversely, despite the challenges in the aerospace industry Employee-positive equity compensation Most of the team is very friendly and fun to work with. While talented, most don't take themselves too seriously. Topher (the CEO) and rest of the supporting team is very good at fundraising Decent health benefits for an early-stage startup Decent compensation for aerospace
Cons
Grind-focused culture Abandoned positive culture and core values when the going got tough In practice, replaced the stated core values with "By Any Means" Inexperienced managers, especially for the HR / People Ops Inconsistent messaging on priorities and future work Painful development environment as a flight software / GNC engineer (auto-generated Simulink combined with a dated C++ flight software framework) Increasing focus on phasing out remote work and focusing on in-person work