Pros
Wow. I love working here. I joined Fast in March and have just been pleasantly surprised at every turn by the people I work with. Our senior leaders recognize that what we are trying to do is REALLY hard and are committed to making Fast the best "remote first" company in the world. Here are the things that stand out to me on why Fast is a great place to work: LEADERSHIP - Domm (CEO) + Allison (COO) cofounded Fast and are genuinely good people. They care about their employees (there are 228 Fastronauts as of 7/22), invest in us and make time for each of us. The enthusiasm that they both bring to work each day is infectious and definitely has a positive impact on our output. The other thing I've noticed that both of them do is share. They share what's going on in the company. They share what they're dealing with. Sometimes it feels like we're being let in on a "cool secret" of what's to come. And people appreciate that. The people I get to work with each day are motivated and empowered to build a great company because Domm + Allison and their leadership team give people the space to do so. CULTURE - One thing is clear to me is that everybody who works here wants Fast to be a great place to work. And goes out of their way to make it so i.e. in a sales role, I regularly meet with people on our product, marketing and engineering teams. Everybody is curious. Which just makes the working environment feel very collaborative. There's also a constant question from people across different departments that sounds like, "How can I contribute?" or "What else can we do to make this a great company to work at?". Our Slack channels are very active on multiple work fronts but there's also fun channels like: #outdoor-adventures, #fluffstronauts (employee pets), #fast-tracks (music) and #teamfun DIVERSITY - is an active discussion across the company in hiring, in employee activities and in values i.e. Something that has been encouraging is that our Head of Recruitment has made a point to hire female engineers (which is not the norm for a tech company). We also have an Employee Resource Group call "Fast For All" which meets biweekly and is actively tackling D&I initiatives. COMP + BENEFITS - Domm + Allison have made a point to pay people what they are worth. As far as I know, Fast is paying tech city (SF/NYC) salaries to people wherever they are. One of my favorite benefits of working at Fast is that we're a "remote 1st" company. Meaning people can choose where they live and work i.e. I live near Lake Tahoe. Our SVP lives in Utah. Our CEO lives in Tampa, FL etc. And if an employee wants to go in an office but doesn't live in SF Bay Area (HQ), they can work in any WeWork globally. My other favorite benefit (maybe not really a benefit?) is that we hired a full-time Wellness Director who is responsible for the physical, mental and physiological well-being of ALL Fast employees. He takes his job seriously and personally trained Domm for a year before coming onboard...meaning he has Domm's full support + resources to be effective. Every day he does a "Wellness Snack" on Zoom at 11:45am and a few re-occuring core workouts throughout the week. I try to make it at least 3x per week. We do things like stretching, body movements and body weight exercises to get our blood pumping and out of our "Zoom" chairs. And then finally, we have 401k matching, gym stipend, WFH stipend, equity package, team care packages 1x per month, full healthcare, dental, vision GROWTH - Currently, we're a small, hungry, eager and highly motivated team. We have great investors and we are starting to onboard some HUGE customers. Couple things I love about where we are at re: growth: 1) Everybody gets the value proposition....like instantly...like even my Grandparents understand "in concept" what we offer. And that's rad. 2) Our marketing team is made up of a bunch of wizards which gives the company a lot of credibility and acknowledgment when we're talking to prospects/brands/partners etc. 3) People love our brand and can buy cool merch in our apparel store 4) This is a rocketship and it would be a good idea to get on.
Cons
Because of how Fast we're growing and the momentum we have, sometimes that "cons" aren't as obvious. Some of the key points I would suggest our team look at are 1) hiring best practices + hiring the "right" people 2) Continuing to invest in resources for remote workers i.e. placing an importance on mental health. The cons I see: HYPERGROWTH - For the most part, it seems that the leadership team as a whole is aligned around our growth strategy and is being provided the resources to scale their teams. Early on, its critical that we provide leaders/managers with training, space and maybe even coaching to ensure people aren't consistently overwhelmed THIS JOB IS HARD - Just like at any startup, building a company from scratch into a "unicorn" or a future public company, is not an easy task. People work long hours, there's stress, there's probably a little anxiety that people experience and personally, from a sales perspective, it isn't to win deals all the time. This company requires a lot effort. Fortunately, we like the position we're in and we're confident we can over deliver on value with our products.
