Many interviews with the firm's associates, and the CEO herself. She is a proud ,woman owned business, and from my interpretation, a real go getter as far as her vision for her company, her ability to drive new revenue sources, and her dedication for building a collaborative culture. However little signs reveal she is borderline a micro manager, but not perhaps until you've earned her trust.
So many questions were asked for this position. She would ask a question, receive an answer from me, and rebuttal with a very theoretical approach to strategy, then completely contradict herself in more discussion later.
At the end of it all. I left the interview with an unofficial offer, no mention of compensation or of benefits. Upon a followup email mentioning these two, I was presented with a lousy, and I mean lousy, benefits package, but one fairly standard for a small business.
The salary was given in a $20k wide range that caped at 31% difference in salary from my last position, which was absurd.
Side notes:
The theory of the CEO is that everyone is leaders, and should be subscribing to the theory of the critical chain, aka, should understand project management and lead initiatives that way. She offered to pay for my examination to become a PMP, except her organization really isn't a project management organization. Further, she doesn't practice these applied theories of project management ( see earlier note about contradiction in strategy and culture development).
As an experienced strategy consultant, it is often times that the brains of the operation, cannot be the head of the internal operation. The CEO needs a counterbalance, a COO, or a director of operations, to filter her creativeness and her closed deals and turn them into real results.
If she has that position open up, I'd certainly apply for it.
If the roll you're applying for fits, and you believe you have a true alignment with the the firm, then take the job... otherwise, compared to other reviews, and my experience, move on.
Till then I wouldn't apply to this company unless you like working on shifting tectonic plates.