Pros
- Free lunch and dinner before shelter-in-place. Very tasty. - The operation team really tries to build great office culture, lots of team building activities, etc. - They chose a good business problem. The leadership team has a big client base in the logistics industry - The China team is pretty strong, in particular the perception team. Lots of ex-Baidu engineers. - Heavy workload means you can learn faster.
Cons
- No work life balance pretty much since 2020. Some team members were pushed to work till 4am. CTO hosts daily meetings from Sunday to Friday that start from US time 7pm and last till late night, because they need to coordinate with the Chinese team's hours. - Important work are being shifted to China, thus no obvious way to advance your career in the US unless you are willing to relocate to China. e.g. teams don't get headcounts for hiring, or important projects to work on in the US anymore. Founding technical members in the US are being left out. Many simply left. - Mediocre pay considering the huge workload. - Technical solutions are not solid. Lots of hacks. It seems that the management's plan from the beginning, is to first attract talents in Silicon Valley for branding and funding purposes, then build a minimal viable product, then shift the work to China.