Pros
I joined near the founding stage, a month before they split off from Commerce Guys to form a new organization. The company was no larger than 15 people. It was an exciting time and I thought I had hit the jackpot. Being a small organization, there was lots of opportunity to leave my mark, help establish the foundations, and grow the organization. The first few months were an incredible experience. I led a small yet highly skilled team, which at the time was simply known as the 'support' team. We did so much with so little, as is usually the case at a startup. The yearly offsites were the best part. We went to places I would have never dreamed of. We did them as much as we could while the size and logistics of the organization allowed. I remember the moment we got our series B funding, it was a turning point. The company grew a lot and the culture began to change. Lots of new people coming onboard, my team growing, and my role changing. Landing larger and larger customers, getting Magento Cloud off the ground, and then seeing Adobe acquire them. Lots of change. Good and Bad.
Cons
From the beginning I felt like an outsider. I wasn't part of the 'inner circle'. I was never allowed to fully demonstrate my abilities. Within a few months the CTO (the original one) made several 'strategic' decisions that ended up hurting the performance of my team. It was done in the name of 'security'. I never had any malicious intent nor (to my knowledge) ever displayed reason to suspect it. It was very perplexing indeed. I felt sabotaged. A small startup with limited resources shouldn't put artificial barriers. I kept a positive attitude. I worked within the confines my team and I were placed into. As my team grew we found ways to get stuff done. We were problem solvers. But the friction was forming. I remember being at the first offsite 8 months after I joined. We were at a small beach party in the evening. The CPO [the original one] was drunk. He wasn't the official CPO back then. He was known as "the Intern", but he did everything a CPO would do. He began spilling his guts and let slip his real feeling about me. I didn't think much of it at the time, but today, it sure answers a lot of questions. Through the years situation continued to deteriorate. I was shutout from everything. My talents ignored. It was clear the CTO or CPO didn't want me near the technology. For some bizarre reason I was never able to gain their trust. I was a leader in name only. My situation was not unique. There were similar cases of things going on throughout the company. I read some of the recent reviews. They are on point with what I expect. Unfortunately I took part in hiring most of those people who today hold top posts. I interviewed them, I hated them, but the choice of who to hire (apparently) wasn't up to me. I was a leader in name only. I saw those terrible people get promoted one by one through the years. It was devastating and mind boggling. I'm sorry to everyone past, present, and future who suffers under them. Those individuals shouldn't be anywhere near those top roles. Eventually the mental anguish became too much and decided to leave. After a few months of 'giving up', the CTO got the message, I finally saw the way out and took it. During my exit interview with the CTO he admitted to the lost opportunity in working with me. Looks like the CTO and CPO got replaced. The current COO was a sales guy who started around the same time I started. Something's certainly off with that. The CEO is a nice guy, but he's too disconnected.