Pros
The founders have taken on a monumental problem to solve and kudos to them for taking on such a challenge. They have a novel product idea which if executed well and in a timely manner can be a game-changer Opportunities to work in and solve problems in areas such as Natural Language Processing, Search, Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence Co-inventor of Unix works part time and interactions with him are great opportunities to learn. Being a small company you get the opportunity to interact with people working in different stacks of engineering as well as those in non-engineering functions and thereby expand the horizon of your knowledge Lunch, snacks and dinner are provided by the company which saves time and money. The CEO is a gifted salesperson and does a great job of articulating his product vision and ideas. The company has a very talented creative team that does a wonderful job of creating compelling media and interesting content that create buzz for the company
Cons
Pay and stock-options are sub-par. No 401K benefit Long and late hours with no option of starting early (before 9:30 am) in the day Parking is a hassle. No company parking is available. You have to part in the city parking lots and have to remember to move your car every 2 hours or risk getting a ticket from the city. The company is run like a family-run business where decisions are made by leaders who are members of the same family. The opinions and inputs of senior team members are rarely given due consideration. Priorities change way too frequently and the communication about such changes is often not done effectively. Milestones tend to be set with unrealistic timelines and failure to deliver up to expectations have serious consequences. Transparency and openness are not the company’s strong suit. Difficult and unpleasant news like voluntary or involuntary departures of employees are not handled openly across the company which leads to speculations and affects team morale In an effort to show family culture, employees are encouraged to meet, greet and give a hug to visitors who show up. While a nice trait the frequency of these interruptions is such that it ends up affecting employee productivity. A pitch that is sometimes made to potential new candidates is that nobody ever leaves Entefy voluntarily. This should be taken with a grain of salt. Performance reviews are held every quarter but these tend to go down as 3-against-1 interrogation style meetings and fall short of providing a well balanced feedback. Engineers are expected to put in 100-hour weeks but the leadership does not do a good job of inspiring the team in a way that naturally motivates them to put in the long hours. Recognition and rewards are not this company’s forte. Appreciation for effort, patience to nurture promising talent or giving engineering the benefit of doubt when things sometimes fall short of expectations are rare. It is not a surprise as such that no senior engineering leader has been able to make it through a year at Entefy. Surprisingly more focus seems to be devoted towards creating media and content for promoting the company’s brand rather than on building the product. It is a matter of concern that there is still no product available publicly. The longer this delay, the greater the chance that competition will catch up and render their product obsolete.