Pros
Summarizing my time at Even into pros and cons won't entirely do the experience justice but I'll try to keep this focused: 1) People & culture. I was an early employee so when I refer to the "team" I mean the whole company, which was ~10-15 people during my tenure. I was lucky to spend a decent amount of time with the founders and other early employees, and got to know everyone really well. A few things stood out as rare: -- Everyone was really supportive of each other. There was an incredibly high value placed on performance, in terms of output and quality of work - but I never doubted that everyone also cared about each other's well-being. I relocated from the east coast to join Even, and was encouraged (not just permitted) to take frequent trips back home to ease the transition. There was a high degree of trust and maturity within the team which meant flexible work styles/schedules. This kept everyone honest and allowed us to focus on solving the problems that matter. -- Similarly, the team spiked really highly on humility. Despite the gravity of the mission, the demands of the work and the abundance of talent/intellect in the room, everyone remained grounded and maintained their sense of humor. I can't recall an instance when someone on the team wasn't willing to help me out, or make time to answer questions/share knowledge. 2) Mission/values. Even is one of those companies whose employees really live the values. Without question, everyone matched the expectations I had about commitment to the mission. Never a hint of politics, just pure focus on the work and what's best for the end user. Decisions were driven by real dedication to understanding the end user's perspective - through field research, data, and extensive team discussions. 3) Growth opportunities. As the founding member of my team (the Advisors) I had near-complete autonomy over my work. My focus and scope shifted quite often - not erratically, but in the sense that early stage startups evolve quickly and so do roles/priorities. There's never a shortage of hats to be worn. I was trusted to contribute to various projects outside of my comfort zone, which means I learned a ton very quickly - both soft skills and hard skills. I could probably fill an entire page on my resume. Even is generous with learning & development budgets for employees, and in my experience this benefitted team members with lots of self-direction HUGELY. Outside of my own trajectory, I watched each of the Advisors level-up their own skillsets in some way or another.
Cons
1) Work/life balance never ceased to be a challenge. Ultimately I felt like I was approaching burnout and didn't see any opportunities to reverse it. This may be different now, but the reality is that being "on-call" 24/7 is par for the course at early stage startups. I will say that considering how early I joined, I knew what I was signing up for - and the team was super honest about this with me even during the interview phase.