Pros
The people here are excellent. Most everyone is kind, fun, and truly embodies the company values. Our office culture was fun and a great place to socialize and learn from each other. This has largely translated to remote work as well to the extent possible. There is a great feedback culture. It's extremely easy to get things done with no bureaucracy or strict processes. It's a great place for mentorship for junior hires. The business model is successful even in an economic downturn.
Cons
It takes time to transition from a scrappy startup. The original engineering team was entirely junior, and they are just coming to the end of dealing with cleanup of past mistakes. The best decision made to date was to replace the head of engineering and hire more senior engineers which has made the engineering team much more professional. This has yet to happen on the design team, which has the same issue. The head of design does not have the requisite experience and doesn't want to hear from anyone who does. The design team is timid and afraid to do anything innovative. This will be the company's Achille's heel until senior management realizes the business value of a functioning design team, especially as we try to stand out from the competition and need innovative ideas to find our market niche. FreeWill is a risky venture in a very competitive space. I feel that either we could find a strong niche or be easily copied by a competitor. Right now we're throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.
