Pros
Everyone who works for KnackForge wants to be there. What we have in the Tyler office is incredibly rare, especially for a city of this size. I don't think any of us would want to work anywhere else in the Tyler area.
From what I have seen (growth over past 2-3 years, some deals, talks with executives), the company is very healthy. We have a strong existing business in software development that has made it possible to enter confidently into hardware development, specifically for IoT applications.
The India (Chennai) and US based teams are successfully integrated. The US-based staff is primarily involved in sales and client management, but they have a significant amount of technical expertise and contact with the team in India. More recently, we are doing hardware development in the US office. The people that I have worked with from our Chennai-based software team are brilliant. We regularly send Chennai employees to Tyler and vice versa. The leadership of the India team has met with the leadership of the US team in Dubai a few times.
I have a direct and personal relationship with the CEO, Jeff Strout. I talk with him at least several times a day, and I can be completely honest with him. He wants to build an entire electronics hardware division around what I am doing right now. He has told me on multiple occasions that he never wants me to have to work anywhere else. Jeff wants to be the CEO of KnackForge forever because he is genuinely having fun.
My schedule is incredibly flexible. By my own choice, my average hours are 10:30AM-7:00PM with a little extra time on some nights (I am a night owl). One of my co-workers averages 8:00AM-4:30PM. As long as you work an honest 35-45 hours per week, get your work done, and show up to all of your meetings, the management is happy.
I have a lab on the 4th floor that I work in that I helped build. I have everything I need for PCB design, PCB assembly, electronics prototyping, and 3D printing. The facility allows me to do my job very well.
The Tyler office is in a historic building in a walkable downtown with many restaurants nearby. My dad works one block away and I can eat lunch with him several days a week. I regularly go on walks during lunch.
Cons
It is way too easy to walk to Don Juan's, order the Pork Guisado, and feel absolutely stuffed for the rest of the day... but I just keep doing it.