Pros
Spry has been a really special place to work for the past few years. I wasn't really thinking about the leadership or culture of companies when I was in my last job search, but I've learned from comparing my experience at Spry against friends at other places just how important these qualities are.
The founders here do a great job of investing in the people on the team, because that brings out the best energy and quality in the work they do. People are committed to doing a solid job on their work, and feel a lot of ownership for what they are doing. As part of the team, I feel I have a lot of respect and space to ask for things, ranging from snacks to company events to time for side projects.
Within the technical team, I'm pretty proud of our culture of respectful debate. Our CTO does a great job of challenging peoples' ideas, not to be argumentative or to show that he's right, but to help strengthen the idea and find the best path forwards. I think it's something we all try to emulate, and we're all learning from each other.
I've gotten a lot of coaching from both the CEO and CTO on leadership, communication, relationships, life balance, and plenty of other things. It's nice feeling like there are lots of opportunities to grow as a person in general, and not just techincally.
Last but not least is the mission. There's never a day here when I don't feel pride about what we're building. Once you learn about the experiences of the patients we're trying to help, it hits you hard and gives you a strong sense of purpose.
Cons
Spry is a young company, and so it comes with a lot of the disadvantages of a start-up: we don't have tons of time or money, so sometimes I can't do some of the projects I would like to. That said, the scarcity makes sure that whatever I am doing is super important. Also, timelines change constantly, so it's hard to plan out what you're going to be doing over the next couple weeks.
