Pros
Some products are pretty cool. You’ll have a lot of autonomy (though oftentimes this means a general lack of guidance).
Cons
Assuming you’re here and in the interview process, RUN!!! Forget everything you read in the “About” page on the website. The trajectory of the business in terms of new product launches (it can’t even be called “innovation”) diverges from all the values listed and shifts into highly competitive makeup and skincare categories. Investors: don’t waste your money. The co-founders have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. David, the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder, functions as a salesman. He does a minimal amount of work actually within the company; at least 80% of his time is “investor meetings,” and his title really should be Chief FUNDRAISING Officer. He’s selling you on what he wants the company to be, not what it actually is. Leila, the CEO and co-founder, is even more absent. The fact that these senior leaders do not join most business meetings results in constant lack of direction and the inability to make actionable decisions. Potential for a promotion? Go elsewhere. Bonuses? Pff. The bonus addendums are a joke, based on unrealistic forecasts that are in no way achievable. The team members are for the most part strong in their disciplines. However, everyone is spread so thin and must work on so many random things that it’s difficult to be good at what their core job responsibilities should be. Not to mention, there are so many meetings with almost the entire company that you’ll have to work more than 40 hours a week just to keep up. These meetings have useless prep that gets reviewed during the meeting, never to be seen again; it’s all busywork to make it seem like actual work will get accomplished. It won’t. Any ideas proposed usually languish forever unless the founders like them, and the reality is that their egos prevent them from seeing past anything they themselves didn’t originate. David’s spur of the moment ideas will spin you 180° from everything you’re working on, he’ll force you to pursue them, and it happens so often that you wind up just going in circles. While most employees are great at their jobs, there are also people who are downright useless. The most successful people at the company are typically “yes” people. The founders don’t like dissention and blow past concerns, immediately dismissing them as insignificant. This results in constant failures and issues to solve after launch. It’s absolutely impossible to get ahead and do any sort of planning because direction changes so often. At the very least, you’ll constantly waste time; at the most, you’ll go moderately insane. The worst part is that the brand actually would have potential if the co-founders were ousted. Don’t let them fool you! The staff turnover is constant, you’ll get no training, and you’ll be thrown from the frying pan into a raging dumpster fire.