Pros
Owners are very often present and very engaged. Owners are incredibly supportive of their employees and make significant efforts and sacrifice for us - this is more than a "just come to work for X hours a day for a a paycheck" arrangement to them. We make software that helps make sure kids get the right vaccines. That's a great feeling to have when walking in every day. There is a lot of knowledge and expertise amongst the long-term senior staff at Envision and that shows. Even though we have our differences, we all seem to really enjoy working with each other. There is some tech debt, some of it is much easier to address than the rest.
Cons
The owners have been burned by several recent hires that failed to result in productive, successful long-term employees. There is now a probation period for them to protect their business from the risk in the investment in a new employee. BUT the requirements are VERY clear, and VERY reasonable. Business model is somewhat restricted by how we are funded, which is via the budgets at state public health departments. That dictates application development and direction more than tech needs, but that's an inevitability. Public Health isn't the "sexiest" industry and funding isn't what a large healthcare company would have, but our position within the market is very secure There is some tech debt, some of it is much harder to address than the rest.