Pros
* The mission was incredibly motivating, and the company stayed true to it. It is extremely rewarding to work on challenging problems like is the case in manufacturing. Of course, it is tough and at times it will feel extremely difficult, but those who worked hard learned an incredible amount in a short period of time here.
* The CEO rewarded those who extended beyond their comfort zone to take on new responsibilities. Many people who worked at First Resonance came from other roles, and the company effectively molded them into leaders. Many people went from Customer Success to Product as an example or Product to Engineering.
* Extremely talented people here.
Cons
* Hiring individuals at the cross-section of manufacturing and software is challenging. However, I did expect the company to hire more effectively.
* This can be a con depending on who you are, working with a first time CEO is extremely tough. They are learning many things on the job as well that may at times feel like they go back and forth on topics. But at the same time, I have never had anyone push me to be better at my job and give very concrete examples, books, blogs, etc. to read to help reinforce the ideas that they taught.
* Manufacturing is very tough and there is not a lot of room for error for mission critical software. I think the company over extended themselves early on, which made managing customers a challenge. I hope that over time, they remain focused on providing depth to the product they created to become the industry leader in factory software.