Pros
The co-CEOs are extremely open, transparent and approachable. They take an incredible personal interest in employees. This inspires intense loyalty among both employees and clients. The company is filled with exceptional people. There are many with impressive personal and professional accomplishments, but they’re more uniformly distinguished by being hard-working, reliable, focused and committed regardless of background. The leadership would describe these people as “virtuous” and for the most part, Grant Street has succeeded in hiring and retaining people with these characteristics. Fewer people have left (especially early career professionals) than I expected from my experience at other companies. Effective business management. The results speak for themselves: consistently high revenue growth for 20+ years built on sound business practices. No acquisitions. Clients almost never leave. When Grant Street builds a product it's better than any alternatives. And none of this is a result of any exotic business strategy, it’s mostly just execution – delivering whatever was promised to clients. The company is able to pull this off because the exceptional people described above are doing the work.
Cons
Grant Street’s organization is not a great fit for everyone. To outsiders, most people don’t have overtly impressive jobs. Job titles are minimal. Management layers are minimal. There aren’t clear career paths. There are few leadership positions with real authority, when and how people get those positions can seem mysterious. What you get in the trade for not having an important-sounding title or a ladder to climb is a “good” job: colleagues you like and respect, good compensation and benefits, a great working environment, challenging problems to solve, and a company that will probably be around to provide those things long-term. That’s great for many people, but might not be the right risk / reward proposition for everyone. If you want to work for a company with headline-grabbing goals like solving climate change, disrupting education or colonizing Mars, this may not be a good fit. Grant Street concentrates on complex, niche government products.
