Pros
I've been at Maven before it was a thing, it's been amazing to see our growth in just a few years. I walk around now and barely know everyone. That's a pro and a con, I suppose. Love that the little family who built this company succeeded and that we're all still here!
Cons
As someone who has been here for a long time, I am guilty of this but I'm really trying to recognize this and improve: everyone here is really nice. Of course on its face, that's not a bad thing. But nice here can sometimes show up as being conflict-averse, or reluctant to give feedback in fear of making people feel uncomfortable, or not wanting to disagree. We're a lot of women and we are naturally collegial. :) We've hired a lot of new leaders in the past 12 months and they are pushing on this. At first, it did not feel good to be this direct, but out of conflict (sometimes), we've had really good conversations that we probably should have been having a while ago. I realize this is a skill to learn, and the company is better off for it. It's actually worse if we're all smiling and confused than if someone just raises their hand and says "I don't understand" or "I don't agree." Again, I have been just a guilty of doing this but I want to work on this and think we all should. Being direct with each other feels better.