Pros
All the best things about SevOne existed four years ago when I joined. I got to work with top notch engineers, was free to stop in and chat with the company's president, CTO, VP of development, or pretty much anyone else at any time. They listened to our ideas, and implemented the good ones. We had games nights, quarterly musical jam sessions (Garage Band) with open bar and buffer, ultimate frisbee - real camaraderie.
Cons
Bain Capital bought in, and started bloating the top. MBA's decided it wasn't necessary to hire the best engineers - greenhorns were cheaper. The executive offices were moved 350 miles north, but they still claimed to have an "open door" policy. (And there were a LOT more doors; you just couldn't get to them.) The founders lost control. We no longer had a reputation of the thickest door in IT. Quarterly Garage Band happy hours stopped. Lip service was being paid to Quality while coding time was cut. Massive layoffs of workers when bloated Bain management couldn't whip the sales team into selling as much as they wanted. The Garage Band's founding coordinator was laid off. Morale took a nose dive. Bain management decided the best way to fix it was to lay off a bunch more workers. Now they seem mystified as to why morale and sales did not improve as a consequence. "You have unlimited PTO now!" Of course if you take any, expect to be among the next group receiving pink slips. (Did I say that out loud? Just kidding.)