Pros
I get to do things I'm totally unqualified for - which is a little scary, but also hugely rewarding. I've grown more in the last two years, than in the previous five.
The team is great - nice, smart, dedicated people who really care about the mission. The entire company is like one big team, pushing towards the same goal.
I love being able to work so closely with our users - who are themselves doing incredible things. I literally get to talk to bleeding-edge rocket, robotics and nuclear engineers to understand how they build, and ship features that help them build faster. I feel fortunate to have built great relationships with some of the most senior engineers at the top next-gen hardware companies. The tight feedback loop of ‘request -> ship -> thanks’ is what I find most rewarding.
The day-to-day work is a nice blend of technical challenges and human/UX challenges. One day I might be working on a graph traversal problem, another day I might be trying to figure out how to make complex information more digestible.
Kontras
Early-stage startups are hard. You make up a large proportion of the entire company, so although you get a huge amount of ownership and responsibility, there's also accountability that comes with that. If you're looking for a role where you can coast, this isn't the place for you.