Pros
- People on the team are extremely intelligent and well-meaning. You do feel both challenged and supported by your peers most of the time. People do mean it when they care about each other. This point is probably why a lot of people stay for a long time despite numerous cons listed below. - CEO & CFO. The two senior most people in the company do have their fair share of mistakes but what nobody can doubt is their integrity, selflessness, and care for the team. Can't imagine either of them putting their personal interests above what's best for the rest of Kik employees. It does help a lot, when you're pushing through an all-nighter or coming into work on a weekend, to know that your leaders watch your back and would often one you up on that extra effort. - A few more experienced mid-level management workhorse types. They don't get a seat at the executive level but for that reason they are not distracted by it as well, which lets them stay extremely productive as leaders and contributors.
Cons
- Chat app is fundamentally not the most exciting product to work on. Things may change now a bit with Kin. - Waterloo is just an utterly unexciting place to be in your youth unless you already have kids or can't afford to live in Toronto. This is combined with a management opinion which despises any long-term travel & work arrangements even for tenured & trusted employees who have job roles that translate natively into productive long-distance arrangements. - A lot of first-time managers which means a lot of insecurities and poorly contained ego-driven decisions. Like I said, people are well-meaning and intelligent but not always know how to handle their emotions well which translates into morale issues in the trenches.