Pros
Where to start? Awesome team, incredible mission, great work/life balance--there's so much to love about Uncharted!
To be more specific, I worked at Uncharted for three years in various roles, and I had a great experience. Here are a few of the many pros:
--I was given a lot amount of responsibility and freedom from day one despite my limited professional experience
--Your team will trust you 100%, and even if you make a mistake it's treated as a chance to learn rather than a red mark on a test
--You get to work with incredibly talented and driven entrepreneurs who are working on inspiring solutions to the world's biggest problems
--The mentor and investor network! This is a network of people you'll get to hang out with that includes people like former execs at Yahoo, Google, HP, and EDs from the world's best nonprofits. Pretty darn cool.
--The staff and the culture at Uncharted are unparalleled. This is a young, fun loving team who works hard and has each other's back
--Great work/life balance with ample time off and a flexible work from home policy. There are some weekends and evenings required during accelerators, but otherwise I felt like I could unplug during evenings, weekends, and vacations
--Great benefits and compensation. Compensation is tied to the 75th percentile of Colorado-based nonprofits and the benefits are very good--health, vision, dental, along with parental leave policies are among the best i've encountered
The other important thing to know about Uncharted is that the entire team has spent a tremendous amount of time and energy making the CEO, Teju, believe that he's actually good at ping pong. And you'll be expected to do the same. This conspiracy is so extensive that every entrepreneur, mentor, and guest that has ever come to the office or a program has had to be secretly warned before arriving that they need to let Teju win, otherwise his delicate ego would be crushed. I spent 3 years losing to him despite being easily able to beat him any given day with my offhand. But it's a condition of employment at Uncharted that you keep this going, so I did it.
Kidding. Did I mention the team is fun-loving?
In summary, Uncharted gets an A+ for mission, culture, compensation and work/life balance. This is a great place for self-starters and entrepreneurial people who are looking to use their talent and energy to make the world a better place and have one hell of a good time doing it.
Cons
I have no major cons, but here are a few observations I made during my time at Uncharted:
--There was no clear performance or feedback policy, so it was hard to get constructive feedback unless you actively and consistently seek it out
--Not really a con as much as just a general observation, but as with any small nonprofits there was limited upward mobility
--Little to no active management from superiors. Again, not necessarily a con but I'd say that people who are highly self-directed would do well while those looking for more oversight, training and guidance may find it difficult
--Little to no professional development opportunities (i.e. manager training, project management courses, etc)
--Strategy and roles shifted often, which was exciting but at times caused disconcert & confusion
--At times the organizational structure and chain of command was unclear
