Circle

Speaking primarily from an engineering perspective here but I think this applies across the company.

Huge opportunity to contribute to your team and the company as a whole. In this way circle feels a lot smaller than they actually are at ~250 employees. The individual teams are pretty small and team leads expect everyone to be a keen contributor, to bring ideas and advocate for changes they want to see.

It also feels like executive management treats employees as an integral part of the companies success, taking questions almost every week and being transparent about vision, goals and challenges.

I think the flip side of a company that allows so much individual contribution and autonomy is that sometimes it feels like there could be more direction, planning and coordination, especially between teams.

I know this is a really hard balance to strike and I appreciate that Circle is trying to err on the side of autonomy by hiring good people, laying out the mission and setting them loose.

Circle has a big mission, but make sure that 5 year mission statement is translated in crystal clear goals that employees can feel excited about contributing to every quarter.