HubSpot

• Fast growth, like a roller-coaster ride, has its challenges, but overall it's a lot of fun and presents tons of opportunities for growth.

• Flexible. People can change roles and jobs, participate in experiments, and move across departments/groups. If you're very curious about trying or doing something, you can do it.

• Smart folks. Everyone around you is either really smart or really, really smart.

• Open-minded. Most folks are open to talking about all sorts of ideas, approaches, and projects. Data-driven, for the most part.

• Growing fast means processes break, don't scale, or don't exist at all for some things. Usually, I think this is okay, but in a couple of areas, like annual reviews, it's not ideal.

• Some favoritism displayed by management towards certain folks, whether earned or not, is seen by others and resented by some.

• If you need a very precisely specified job, with instructions down to the finest detail, this is not a good place for you.

Do not relax standards on hiring. This gets harder and harder over time as the company needs to hire more folks, but it's vital.

Do not relax standards on culture. The openness, transparency, and intellectual challenges are fantastic. Relaxing them would bring in people who don't fit the culture, which is a downward spiral with grievous impact.