HubSpot

What companies call "culture" is really about norms. Norms cause people who otherwise might act differently to act in a way that the norms encourage.

The norms at HubSpot are to make people feel welcome and supported, to assume best intent, and to be patient and solicitous in helping people grow and learn.

One of the most impressive things is that the management relationship is not the kind that makes you feel watched or judged. Managers seem to go out of their way, whether or not sacrifices are necessary, to make sure that you feel comfortable, are not stressed, and most importantly, are growing in your role and toward your next promotion.

Tech-wise, I have been extremely impressed with the platform tooling at HubSpot. It always "just works." I would even put it in contrast with a lot of commercial cloud computing software for its reliability, ease of use, and overall reasonableness. And the people who build and maintain it are always solicitous with their assistance if you're having trouble.

HubSpot's systems have grown very rapidly, and they are now quite complex. In some areas, there are archeological layers of legacy stuff that has to be understood and worked with, but could and probably should be much simpler.

Also associated with the level of growth is a possible lag in onboarding. Currently, there is a quick burst of onboarding on some basic tools like Maven and our deployment platform. But after that, you are kind of on your own to acquaint yourself with the intricate and often unintuitive product-specific systems that you need to work with.

Under the banner of autonomy, engineers are expected to drive the rest of the process by asking questions and giving feedback on how they are doing. For various reasons, I think that kind of guidance should be more structured and should mostly come from others, not be solicited by the new hire.

Another recent hire and I were talking about this recently, and a choice line was, "It's hard when the onus is on you to connect, and you're new so you don't necessarily know what to say, but you have a nagging sense that you need some guidance."

Kind of wrapped into the "cons" section.