Pros: There are a lot of kind and creative people at Patreon.

Cons: Patreon has been struggling with strategy since the beginning. My time there started six months after a large layoff. Six months later, I was laid off in a big release of engineering talent, following a "fat billion-dollar valuation." Three months later, they were hiring again. A year later, they announced another large layoff and then started hiring again.

Pros: It's great to work somewhere that actually helps the world, and everyone believes in the mission. Almost every employer is creative themselves—being an incredible musician, comic book author, or YouTuber, etc. It's impossible to find this anywhere else today.

Cons: The execs seemed incapable of creating an engineering team they liked. Engineering Managers and CTOs had incredible turnover, with several Eng Manager layoffs during my tenure. One CTO they hired was like a parody of a CTO you would find in Dilbert or the Silicon Valley TV show. He had us make posters about how we felt about the company's values for half a day. The fact that they hired and kept him on for a full year shows how oblivious they are about creating a competent engineering environment.

Pros: Lots of autonomy at all levels.

Cons: We're a bit understaffed for what we're trying to accomplish.