Skydio

Skydio has done a great job hiring. I feel like every person I work with is awesome at what they do and also are humble and friendly, a great combination that is explicitly mentioned as being a priority in our culture.

If there's any downside to this, it's that it's maybe harder to stand out than at other companies I've worked for.

Our product is out in the real world, which is relatively rare for robotics-related startups. Our mission has become more controversial, but I personally think working in utilities, public safety, and ICR defense applications is a bigger upside than helping snowboarders make cool videos. As our CEO aptly says, impact trumps purity.

The pay is solid, and the stock package is plausibly going to be very lucrative. There is a focus on shipping real working functionality and a pragmatic approach that scopes bikeshedding. There has been a big investment in developer tooling that has massively improved things in the past couple of years.

Awkward transition from very flat org to having sufficient management. Better than having bad managers, but the existing (very technical and devoted) managers are spread too thin and it seems most people manage themselves and Skydio relies heavily on each person being very proactive.

That's ok to a certain degree, but people could use more attention to career guidance and personal development. On a related note, people seem to either sink or swim. Most people swim, but there have been a couple of instances where someone was let go who I feel could have thrived with better guidance.

Not great work / life balance. If you have the confidence to stop working, it can be ok (nobody is demanding you work weekends), but balance is not overtly promoted, and too high a percentage of the attaboys are related to working nights / weekends.

Give more feedback to employees, both positive and negative. Help everyone understand how they are doing and what they could be doing to thrive.