Avantages
I joined Meteor as a very very junior person without CS degree with a very limited experience in writing software products. The management has worked very hard on bringing me up to speed, pairing me up with senior employees and giving me projects to work on in my own pace. After a year or so I learned so much and felt very comfortable working on any projects on my own, or with anyone from the team, as well as designing, implementing and documenting features for the product. At the time my compensation and contribution to the company was reviewed accordingly and needless to say I had nothing but the best mentoring experience at this company. The people I worked with were all very well educated, considerate and genuinely kind people who cared about their work and the team dynamic above glamorous startup values like valuation, benefits or titles. As a visible member of an open-source product developer I got a lot of perks like being recognized in bars and streets of SF, travelling anywhere in USA and finding a local Meteor meetup, where people knew who I am and what I do. Engaging community of developers using Meteor became my second social life with friends outside of the office building, outside of SF and even in Europe, Asia and South America. Good benefits, I got into yoga thanks to working at Meteor. Food was really good all 3 years I've been with the company.
Inconvénients
As a junior person I often felt like my voice wasn't broadcasted on the same frequency. In decision-making process, often times management would choose the more conservative proposal from an old-timer that sometimes led to ignoring problems with the product and the community until they became unbearable. For a long time the culture was very laid-back without any external pressure. Later it turned into a bit of a chaos. Couldn't figure out the hierarchy, failed to hire experienced product/engineering managers or designers. Non-engineering folks seemed to feel excluded from the core engineering culture (all founders are very technical). Community management suffered from the rose-tinted glasses syndrome. The last time I worked with the company (mid 2016) it seemed to focus more on core products and delivery, which is a great sign. I thoroughly believe in this company's ability to deliver and wish them the best.