Pros
I'm one of the cofounders so I certainly have some bias built in. But myself and the other executives also pride ourselves on being really honest about our deficiencies as we believe that's one of the best ways grow and improve as people and as an organization. I'm really proud of the culture we've built here. As of the time of this writing, we have ~100 full time employees. The anonymous surveys we've sent out have overwhelmingly positive feedback. There's very little "drama" or nonsense. I really think we're building something special here where people genuinely love to work. We always tout our culture during recruitment and hiring (as most companies do). But one common bit of feedback we get after a few weeks of people starting is "oh wow, the culture really is as great as you sold it to be". We aren't without our flaws or growing pains but I think we've built a really great place to work!
Kontras
We are not shy about admitting our weaknesses. By doing so through open and honest (and sometimes hard) conversations, we set ourselves up to grow. This is the first time the executive team has built a company of this scale (~100+ people). We have made many mistakes along the way with org structure, lack of performance reviews, and beyond. But with the open/honest culture we've aimed to build, employees are not too shy about giving us this feedback. We do our best to drop our egos and do what we can to make things better. I think we've been pretty damn successful so far. Some might see our desire to have a high performing culture as a con/negative. If you're looking for a cushy job where you can skate by and fly under the radar, Rivalry is not for you. Every last person is expected to be a top performer. That doesn't mean working excessive extra hours, nights, or weekends. It just means that we want everyone to be extremely focused, efficient with their time, amazing communicators, and mission driven. We are very transparent about our expectations during our interview process as well, so not many come in and are shocked by the expectations. And in fact, most are really excited to rise to the occasion. We're certainly no "PayPal mafia" but in a way, when you get a majority of people aiming to be high performers, it's a rising tide that lifts all ships. Sure there are stressful times. But overall we support each other and work through issues and come out the other side stronger.