I work at a startup that's been around for > 5 years. At this point, we're stable enough to not require back-breaking hours (of course, people give a shit and work hard, but no one's sleeping under his desk).
So far we've managed to avoid the morass of bureaucracy/red tape that tends to creep in when organizations grow. Case in point, no mandatory meetings for engineers -- meetings happen when stuff needs to get discussed. And it's par for the course for engineers to have ownership over the product/feature they're working on.
So far we've managed to avoid the morass of bureaucracy/red tape that tends to creep in when organizations grow. Case in point, no mandatory meetings for engineers -- meetings happen when stuff needs to get discussed. And it's par for the course for engineers to have ownership over the product/feature they're working on.
Feel free to contact me if you'd like more info.