Any one heard of Smartnews?
Japan startup. Have offices in SF, NY. Headquartered in Tokyo. Wondering what’s the culture. Does Japanese important? Anything :) Twice sponsored international conference trips a year sounds good to me. Since it’s still a small team now. Can’t share the offer. TC at Alibaba Hangzhou: 145K (usd)
OP, what level are you in Alibaba? P7?
P7
I’m non SWE and worked out of SF office, but I really enjoyed my time there. Company seems to be doing well. Still use the product heavily, bought my options, and stay in touch with the team. I have my doubts about how large they can scale outside of Japan and working across time zones is a pain. But I had a really positive overall experience there.
Care to share why you left?
Comp (about 25% increase to then $183k TC), brand name on resume, the friend who referred me worked closely with manager and vouched for Twitter team. Also when I left SmartNews, their analytics infrastructure was still in infancy and I felt the career path was bit too uncertain without established leadership. They have new VPs of Product and Eng who I hear are fixing that. Time zone also played a part since HQ is Tokyo so I had to stay up late for meetings. But overall I would have been perfectly happy to stay and can see myself going back someday if right opportunity pops up.
What's your final decision? I've just heard that they are setting up the ShangHai office as well.
I've heard of it now.