Pros
You will do your best work at Hopper, seriously.
A lot of very smart people work here, it feels great to know every department is getting top quality work done and no one is dropping the ball.
Everyone has great work ethics too. That doesn't mean you will do crazy hours but that people take ownership without getting emotionally attached to their work, employees respect deadlines or explain why if they don't and in the end everyone is rooting for the company's success, not their own projects or internal promotion.
That kind of work environment combined with the wild ambitions of the top management will challenge you to do your best work, be it in engineering, design, PR, growth, product or data science.
You will get a lot of autonomy at Hopper. If you get your work done, you can pretty much work when and where you want. It depends on your team but you can often make your own decisions on what you think is the best thing to work on next - or build a case or a mvp to prove it. I guess this could change as the company quickly approaches 100 employees and gets more structure.
In terms of company culture, Hopper is a team, not a family. If you're looking for ping-pong tournaments, crazy after-hours drinks or hosting weekly community meetups, this is not really the place. The environment is more mature than other Montreal startups, there are more senior employees. It doesn't feel like a tech bro party campus, which is nice.
The admin team does a great job to ensure everyone has everything they need. The company is very generous with food, swag, travel expenses and the occasional drinks, dinner or retreat if your team is into that. The compensation is top of the market too, which is better than freebies anyway. It is a friendly environment nevertheless, we have game nights, lots of team lunches, any gear you want, ... everyone is super nice.
Cons
Hopper has a history of moving fast and going big but pivoting quickly too if something doesn't work out as expected. That can be a little rocky if your team has to scale down or change their focus. You have to be able to get on the Hopper beat and it's not for everyone - make sure you get a good feeling of what it's like during the interview process.
You should meet a bunch of people from different teams so use that as an opportunity to ask a lot of questions. The hiring is handled by team leads and the admin team and it takes time. It's not your regular HR person with formal feedback and strict timelines, you need to be patient.
