Pluspunten
1.) The thing I love most about Red Panda is it's energetic vibe. I've rarely come across an organization where every team member is a bundle of energy. They're always enthusiastic about their work; always eager to learn more and keep pushing themselves willingly. 2.) The team is also very efficient at multi-tasking. I see members taking up multiple, diverse responsibilities and executing them with ease. 3.) I see Red Panda valuing, and following SOFTWARE CRAFTSMANSHIP, a rare trait amongst software companies now. Unlike other Indian startups, which seem stuck in the e-commerce / e-retail mould, Red Panda is focused on creating "better" software through best practices, principles and technologies. 4.) They haven't restricted themselves to one domain...and cater to a diverse clientele. This is good for sustainable business. 5.) They're not in the "volume hiring" game which is great to see. 6.) They're pretty radical when it comes to their people policies. Leaves, for example, are not defined / limited by the company. Rather, people are entrusted with choosing and managing their own leaves. Similarly, the appraisals here tend to be much higher than the industry standards. 7.) Their initiative of teaching basics of computation and computational thinking to children - Codewizards - is a great step and can be an example for other software companies to follow. 8.) The founders (also the CXOs) are more approachable here than any of the previous organizations I have worked with. In their approachability, friendliness and zest, they epitomize what the company is about.
Minpunten
1.) Given that they're young, they need to mature more from an operational / administrative perspective. They could shore up / refine functions like employee on boarding, office infrastructure and marketing. 2.) There's not much visibility yet of Red Panda in prominent knowledge sharing forums... There aren't many blogs / articles published by them. Not many case studies in tech-zines (even though they have done very interesting work). The Codewords meetup is a good initiative, but not enough. If they intend to be thought leaders in software, they need to start doing this soon.