Pros
I've been various startups so far and Ninantic is unique in that -- 1) there's more demand than what we can supply. Most other startups die because there is no demand (i.e., problem was non-existential). AR game is a true market, as proven by Ingress&Pokemon Go, and Niantic is almost the only company supplying the market. 2) Most employees (engineers and non-engineers) are seniors and high achievers in their field. I've been in startups where smart, young engineers build overly ambitious product that slips and fail. I've been in a big company where experienced engineers build dying products in time. Here people know how to ship an ambitious product in time. One reason is unlike other startups, Niantic was a Google project; so it had senior&ambitious people from the beginning. 3) Company is mission driven and CEO is a product person who dreamed the mission from the beginning (Adventure on Foot). A lot of startups pursue what the market creates as opportunities and die because the market was illusion or could not survive the competition. 4) Our games makes a lot of money, yet we have no competition on the horizon. 5) Given the engineering complexity of the problem, it would be very difficult for the followers to compete against us (probably Google's maps team can do but Google is the investor and Niantic is from that team). 6) Benefits are great for a startup.
Cons
1) Work life balance is minimal, but time&location is very flexible. 2) High pressure environment where all of your peers are high achievers.