Be prepared for it to get a lot bigger. That's one of the first noticeable changes when a company IPO's, they go on a hiring blitz either beforehand or after. I

Be prepared for it to get a lot bigger. That's one of the first noticeable changes when a company IPO's, they go on a hiring blitz either beforehand or after. I worked at a company pre-IPO that was 10 people, it ballooned to over 80 before I decided to move on. I love working in smaller teams where things have less red tape and when companies get that big, that's when the big sticky roll of red tape comes out. Another noticeable change is that freedom you might have to experiment and explore new features pretty much goes (unless your company is different). All of a sudden, the company has a responsibility to other people besides customers and more invested parties, things move slower and it can be frustrating. In this day and age of marketing (especially for developers) it does look good on a resume to say you were an early employee at X company and were instrumental to its growth allowing it to IPO.