We went public, are now north of 8,000 employees, and it’s still nearly as transparent as when I joined - financials, product metrics, anonymized employee trends/HR data, major decisions… the list goes on but pretty much everything is done in the open with only a handful of exceptions.
I can’t think of a situation where that level of transparency was a hindrance to the company or regretted by our founders as far as I know… in fact the opposite, I think it creates a culture of ownership and makes people feel valued and respected.
As an employee, now that I’ve experienced having that level of access, I’ll never join a place that doesn’t offer a similar level of transparency.
Edit: Adding a couple thoughts based on some comments I’m seeing. I really believe that restricting information to specific people or keeping it from people who “might not understand it” is wrongheaded.
If people are interested and curious, help them learn. If they aren’t, who cares? When there was feedback about wanting to better understand financials, our CFO did an hour long walkthrough of SaaS economics. When new legislation forced operational changes, our general counsel walked us through not only what we needed to do differently but how he approached his job and situations like this. People come to work (especially at startups) to stretch and to learn, regardless of their role or level.