First step was a 15-20 minute phone interview. After that I was invited to the office for an in-person interview. Met with my direct report and another employee. The CEO sat in for the first ten minutes and asked a couple irrelevant questions. The only one I remember was " what public person do you dislike most?" No one really seemed prepared for his presence. After he abruptly left I had a roughly 1.5 hour interview with the remaining two employees. It was a nice, thoughtful and professional conversation.
The interview ended with an office tour where I met many of the office employees and the owner/founders. Before I left I was given a hard timeline on when I would hear back "whether or not we decide to proceed." Because of the extended interview and office tour I was feeling very positive about the experience.
Went home that night and sent "thank you" notes to everyone involved. Received a very fast reply from the CEO that made little sense but mentioned that he needed to talk my employment over with the TEAM. (He capitalized TEAM several times in the email.)
Anyway, I never heard anything else. I know it's not out of the ordinary for an employer to completely ghost a prospective employee, but I've never been dropped this hard after being built up so much. For what it's worth, there seemed to be a real communication problem at this office.