New York City isn’t exactly known for its lack of choices. If you can picture it, it probably exists somewhere within the urban sprawl. So why should its tech scene be any different?
Aside from personal growth opportunities and a collaborative company culture, job seekers in the tech field are aligning their personal values with the work they take on more than ever before. And many are surprised to find out that the team setting they fantasize about is readily attainable with the proper search. You just have to know where to look.
Built In NYC caught up with local tech professionals who shared how their company’s mission aligns with their personal goals. They also discussed what drew them to their role and what exciting endeavors are on the horizon.
“There are many directions that we can go in, each of which will be endlessly rewarding,” Edward Czech, director of business development at GlossGenius, said. “We’re really just getting started.”
Spring Health helps take the guesswork out of establishing a relationship between a therapist and a potential patient. The company, founded in 2016, helps provide effective and digitally native mental health care solutions to businesses, empowering employees to take control of their mental wellbeing.
Fixing the system: “I originally wanted to be a doctor, so my entire career path has kept me close to patients and caregivers,” Sitbon said. “I had the privilege to build experiences that support clinicians in bringing new therapies to market and facilitate patient access to clinical trials. Joining Spring Health was an opportunity to do all that, but at a whole other level; to help millions live healthier, happier, longer and enable clinicians to deliver personalized care.”
“I also joined Spring because of the co-founders. Together they are the perfect blend of determination and competitiveness. Dear members of my family have suffered a variety of mental illnesses, so I know all too well how the lack of timely and easy access to care can slowly tear down lives.”
Developing the future: “Spring Health’s mission is very real. It drives all product and design decisions, so I am genuinely excited about everything we’re working on. I have the privilege to continue hiring amazing talent. Together with care operations, data science and business development, we will ship more diverse and precise treatment modalities so that we can give more people access to mental healthcare. We will also provide our caregivers with more tools and insights to achieve measurement-based care. Combine it all with a revamp of our design language, and my expectation is that by the end of the year, Spring Health is the only true single front door for mental healthcare driven by precision medicine. I’m truly humbled and grateful to be part of it with such a wonderful group of people.”
CB Insights aims to build technology that helps customers guess less and win more. By analyzing massive amounts of data through machine learning, algorithms and data visualization, a large enterprise can uncover figure-driven predictions about its future success.
Education as a continuous journey: “I’ve been at CBI for about four and half years – four of them with my first team, data,” Aguilar said. “The main reason I have stayed for so long is that CBI focuses on learning; not just on the job, but with our education reimbursement program. In 2018, I decided to try out a coding class at LaGuardia Community College using my stipend, and thus began my path toward a coding bootcamp. I expressed to my then manager my interest and he was fully supportive. Fast forward to January 2020: I started a part-time bootcamp that I’m able to finish online.”
“CBI extended the option to do a rotational program toward the end of 2020, which enabled me to see if a career change was for me, and I haven’t looked back since. Shortly after, I was able to switch to the engineering team. I have been nonstop learning every day. I’m very fortunate that my manager supported me, and grateful to all those who extended the opportunity!”
Small steps, big rewards: “There is so much for me to look forward to now that I made a career change. I realize that there is a ton for me to learn. But even with small steps, I’m contributing to our product, which is the coolest part! I get to see my changes on the CBI platform, and it’s a very tangible reward. Whether it’s adding a new feature or a whole new data set, CBI is not afraid of ‘new.’”
Headway is a healthtech and social impact company that, using its proprietary software solution, helps users find virtual therapists within their insurance networks and therapists build out their clientele.
Finding the perfect fit: “I focused my job search on smaller, mission-driven companies because I wanted to be excited about the impact of my work and to grow my skill set by flexing across a tech stack,” Underhill said. “I knew Headway was the right place for me when I saw how deeply supportive and encouraging the team is of each other. One of the engineering team values is ‘optimize for trust’ – we measure our success around this by how comfortable teammates feel asking questions and making mistakes.”
Expanding impact: “The promise of Headway to me is how easy we make it for someone who could benefit from seeing a mental health professional do so. I am most excited to see us bring this promise to all Americans across 50 states and be covered by different forms of insurance. We’re on our way!”
Block Renovation’s platform helps homeowners and builders tackle the home renovation process. The online platform brings efficiency and transparency to home renovations, with the goal of making projects easier to approach and accomplish.
Embracing flexibility: “When I joined Block, it was a small team of collaborative and scrappy people,” van Zijl said. “We all wore many hats and focused on achieving our goals together. As a young professional, I got the opportunity to find my place within the organization and grow together with the company. After two years I got the opportunity to transition into our tech team as a product manager. This transition has shown the important balance between operations and tech, and our willingness to work toward solutions as a company – not just as a team. My relationships with operations and the knowledge of the end-to-end process help create understanding on both sides of the company.”
“The tech team has been very welcoming, patient and collaborative in getting me up to speed. I enjoy the low ego/high standards work ethics we have as a team, and not only how we hold each other responsible to those standards, but solve problems together.”
Asking the right questions: “We have a strong vision of Block as a renovation platform. It means crafting an elegant solution for homeowners, contractors, designers and our internal team. Working with multiple users for most new features we launch means we are forced to find the most simple and well-rounded solution to challenges that we see in the built industry. The additional forcing function to define simplicity is one that I think differentiates Block from many other employers. I enjoy looking at our intricate processes as puzzles, figuring out how they fit together now and in future scenarios.”
Chainalysis helps businesses investigate blockchain activity. The software company uncovers obscurities in the cryptocurrency marketplace by producing software, services, data and research that allows government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions and companies to better understand the real-world entities behind crypto transactions.
Checking the right boxes: “I knew working at this company would be a growth experience for my career in many ways,” Kernan said. “That included learning how to be a self-starter at a fast-paced startup, being exposed to the cross-section of technology and government regulation, elevating my professionalism to advise at a federal level, and contributing to the growth of the new economy – which now includes cryptocurrency.”
Understanding new territory: “I am particularly excited to be leading our sales and go-to-market efforts in LATAM right now, as cryptocurrency is especially useful in the region as a stable store of value against hyperinflation, a fast and inexpensive remittance vehicle and a way to increase financial inclusion where the traditional system is too costly for most.”
“Most of the countries in the region have not yet passed regulatory legislation for cryptocurrency, so it has been exciting and enlightening to advise the regional regulatory agencies on how the technology functions, and what is possible for cryptocurrency AML/CFT so crypto companies can operate freely and compliantly.”
Giant Machines designs, codes, integrates and launches web apps, mobile apps and digital systems to help businesses reach long-term goals. With a team of product managers, engineers and designers, the company has delivered experiences and applications for clients in industries like financial services, e-commerce, healthcare, and more.
An emphasis on culture: “I’ve worked for many companies during my career and know how rare it is to find such an inclusive and collaborative company culture,” Cox said. “From the leadership to each individual team member, everyone at Giant Machines is committed to fostering and championing a culture where all have a voice, and differing viewpoints and approaches are thoughtfully considered and embraced. Meeting team members through the interview process really highlighted their appreciation for learning from others and collaborating for the good of the team and the company.”
Adapting in real time: “Giant Machines is poised for the next phase of growth in terms of company size, impact to our clients and opportunities for team members. I am excited to contribute to this growth, both through helping to recruit new team members and continuing to train and develop the team as new opportunities arise to expand their expertise and knowledge.”
Prove is a mobile and digital identity authentication platform used by banks, insurance providers, brokerages and technology companies. The company’s tools instantly authenticate new user account openings, mobile and web logins and even authenticate and register call center customers.
Lifting each other up: “I’ve been at Prove for about three and a half years now, and I’m still here because of my amazing colleagues,” Wong said. “It’s invigorating to work with genuinely caring and intelligent people who support me, but at the same time challenge me to go outside my comfort zone. Working at Prove has been a tremendous journey of learning and meeting spectacular colleagues/friends along the way.”
Climbing the charts: “I’m excited about the rapid growth of Prove. As we continue to scale, I’m thrilled to see so many of our departments experiencing major growth in correlation to our company growth. For example, our revenue, engineering and other departments picked up the pace in hiring last year, and 2021 has been no different. We work closely with the people team, who are also growing and looking for great, global HR leaders.”
“Still, as the company gets larger, I look forward to improving our standardized processes and systems so the finance team can pull reports quicker and more efficiently for our leadership team. Once the processes and systems are in place, the finance team can dedicate more time to analyzing, discovering insightful trends and driving positive change for the company.”
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at your current company, and why?
Everyone was super friendly during the interview process and I was looking forward to chatting with folks on the team as part of the interview. I got the impression Muck Rack has a welcoming and friendly culture, a environment where you can share ideas (and they are listened to), a culture that aims to do things well and is open to feedback to make that happen. I was also excited about the technical challenges and the freedom to move around the teck stack and be able to follow my curiosity. The tech stack for me was a great fit but there seemed to be a lot of room for me to grow as well. Importance of work/life balance at the company was also great to hear as was the remote-first aspect. Most importantly leadership leads with values.
Muck Rack has a welcoming and friendly culture, a environment where you can share ideas (and they are listened to).”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed or, more specifically, the work you’ll do to help your company get there?
There are so many exciting challenges ahead, both on the technical and people side of things. It's a good time right now to check the technical foundations that the company grew on and make sure things are still solid for the next iteration, growing a great team, scaling our ever increasing data size and larger and more complex technical challenges. I'm looking forward to being a part of that.
GlossGenius is a POS and business management system for beauty and wellness businesses. The company offers automated appointment scheduling, same business day payments, client management and built-in marketing solutions to help businesses succeed.
Small business, big payoff: “The product/market fit was unlike anything I’d ever seen, and I’ve been involved with some great businesses,” Czech said. “This is largely due to the incredible focus of our founders and the broader team. That, coupled with our mission of helping small business owners (often first-time entrepreneurs) navigate the process of starting and building their very own business empire, is what keeps me motivated week-over-week. There is nothing more rewarding than helping a small business owner through their ups and downs, whether it’s a pandemic, the first time they hit their income goal, or the moment they open the doors to their brand new location.”
Streamlining success: “As I look forward into 2022 and beyond, it’s going to be exciting to see the continued growth in entrepreneurship across the industry. The tools are there for small business owners to get up and running in days or weeks – not months or years. We’re well positioned to be at the center of this transformation for years to come. There are many directions that we can go in, each of which will be endlessly rewarding. We’re really just getting started.”
