San Francisco may still be tech’s No. 1 city, but the Big Apple certainly isn’t far behind.
When compared to all markets in North America, CBRE’s 2021 Scoring Tech Talent report ranked New York in fifth place overall in its ability to attract and develop top tech talent. The area has seen a 6.7 percent increase in tech jobs since 2015 and is currently listed as the second largest tech-talent labor pool in the United States, only behind San Francisco.
“Our emphasis on problem solving creates a culture of experimentation where we’re open to trying new ideas and initiatives,” said Liz Hernandez, growth marketing manager at Orchard.
Frontify’s professional customer success manager, Arielle Williams, added, “The culture encourages an atmosphere of camaraderie where everyone’s opinion is important and we all respect one another in an authentic way.”
Growth is a priority and organizational culture is thriving — it’s a good time to be a tech professional in the city that never sleeps! Built In New York sat down with nine industry leaders to talk about the unique cultures of their companies, as well as their most exciting perks and projects. The best bit? They’re all hiring!
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
At Orchard, everyone is devoted to creating the most stress-free home buying experience for customers. I’ve never worked with such a strong group of problem solvers. In fact, one of our company values is “find a way,” which empowers everyone at Orchard to make suggestions and take on high-impact work. Our emphasis on problem solving creates a culture of experimentation where we’re open to trying new ideas and initiatives.
My team and I are currently working on growing our organic search presence. This is typically a slow-moving endeavor at most companies. I’ve seen my team tackle this challenge relentlessly — launching numerous page templates, publishing dozens of blog posts and sending thousands of outreach emails to pitch our content. This effort has required constant cross-functional collaboration across marketing, public relations and engineering.
Much of this work is new to the team, but as strong problem solvers, they’ve stepped up and encouraged ideas from all parts of our organization. As a result, we've seen rapid growth, which wouldn’t have been possible without the team’s focus on problem solving and experimentation.
As strong problem solvers, they’ve stepped up and encouraged ideas from all parts of our organization.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently and what did you enjoy most about it?
I recently worked with our creative team to shoot customer testimonials to air on television. This project was a perfect example of how creative, collaborative and customer-centric our team is. Because they delivered such a great experience, we had customers actually nominate themselves to be featured in our videos. They were all incredibly enthusiastic to speak about the impact we’d had on their lives.
We shot five customer stories in a week, each located throughout Texas. Even the way we shot the commercials was problem-solving at its best. Our creative director set up a completely remote shoot where we could view the production in real time and offer feedback without needing to travel on-set.
For me, the project was a good reminder of the impact of our mission — making the home-buying experience stress-free. Many of these homeowners put their home purchases on hold because of the competitive real estate market, but they were able to move because of our services.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
Templafy’s culture promotes collaboration and communication across all departments and locations. It’s very common for all levels of employees to Slack directly with leadership or members of the C-suite — something that we hope to continue to foster as we grow. I recently asked a new hire what they found to be the most surprising thing about joining Templafy and they emphasized how much everyone truly cares about their team and getting to know one another. I couldn’t agree more.
My favorite example of this was in the summer, when the entire company flew to our headquarters in Copenhagen for our annual summer party to celebrate everyone’s accomplishments throughout the year. My team went on a self-led walking tour of the city one afternoon and it was fun to learn about the city from a local’s perspective.
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
At Templafy, our culture is rooted in belongingness, which means all colleagues are encouraged to speak up and be heard. One of the pillars of belongingness is our weekly “heartbeat” meetings, which allow team members to connect in a casual and open setting. Our entire organization sets aside time each week for these meetings, showing just how much we believe in belongingness and collaboration to create a safe space for every employee.
We believe in belongingness and collaboration to create a safe space for every employee.”
During these heartbeat meetings, we share the highs and lows of each week, as well as what’s going on in our personal lives. The workday is often consumed with to-do lists, structured conversations and agendas, but this meeting gives everyone the opportunity to share their feelings and provide general insight into their day.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
During my time at Dashlane, I have always felt like our goals and how we could achieve them was clear. Each team at Dashlane is given its own autonomy to solve issues on their own. I know everyone on my team has their voice heard and with that, we come up with the best possible solutions.
For example, when our marketing website technology was starting to feel a bit outdated, my team was able to come together and explain to the rest of the company why we needed to spend time migrating to a newer tech stack. This process felt natural and we never experienced any sort of push back from other teams. Everyone trusts each other.
Everyone on my team has their voice heard and with that, we come up with the best possible solutions.”
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
Before the pandemic, we were comfortable with being on Zoom and working together across the Atlantic Ocean, but it was very common for us to meet together face to face. Soon after we shut down the offices, our people team made a very clear plan on how we would be handling the situation.
In short, this plan included working from home and never forcing an employee back to the office if it did not fit their personal preference. With this in mind, I felt like everyone was given the chance to do what made the most sense for them. Some employees moved and some began to come back into the offices when they reopened, but each employee was treated equally. Overall, this policy shows me that Dashlane trusts its employees and values our personal preferences.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
Frontify is the quintessential startup. If Frontify were a person, I would describe them as humble, talented and hardworking. The culture encourages an atmosphere of camaraderie where everyone’s opinion is important and we all respect one another in an authentic way. We use a real-time, live feed on all our company updates, where everyone can ask questions anonymously. This encourages a transparent culture that I see throughout all levels of the company.
The culture encourages an atmosphere of camaraderie where we all respect one another in an authentic way.”
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
A company benefit that I love at Frontify is the unlimited PTO as it encourages a healthy work-life balance. A lot of companies will advertise unlimited PTO but not encourage employees to take time off. Frontify actually expects you to take the rest that you need in order to perform your job at your best.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
I joined HUMAN during the pandemic, so naturally I was concerned about remote onboarding and getting to know my coworkers virtually. The company set me up with a buddy — someone I had things in common with and who I could chat to outside of my team. This made the transition much easier. My buddy was warm, welcoming and introduced me to a few other people I probably wouldn’t have interacted with otherwise. This was a great way to make me feel like I was a part of the team and not just someone working from a random location. PeopleOps has been instrumental in making remote work a lot more fun than I expected it to be. We consistently have fun virtual events like painting and cooking classes — I always look forward to their announcements now!
It’s very rare to find a company that’s willing to back up their mission of personal growth and advancement with actual weekly allotted time during work hours.”
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
One of the best benefits HUMAN offers is the learning and development stipend. Not only are we encouraged to spend this amount on classes, books or conferences throughout the year, but on the R&D team, we have dedicated hours on Friday mornings to work on our personal development. It’s very rare to find a company that’s willing to back up their mission of personal growth and advancement with actual weekly allotted time during work hours. This really shows me that HUMAN is willing to invest in their employees while helping maintain work/life balance, which has given me the opportunity to grow my skills and work on my career goals.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
We have a culture of sharing and transparency. For example, there are regular forums for discussing our engineering initiatives so you can hear what other people are planning and share your own ideas. It helps us all feel connected and allows everyone to have an influence on big decisions.
We have a culture of sharing and transparency.”
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
As part of the onboarding process, the company paired me with a product manager on another team to chat with as I learned how Nomad works. It was really helpful as I got to know the ropes and gave me a quick connection to other teams at a time when I may not have had that otherwise. It definitely made me feel supported early on.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
I started working at Truveris as a data analyst in 2020. After learning our system and reporting process, I was able to identify a major process improvement opportunity. I brought this idea to my manager and she was more than willing to listen to my case about how our reporting could be improved. Even though I was a new employee, she took my idea seriously and moved it down the pipeline to start a trial. Six months later, the team of analysts welcomed the new process with open arms – in fact, we are still using this new process today. Ultimately, my idea as a junior-level employee was genuinely heard, given respect and taken seriously. I am proud to work at a company that fosters an environment of creativity and innovation at every level of tenure and seniority.
I am proud to work at a company that fosters an environment of creativity and innovation at every level of tenure and seniority.”
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
I know I’m not alone when I say that the beginning of Covid-19 was scary, unknown and eventually took a toll on my mental health. Truveris was very supportive during this time and created multiple avenues to ease stress and keep us connected while transitioning to fully remote work. Managers encouraged employees to take advantage of our unlimited PTO, even on short notice to seize days with nice weather.
My personal favorite perk is the wellness benefit, which is an expense we can use toward something that contributes to our health and wellness. Some of my coworkers use this benefit for their favorite workout class, a subscription to The New York Times, or even Disney Plus for their restless children. Personally, I use this benefit for books! Truveris is always coming up with new and creative ways to show employees that they care and we have been able to stay connected through virtual events, team retreats and company-wide happy hours.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
We know the importance of celebrating the small wins and saying thank you to our wonderful colleagues. Our Slack channel is bursting with love, gratitude and respect for one another. If you’re ever having a flat or stressful day, hop on there, absorb the great vibes and you’ll be good as new.
We were all buoyed up by this flurry of creativity coming from creators and the positive impact our work had on our fans.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently and what did you enjoy most about it?
Our explosion into streaming was phenomenal and brought together so many teams to build our much loved solution. We were all buoyed up by this flurry of creativity coming from creators and the positive impact our work had on our fans. We knew we were helping fans stay connected to the artists they love, even during a pandemic, which was extremely cool.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
At Northstar, there is healthy communication between teams and individuals. On one hand, we’re far removed from each other, scattered across states and time zones, but on the other hand, we’re all just a Slack message away. We’ve found a good system of asynchronous communication that keeps us all connected but still allows us to get our work done independently when needed.
We recently built a new tool to let recruiters compose offer letters with data like the value of company benefits and projected equity growth. To get it into the hands of customers as soon as possible, I saw the sales team iterating on prototypes with our design team, engineers talking through calculations with our financial planners, and so on. Everyone’s availability was clear and I could message people without feeling like a bother. There’s a really great sense that people want to help you to succeed if you just ask. This is vital since we’re at a stage where every single one of us has a big role in helping the company achieve its goals. And when you succeed, you get to hear directly from the people you’ve impacted!
On one hand, we’re far removed from each other, but on the other hand, we’re all just a Slack message away.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently and what did you enjoy most about it?
The coolest project I’ve worked on recently was probably our candidate offer tool. Not only did we get to build a lot of it from the ground up, but we had just hired a new head of design with a lot of great ideas, so we got to update a lot of our design language in the process. That made it a fun feature to build from both the software architecture side and the UI implementation side. In just a matter of weeks, we got to turn something from a set of Figma designs into a working application.
We started getting feedback almost immediately after releasing this tool to our first customers, and while there were the expected suggested improvements, we also got lots of positive feedback and got to bask in their overall approval.
