From the invention of the United States’ first radio station in 1909 to the founding of Apple, Atari and Oracle in the 1980s, Silicon Valley has long been recognized as the tech epicenter of the country.
Now, a century and quite some change later, the area is still known for its innovation and contributions to the industry. Whether it’s an artificial intelligence platform that enables sales teams to transform conversations into data and insights or an online learning platform designed to help students graduate, today’s Silicon Valley tech companies are and helping the region live up to its name.
Below, Built In SF connected with local leaders from a handful of the businesses contributing to the region’s success. If any of their stories pique your interest, you’re in luck. They’re also actively looking for fresh talent to join their ranks.
What they do: Chorus.ai is an AI conversation intelligence cloud platform that enables sales teams to track online conversations and transform them into data and insights.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at Chorus, and why?
The saying “when you know, you know” comes to mind every time I think about my initial call with the Chorus recruiting team. I’ve never felt this way about a team or a job before and I’ve never felt so connected to a company’s mission and values. The interview process was seamless from day one and Chorus’s leaders took the time to get to know me both personally and professionally. They respected and understood my interview and hiring timeline and they made me feel empowered before even stepping foot into the (figurative) door.
In fact, my now manager even carved out additional time after our first one-on-one interview to answer outstanding questions and fill me in on his own trajectory at the company and the different paths that are available to Chorus employees. I was looking for several key components in my next role. The first was strong leadership. The second was a product that would truly disrupt the market and enable remote go-to-market, global teams. And third was a culture of inclusivity, diversity and the opportunity to always be learning. Chorus checked off all of these boxes and more.
I’ve never felt so connected to a company’s mission and values.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where Chorus is headed or, more specifically, the work you’ll do to help the company get there?
At Chorus, we want to help you make every customer interaction count and allow you to really understand the voice of your customer while bringing the power of your story to every conversation. We do this by working with GTM teams to drive team performance, build stronger relationships and acquire unbiased market intelligence. There’s nothing more rewarding than working with our customers to help them gain visibility into their customer sales cycles, scale and improve coaching efforts for frontline reps and leverage the voice of their customer to empower their marketing and product teams.
Looking to the future, what excites me most is seeing our company grow — both in headcount and the customers we partner with. I’m also really eager to introduce new product launches to my revenue teams and give them the ability to gain unparalleled relationship intelligence to keep their deals moving forward.
What they do: Clover Network builds open-architecture point of sale solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses. The systems combine hardware and software capabilities to offer features like direct payments, online ordering, employee tracking, analytics reporting and more.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at Clover Network, and why?
The deciding factor was knowing that I’d gain a lot of experience and exposure to all sides of human resources. I’d get the opportunity to help establish new structures and processes to improve all parts of the employee life-cycle experience — from onboarding to the employees’ day-to-day to when the employee exits the company.
I love being creative and thinking critically in order to solve problems, so this felt like a great place to be able to do both. It’s a common part of Clover culture for employees to be able to leave their thumbprint with the work that they’re doing. It was and still is really important for me to do work where I can build and create so that I can see the impact I’m making with the work that I’m doing. I also wanted to be in a place where I felt I could be comfortable to be my authentic self. I have bright red hair, tattoos and piercings. So I wanted to be in a place that was casual, open and where unique individuality is welcomed.
We’re looking to expand our teams to fully support our efforts in helping businesses continue to flourish.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where Clover is headed or, more specifically, the work you’ll do to help the company get there?
I’m most excited about the hiring and expansion in our employee base. At Clover, we’re all about transforming the way merchants do business, which has become especially important during the pandemic. With this in mind, we’re looking to expand our teams to fully support our efforts in helping businesses continue to flourish and make their lives easier.
My role has a lot to do with the employee experience. So as we continue to grow, I’ll be looking at how we can improve and create a consistent experience for candidates and new hires alike. Let’s be honest, we spend a lot of time dedicated to our jobs. So when people make the decision to come work with Clover, I want us all to feel energized, excited, supported and ultimately happy to be here.
What they do: ThoughtWorks is a software consultancy that aims to solve problems with technology and innovation.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at ThoughtWorks, and why?
The deciding factor for me in accepting the job at TW is the value that it gives on work flexibility which allows TWers to live and work anywhere so that we can be more productive. This flexibility also provides us with travel opportunities that allow for learning and growth both professionally and personally. I live in Portland, was interviewed in NYC, and today, I’m reporting to my home office in San Francisco. This variety has exposed me to different cultures and areas in the U.S.
One of the things I really appreciate about TW is that the people are very supportive and they ensure that all TWers are comfortable and equipped wherever they may be working or living, and what they are doing is in-line with our career goals.
The people at TW ensure that all employees are comfortable and equipped wherever they may be working or living.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where ThoughtWorks is headed or, more specifically, the work you’ll do to help the company get there?
As a UX designer, it’s a part of my job to continue humanizing technology and at ThoughtWorks, I get to work across different industries and different technologies.
Whether it’s healthcare, retail, finance, web and mobile apps, machine learning, APIs or chatbots, I still have the opportunity to make a positive difference for our clients by understanding the user’s needs, challenges and goals. Designing and building solutions is exciting because I know I am creating experiences that positively impact users’ lives and the business while maintaining the human element at every step.
What they do: Course Hero is an online learning platform designed to help students graduate by preparing them for courses and tests. The platform features more than 40 million course-specific study materials from classes around the world.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at Course Hero, and why?
I was looking for a company with a product that aligned with my interests as a product manager. I wanted to stay consumer-focused and build user experiences for a growing audience. Course Hero’s Q&A platform is a marketplace with supply and demand dynamics, where the experience of one side could impact the other. To me, this was both very interesting and challenging. I saw it as a great opportunity for me to grow and learn.
It was crucial to work on a product that I believe in so that I can be excited every day to strategize and solve problems. The opportunity at Course Hero was a balance of an attractive product, product growth potential and personal growth potential.
The opportunity at Course Hero was a balance of an attractive product, product growth potential and personal growth potential.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where Course Hero is headed or, more specifically, the work you’ll do to help the company get there?
We have seen tremendous growth in the past year. I feel like we are just getting started. I am excited that we are focused on initiatives that are customer-oriented, backed by data and drive value for the company. We care deeply about doing the right things for our end users.
Course Hero also has a culture that can both move fast when needed, but is also patient to see through long-term objectives that take steps to achieve. I know we are headed in the right direction since we understand the programs we are facing and have great teams to tackle the challenges together. We continue to calibrate and seek talent in various areas to help us accelerate our efforts. All of this gives me the confidence that we are building the right foundation and keeping our eyes on the future.
What they do: PagerDuty is a digital operations management software that specializes in incident response for IT departments.
As a tenured employee, what has been the biggest reason you’ve stayed at PagerDuty so long?
As someone who has worked in various roles, at multiple companies, I can say that my 3.5 years at PagerDuty have been enjoyable and have provided me with a number of reasons why I choose to stay. I accepted an offer to work for PagerDuty because of the new challenges that working here would present me. I had previously been at larger, well-established, enterprise organizations. PagerDuty allowed me the opportunity to have a voice that could help shape and grow the company into being a leader in digital operations management. You only get that at a company that truly believes in “people first.” They provide you with tools and resources making sure you understand how to grow and develop your career.
PagerDuty believes in creating an environment for their employees to thrive, excel and lead.”
They also train management on how they can support and partner with you to help you achieve your development goals. And PagerDuty’s belief in inclusion, diversity and equity is another reason I have stayed. Here, I feel like it is something that is embraced, starting with our executive leadership that goes all the way down to each employee.
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where PagerDuty is headed or, more specifically, the work you’ll do to help the company get there?
As I mentioned, I came to PagerDuty because of the new challenges that the company would present me. Those challenges haven’t disappeared and continue to change as we grow our company and platform. Our once small security team has grown tremendously during my tenure. So what excites me is the opportunity to lead a team focused on our product and application security in ways that continue to make it easy for our Dutonians to do the right thing when it comes to security.
What they do: Smartly.io is an adtech platform that allows brands to automate their social advertising. With smartly.io brands can reduce time spent on campaign management, scale operations efficiently and generate thousands of ad variations automatically.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at Smartly.io?
When going through the application process, I came across Smartly.io’s culture handbook, which clearly details the company’s values and ways of working built on a foundation of trust, transparency and feedback. Having been at the company for two years, I’m grateful to say that both my colleagues and the leadership team are extremely intelligent, collaborative and humble people who embody the company’s values.
It’s exciting to see how quickly we’re developing the latest features that enable our customers to take their marketing to the next level.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where Smartly.io is headed?
Smartly.io is a fast-moving and fast-growing company that’s constantly innovating products to help our customers advertise easily and efficiently. As the advertising landscape evolves, our team is one step ahead in anticipating the needs of the industry with our product expansions focused on automation and creative scaling across multiple social marketing platforms. It’s exciting to see how quickly we’re developing the latest features that will enable our customers to take their marketing to the next level!
What they do: Sensor Tower is a big data company that helps businesses navigate the mobile app ecosystem.
As a tenured employee, what has been the biggest reason you’ve stayed at Sensor Tower so long?
One of the most exciting things about Sensor Tower is the rapid growth the company has experienced over the last few years. I am approaching my four-year anniversary and the journey has been rewarding both personally and professionally. It has been great to see my work having a direct impact on the success of the company and I have been lucky to be in a position where I lead a team focused on the future growth of the company.
It has been great to see my work having a direct impact on the success of the company.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where the company is headed?
Sensor Tower has grown tremendously over the last few years. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of the mobile ecosystem including games which has allowed our suite of products to be even more valuable to our customer base. We are actively working on new solutions that we feel will make a significant impact to the broader mobile industry, which in turn, keeps me motivated to continue my journey.
What they do: Avenue Code is a software consultancy focused on delivering end-to-end development solutions for digital transformation across a variety of mediums.
As a tenured employee, what has been the biggest reason you’ve stayed at Avenue Code so long?
I feel that I am part of something special — creating ideas that I really believe in and that I want to achieve. I have learned new things from the talented people across the company and received daily encouragement as well as the opportunity to live and work abroad. Most importantly, I feel that even after four years, I am still very passionate about my job.
I feel that I am part of something special.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where the company is headed?
Avenue Code is expanding a lot, which is my motivation. When I joined AC, our dream was to expand to Brazil. We did it and now we want to conquer even more. As I mentioned before, I really feel that I am a part of something special and I want to use my expertise to help the company write its next page of history. I am looking forward to seeing what we accomplish in this next year.
