What do an HR tech platform, video business and an insurance company have in common? In San Francisco, they are all hiring. But more than that, they are united in a mission aimed at employee (and global) growth. And both current and potential talent is taking notice.
“Our founders have been very deliberate about how we build and sustain the company culture,” local Business Operations and Strategy Manager Valentin Hernandez told Built In.
It’s a refrain that’s common in the Bay Area, and one that has led to an increase in team engagement among businesses taking substantial steps toward an iterative approach to work. With so much at stake, the following five companies are differentiating themselves with thorough onboarding documentation, mentorship opportunities and intentional scale. Here’s how it’s paying off.
What they do: Tonkean is an operating system for business operations, giving users a no-code process orchestration platform. Tonkean enables enterprises to drive operational efficiency while reducing technical debt.
Looking toward the top: “The deciding factor for me to join Tonkean was the management. In my interview process, I met my current manager and the CEO for several meetings, and I found them to be extremely competent, compassionate and thoughtful leaders. A company’s success starts at the top, so this tipped me in favor of Tonkean as opposed to the other companies I was interviewing at. I work on an incredible team with sharp, competent people. That makes all the difference, especially at a high-growth company like ours.”
A future of rapid growth: “When I look ahead, I am most excited to see the rapid growth of Tonkean. While we maintain our values, it is exciting to see the immediate impact of your work reflected in rounds raised, customers acquired and new talent being brought on. When it comes to my role, I’m thrilled to be building a community of makers for Tonkean, and to be a part of that growth and long-term success.”
What they do: Mux is a software company that is on a mission to democratize video by solving the problems developers face when building video. They provide users with video encoding and streaming, video monitoring, and more.
Living the values: “Our founders have been very deliberate about how we build and sustain the company culture. Everyone is smart and good at what they do. At the same time, people here are low ego and genuinely kind and helpful. When I joined in the middle of the pandemic, I knew I’d have a remote onboarding experience, but I didn’t expect it to be so effective and well-organized. Mux became a remote-equal company and has been really intentional about providing new hires with the context and information needed to be successful, from thorough Notion documentation, to in-depth training sessions, to one-on-ones pre-scheduled the first time you access your calendar.”
Relying on knowledge sharing: “We’re rapidly growing to keep up with developers’ demand for easy-to-deploy tools. My role on the business operations team is focused on building out new capabilities as we scale, and strengthening ones already in place.”
“When I was evaluating my offer, my hiring manager shared a thoughtful view into my first 30, 60, and 90 days at Mux. So once on board, I had actionable direction and got up to speed quickly. I have the autonomy to identify and focus on the most impactful areas, and this sort of trust is common across the company.”
“Mux began with a core team of video industry veterans. It’s amazing to see the team grow so fast, adding expertise from a broad range of industries and skill sets. Given our trajectory, I’m excited for where the journey ahead will lead the company, as well as my career.”
What they do: Embroker is a digitally-native business insurance company built with modern technology to eliminate the inefficiencies that increase prices and lead to frustrating customer experiences.
Growth opportunities: “I’ve been at Embroker for just shy of four years, and in that time I’ve seen so much growth and so many changes. As a Pack member, you truly feel like you’re a part of something bigger. You’re able to see just how the work on your desk impacts overall company goals, and wins are celebrated company-wide. ”
“As someone who’s worn a number of hats during my time at Embroker, I’ve always felt supported in my professional development, and have been given many opportunities to expand my knowledge and grow alongside the company. I’m challenged and learning new things every day, which is incredibly rewarding and motivating. ”
Making moves: “We just closed our Series C of $100M to continue furthering our mission. On the channel and alliances team, we’re focused on growing and scaling Embroker Access, which is our broker distribution channel. I’ve always been drawn to building, refining and iterating on new processes, so I love having the opportunity to contribute to a group focused on doing exactly that. Not to mention how rewarding it is to work on a team with such thoughtful, knowledgeable, focused and talented people.”
What they do: DISQO is an audience insights platform where members can share information that improves human experience. The platform as a service is built on an ethical, permission-based technology foundation.
Always learning: “The intellectual capital at DISQO is incredible. Everyone is super smart at what they do and I never have a day where I don’t learn something new. The technical challenges are ambitious and so collaborating in that type of environment is exciting, and especially rewarding when you see positive results. As DISQO grows to scale, we encounter new technical challenges that the team comes together to break down into manageable components so we achieve the technical design we need to succeed.”
“The product side of the business is only one part of why I enjoy DISQO. Career development at DISQO is encouraged and considered a priority for the business. DISQO provides an abundance of learning programs, team-building exercises, mentorship opportunities and extracurricular activities to help all team members make progress toward achieving their career goals.”
Scaling for the future: “I’m looking forward to 2022, accomplishing our native mobile apps buildout, along with further scaling our survey panel to international markets. Scaling our services and features is important to accelerate our growth, and I’m confident the team will succeed.”
What they do: HR tech company Torch aims to help organizations build, manage and measure learning and development programs at scale.
A mission that resonates: “Two things were of utmost priority for me to decide where I wanted to work: the mission of the company and the opportunity for growth. While interviewing, Torch’s mission to build better leaders resonated with me. Having been involved in many leadership roles in college, I understood the importance of being a good leader and constantly growing and learning new skills to become a better version of myself.”
“Since I am early in my career, I wanted to work at a place that would allow me to try out different things and learn quickly. During the interviews, the team made me feel that my opinions were valued. So far, I’ve had the opportunity to work on different parts of our product, contribute to the design process and work with the sales and marketing teams, which is very rewarding. In the process, this flexibility in work and the opportunity to explore different paths has helped me find my strengths and areas for improvement.”
Making informed product decisions: “I currently work on the data and analytics team, which has been a one-person team since its inception until this year. We are now a team of four. Traditionally, we’ve used the data team’s capabilities on a very ad-hoc basis because of our company’s small size. As the company grows and our product matures, I’m looking forward to working as a partner with the other teams within Torch and leveraging data to make more informed decisions as we continue to scale.”
