A Beacon Biosignals engineer runs into a technical problem and finds themselves swarmed by colleagues to brainstorm solutions. A Silvertree job candidate nervously asks if their impending child would affect his hiring chances and is met with well-wishes and advice from interviewers. EDB’s CEO reads stories to the children of his employees.
A company is made by its people.
Built In Boston sat down with employees of 10 local companies with exceptional workplace cultures. In addition to the three already mentioned, the professionals gave glowing reviews for the cultures of Markforged, Alteryx, Starburst, Rue Gilt Groupe, EFFECT Photonics, Ably Realtime and Wasabi Technologies. If you’re inspired to get on board with these teams, you’re in luck: they’re hiring.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
Our company culture heavily emphasizes the importance of winning and losing as one team, which is something that I see every day. Every week, the engineering team has a meeting where various members catch each other up on their projects. Although I had only been at Markforged for a few months, I was recently in charge of presenting at one of these meetings. I knew that this was a great opportunity for me to share some of the exciting updates on my projects, yet I was filled with nerves and voices inside my head telling me that people may not be as excited as I was.
Once I finally finished presenting, my inbox was full of messages from my fellow coworkers — some of whom I had not yet formally met or worked with — commending me for my work and expressing their excitement for this new project and the progress that we made. I also received some constructive feedback and ideas from my manager and other coworkers to ensure that this project was a success. Everyone’s reaction to my presentation showed me a lot about the company that I work for: my coworkers are supportive, intelligent and kind, but most of all they help me feel like I am part of the family and team that is Markforged.
What’s the coolest project you've worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
When I first started working at Markforged, I was supporting the development of a new material so I could begin to understand everything that goes into creating brand new printable material from scratch. I was excited to see that the work I was doing would play a role in helping my company grow.
To my surprise, a few months later I worked on developing another material — except this time I had a more significant role. I was tasked with developing a formula for such material almost independently. Beyond being really fun, interesting and unlike anything I had done before, being a part of this project helped me feel fulfilled because the material that I created would directly benefit all of the customers that use our technology. I never imagined that one day I would be able to wake up, open the Markforged website, point to a material, and say, “I played a role in making that.” But working here made that a possibility for me.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
Our CEO! Typically, a CEO seems to be out of reach of their employees, but I have been with EDB for more than five years and have found Ed to be a dynamic CEO who not only knows you by name but takes the time to get to know you better. He also spends time reading stories to the children of EDB employees and lapping you in a go-cart race at company events. This definitely makes it a unique place to work.
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
EDB offers wellness days, where everyone in the company gets an additional day off per month. The extra day lets us relax and spend time with family, which is invaluable. This policy was instituted during the peak of the pandemic when there was so much uncertainty about the status of our lives, and it’s been continued into 2022.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
Alteryx is a special place to work because of the opportunity we all have to make positive change. We’re currently transitioning from a company that historically offered primarily on-premise products to one that has a more hybrid approach of on-premise and cloud tools. This is a great opportunity to serve our customer’s needs, and will have a huge impact on our company and our customer’s experience of our products.
This feeling that we’re reinventing ourselves goes beyond our customer offerings. Within Alteryx, we’re having transparent conversations about what kind of company we want to be — where and how we work, our product roadmap, how we give back to our communities and beyond. They include everyone in the conversations so everyone’s voice can be heard.
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
In the product and engineering org, we have “innovation days” during which anyone can bring passion projects to the table. It’s inspiring to see how smart and talented people are, and it’s also fun to see what people are interested in. Much of the time, the projects that people come up with are really beneficial to the company. Some people in the team have created some really cool and useful advanced analytics features for one of our products. I’m excited for customers to see what the team has created, and it’s all a result of these days and this culture of innovation we’ve created.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
At Starburst, we are building something great, where everyone has an impact on the future of our company. We are working hard to create innovative, valuable products while fostering a unique and appreciative company culture. Our foundations in open-source software separate us from our competitors because our engineers get to work with technology that has been battle-tested by some of the largest companies in the world, and offer it to our large enterprise customers. Our company culture is centered around the collaborative nature of open source, and that translates beyond our engineering teams.
We are a remote-first company, which gives our teams the flexibility to work from anywhere in the world — but we also understand that working remotely comes with challenges. Our teams work really hard on behalf of Starburst, and we acknowledge that they would not be able to do so without the support of their families. We invite team members’ families to join our Zoom activities. For example, last year, my daughters got to name the Trino mascot, “Commander Bun Bun.” We’re excited about the work we are doing, and want to recognize the people who help us get there.
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
Since I started working at Starburst, I’ve been able to work on many innovative projects, including a number of new and updated product offerings. In 2021, we launched our cloud-native service, Starburst Galaxy, which provides fast and secure access to all data within an organization. This was a new venture for us and posed a unique challenge because our team pivoted from writing enterprise software to building and maintaining a world-class cloud product.
I really enjoy working on data products such as Starburst Galaxy because there’s an element of risk involved. We’re not always sure that our hard work will pay off in the end, but it’s rewarding to approach each product as if I’m an entrepreneur within the company. It allows me to take a step back and evaluate what’s working or if we should go in a different direction entirely. Although our team has faced various challenges, we’ve learned many valuable lessons along the way and I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish. Our team’s incredible talents and commitment toward reaching a common goal helped make the Starburst Galaxy project a reality in a short amount of time.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
Rue Gilt Groupe’s collaborative culture encourages passionate individuals to come together as a team to build better products and experiences for our members. Every year, Rue Gilt Groupe pulls together dedicated cross-functional teams to develop and test innovative projects aligned to core initiatives. Last year, I was part of one of these efforts, and it was such an incredible opportunity to work with so many talented team members I wouldn’t necessarily work with in my day-to-day role.
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
As the manager of Rue Gilt Groupe’s loyalty programs, there is nothing I love more than developing new benefits and touch points to delight our best members. I recently helped facilitate several focus groups for a new initiative centered on the user experience. It was amazing to work cross-functionally to bring the concept to life, as well as watch members interact with the tools and provide instant feedback. Our members are at the heart of everything we do, and it’s so important we solicit honest feedback to develop the best experience for them.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
One of the things that makes Beacon feel truly special is the feeling of community; the folks here come from a wide variety of backgrounds, but we genuinely care about each other, both as colleagues and as people with their own lives. On the broadest scale, we’re united by a common desire to have an impact on the lives of patients with neurological disorders. But it’s even more than that — we want to see each other succeed day to day.
A while back, one of my colleagues was creating time-sensitive deliverable for a client and was running into a technical issue. Without prompting, a colleague from a different team noticed and recognized the issue at hand, and jumped in to point them in the direction of some prior discussion on the issue. Within about an hour, four different people on four different teams, across two countries and three time zones had all chimed in, offering valuable context, workarounds and alternatives, and eventually discovered a solution. The colleague initially facing the issue was unblocked and able to produce the output needed for the client on schedule. This isn’t an isolated incident. This is just how Beacon operates; we do what we can to help one another.
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
I’ve recently been heavily involved in one of Beacon’s client partnerships. Our biopharma partner is developing a novel gene therapy treatment for children with a rare but debilitating genetic epilepsy. My role has been exploring the data they’ve gathered and building state-of-the-art machine learning tools to draw insights about what makes these kids’ brains different from others. With that knowledge in hand, our partner will be able to use Beacon’s platform to more easily identify kids who would benefit most from the precision treatment as well as directly measure the treatment’s impact on the kids’ quality of life.
It feels incredibly exciting and rewarding to know that my contributions, no matter how big or how small, are going directly toward helping these patients — potentially giving them the opportunity to lead a more normal life in the very near future. We’re each using our own skills and expertise, making impacts in our own ways, to complement one another and achieve something together that none of us could do alone.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
Working for EFFECT Photonics means working in international, multi-cultural teams with flat hierarchies. Any employee can approach the leadership team directly to discuss ideas or technological challenges, so every individual can have a great impact on the company’s success. And, since the company was born in the Netherlands, you frequently get exposed to tasty Dutch sweets like “stroopwafels” (caramel waffles). EFFECT Photonics also hosts creative team building events, like catching and driving sheep as way to get better insight into “leadersheep.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
I am glad to be part of the team working on the next generation of coherent optical transceivers. This is a highly multidisciplinary program that requires cutting-edge solutions and innovation for addressing whatever needs arise in the market. It never gets boring. Engaging with colleagues that are experts in their specific areas is a pleasure and provides many opportunities for personal development and growth.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
Ably has an incredibly special company culture — we really do live by our values. Take our value “open for all” as an example. As a platform, Ably believes in open source, standards and protocols. As a remote-first company, we believe in an asynchronous way of working so everyone has access to the same information. Wondering why Ably chose Boston as their hub for U.S. expansion? That decision is documented internally for anyone to read. And finally, “open for all” drives our people policies. That means providing generous, gender-neutral parental leave and creating safe spaces for people who identify as LGBTQ+, or neurodiverse, for example.
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
As a remote-first company, Ably values their employees’ ability to comfortably work from home if not working from one of our hubs. Everyone is entitled to a $500 benefit to outfit their home office, with an annual $150 top-up. I was able to enhance my home set-up with a top of the line monitor, arm, keyboard, mouse and footstool, just to name a few items. My spouse was jealous!
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
What separates Wasabi’s culture is its employee transparency. From executive leadership down through individual team managers, the commitment and responsibility to be transparent on company performance, direction and goals is remarkable. At Wasabi, there’s no lack of communication, and I believe that’s what makes us successful as a company. Even through the pandemic, with remote working, most would think communication would deteriorate. But as a company we thrived — and that starts from the top down.
As a member of the product marketing team, my typical week starts with a Monday morning marketing organization meeting led by our CMO. The company’s weekly performance is discussed, and we get great insights into the direction of the company. The rest of the week is followed by specific team meetings and individual one-on-one’s with team managers. With constant communication and transparency regarding the direction of the company, we have a work environment that’s focused on teamwork, collaboration, and a sense of individual responsibility to put in our best every day — not only to make the company successful, but to help our fellow employees grow.
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
The goal at Wasabi is to store the world’s data, and we’re always looking for new and innovative ways to do this. The video surveillance market needs a new way to store the large amount of data it’s generating. Even though I didn’t have prior surveillance experience, I was still provided with the opportunity to dive in headfirst to help grow Wasabi’s presence in this industry and educate the market on why Wasabi is the best solution for moving video files to the cloud. Since taking on this project, I’ve really grown professionally. That’s due to the amazing teams I work with. I learn every day from some of the best. From product management, to sales, to marketing, each team has been essential in the early success of our video surveillance campaign. Because of this team effort, I’m really looking forward to the amount of traction we gain in the market in 2022.
What’s one thing that makes your company culture unique or special?
We’re building a resilient team by including people who come from varying backgrounds and life experiences. While interviewing, I was expecting my first child and was afraid a startup wasn’t going to work for me, even though it was an extremely appealing opportunity. I brought this up early in the interview process and was expecting a negative reaction from the team, but got the opposite. Everyone was supportive and congratulatory, and shared stories of welcoming their first child.
This underscores the point that Silvertree is looking for the right people that will be successful in the long run, not just literally today or tomorrow. We went through the interview process to see if there was a mutual fit, and agreed to deal with the logistics of parental leave after we confirmed that there was mutual excitement; a few months later, after my daughter was born, I came on full time. I love seeing how these values continue to show up in our day-to-day.
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
Every day is a learning experience with so many interesting problems to solve. I’m a firmware engineer and spend most of my day-to-day writing code. In my first two weeks with the team, I realized we could use a hardware test fixture that would make all our lives easier in development. I asked, and it was on people’s radar but no one had been able to get to it yet. I was able to jump right in and make it happen. It’s great to push my boundaries and be able to bring some peripheral skills to the table that help the team out. Our “get stuff done” mentality, combined with the technical challenges we face, means there is no shortage of opportunity to learn and grow while contributing.
