Taking on a new role can be an exhilarating experience in a person’s developing career, feeling like a major victory has been achieved after surviving the strenuous rounds of interviews and competing against qualified professionals. It’s even nicer knowing where that position can take your future self.
“When evaluating an opportunity, I think you should focus on people, vision, product and culture,” Kahlil Trocmé, enterprise sales development lead at Drift, said. “As a sales development team lead, I’m thrilled to continue to recruit diverse candidates and contribute to changing people’s lives through upward mobility.”
However, having an understanding of the company’s overall goals and the direction they are looking to grow can be just as crucial as knowing the internal trajectory of a job title, as well as who those opportunities are available to. Senior Director of Engineering Emil Sit said that, as a manager, he was able to help define many of the frameworks around the employee journey due to the “tremendous growth” at Toast.
“We’ve focused on building repeatable processes that provide equal opportunities to all,” Sit said.
Built In Boston caught up with eight local tech companies that have embraced internal growth and promoting from within to expand the capabilities of their organizations — together.
LeanIX offers software-as-a-service (SaaS) for managing enterprise architecture and multi-cloud environments to enable organizations to make faster, data-driven decisions in their IT.
Developing a deeper understanding: “LeanIX looks for ambitious, innovative individuals who are willing to learn,” Ngo said. “My coworkers in the US, European and Asian offices are exactly these types of people. Having joined LeanIX from another SaaS company, I love that I have the opportunity to continually dive deeper into the product and help customers succeed in their IT management.”
Growing up fast: “As a customer success associate, I work directly with customers and hear their accomplishments and pain points with the tool. The product and engineering teams will do what they can to make sure we collaborate with our customers to find a solution.”
“LeanIX, at its core, is a tool for enterprise architecture. In the past year, we’ve released cloud intelligence and microservice intelligence products. We also recently acquired Cleanshelf, a SaaS intelligence product. We are now the first provider in the enterprise architecture industry to offer its customers an out-of-the-box solution for SaaS management. It’s exciting to be a part of an industry-leading company, and I can’t wait to see how LeanIX continues to grow and evolve.”
LogicManager creates enterprise risk management software that helps companies anticipate problems and quickly decide on solutions. The company helps governments, banks and educational institutions manage their risks and maintain their reputations.
Recognizing a good thing when you see it: “When given the opportunity to become LogicManager’s customer advocacy team lead, I knew the role was too great to pass up,” Nethercote said. “Part of the reason LogicManager caught my eye in the first place was because I could tell that they were on an amazing trajectory. From their goal of expanding offices internationally to their unwavering passion for enhancing their product to better serve the customer, I knew they were on an exciting path. After meeting everyone during the interview process – albeit over Zoom – I knew I wanted to be a part of this amazing team.”
To infinity and beyond: “I’m most excited to see our sales organization grow. We are expanding our customer advocacy department across the U.S. and overseas in the U.K., and that’s all due to the fact that LogicManager, as an organization, is truly invested in our success. Considering our team’s talent, along with the fact that our product offering has never been more competitive, the sky’s the limit for us.”
Restaurant management platform Toast provides software to maneuver functions like online ordering, payroll, menu changes and other essentials in order to simplify the hectic life of hospitality management.
Adapting framework to fit changing needs: “There are many things to appreciate about working at Toast, ranging from the strong community-oriented mission to a culture that values teamwork, trust and transparency,” Sit said. “The biggest reason I’ve been excited to continue my career at Toast would be the tremendous growth of the company. As a manager, I was able to help define many of our frameworks around the employee journey, ranging from interviewing and onboarding to the promotion process. We’ve focused on building repeatable processes that provide equal opportunities to all.”
“My managers give me opportunities to lead in different functional areas. This has spanned user-facing efforts, such as online ordering or in-restaurant payment workflows, but also infrastructure efforts, like continuously innovating our payments solutions. There are always plenty of impactful opportunities, so I have the ability to offer challenges to my teams as well.”
Internal growth builds outward opportunity: “Being at Toast gives me a close-up view of what it takes to grow a company. There’s a diversity of efforts across business, technical and people domains. My role is to find this balance in the payments and fintech part of Toast. We have more opportunities now to address problems that are growing in importance and to approach new business opportunities.”
“To solve for these opportunities, I collaborate across the organization focusing on hiring and effective onboarding. I’m thinking about creating a pipeline of new leaders. My teams will have to make tough decisions and learn from our mistakes. With the support of many experienced peers and my manager, it will be a tremendous opportunity for me to teach and learn while making an impact.”
Revenue acceleration platform Drift uses conversational marketing to help companies increase customer lifetime value and aligns sales and marketing on a single platform to deliver a unified customer experience.
A match in values: “When I was looking to make my next career move, Drift stood out as a trailblazer, which made me incredibly excited to accept a job and join the team,” Trocmé said. “When evaluating an opportunity, I think you should focus on people, vision, product and culture. I felt like Drift had all four. Additionally, I was in awe of the fact that Drift was a Latinx-led company.”
Embracing diversity for bigger changes: “Looking into the future, I’m most excited about being part of a company that dominates its market and establishes itself as the undisputed leader in its category. Additionally, as a minority in the world of tech, working for David Cancel and Elias Torres is beyond inspiring. Drift’s efforts to ensure that underrepresented minorities get a seat at the table is the most noble mission we’ve set out to accomplish.”
“As a sales development team lead, I’m thrilled to continue to recruit diverse candidates and contribute to changing people’s lives through upward mobility. Drift is also now digital first, meaning remote is the primary experience for employees. We have ‘conversation spaces’ across the country where Drifters can sign out a desk or collaborate, so we have access to a much larger, more diverse talent pool and more flexible options for where and how we want to work. I’m excited to keep growing our teams and expanding our presence across the globe.”
Jobcase is a social media platform dedicated to helping workers prepare for and find careers through networking with experienced professionals and other resources.
Connecting through community: “I chose to join the team at Jobcase because of their mission to empower the world’s workers,” Lee said. “Coming from a not-for-profit background, I knew I wanted to be a part of something that would have an authentic impact on others. I was struck in particular by the Jobcase community — how members connect and help each other through stressful and hopefully rewarding times in their lives. Being part of a team that is building such a unique community to help people improve their work lives was an opportunity that excited me.”
Expanding the reach: “Networking is such a critical part of the job search, but not everyone has a strong support system that can grow with them over time. Jobcase is working on ways to help people build and keep relationships throughout their working years. Though Jobcasers may never meet each other in person, we’re working hard to help them connect in deeper, more meaningful ways through the community on our platform. I’m so excited for the progress Jobcase continues to make in this space so all of our members can discover and make the most of vibrant and expansive networks!”
Reggora is a fintech company that offers software to mortgage lenders and real estate appraisers. The company’s platform helps to expedite and bring efficiency to the home appraisal process.
Embracing change as motivation: “Right off the bat, the people and the culture that Reggora embodied caught my attention,” Buckman said. “While the appraisal market was described as ‘not the flashiest,’ the motivation of the team to make a significant change in the housing market was exciting. Just from meeting a handful of team members, I was able to gauge how driven and collaborative they were, and I saw myself working well with them to tackle the technical challenges they were facing.”
“The overall dedication of Reggora to not only growing their business but their employees as individuals was what helped me make the decision to join the team. The tech industry is constantly changing, and being a part of a workplace that embraces the beauty of change and values the importance of continuous learning is what I ultimately sought in my next role.”
Building better teams for bigger wins: “Two things that excite me the most about where Reggora is headed are the team that we’re building and the growth of our customer base. In regard to our hiring efforts, our recruitment team has been doing a wonderful job making sure that diversity is a priority. We have several women in leadership roles and we are working toward building an employee resource group to continue to offer opportunities for networking, growth and development.”
“As for our ever-growing customer base, this comes with a number of engineering challenges. As part of the DevOps engineering team, I will be helping to drive our scalability initiative by focusing on improvements to how we are managing our infrastructure. I will also be working closely with our platform team to ensure we’re keeping scalability in mind as engineering continues to build out more features.”
SmarterTravel (previously owned by TripAdvisor) is a travel website that provides independent expert advice and unbiased reviews for highly rated travel deals, destinations, and money-saving tips.
Feeding off collaborative energy: “I’m in my third year at SmarterTravel, and there are many great things that keep me here. I get to play with some of the best technology and tools available, and engineers are empowered to bring in new technologies to solve really difficult and important problems. I’m also engaged in working with talented people who keep me on my game and help us to open up so many exciting opportunities.”
“For example, last year we had the opportunity to acquire eight travel sites that complemented our existing abilities perfectly. I was able to get resources reassigned quickly to consider the necessary engineering work and resulting return on investment. That all happened quickly without layers of approval or waiting. Ultimately, we made the decision and completed the technology transfer in a few weeks. I really appreciate that we were smart enough and nimble enough to get it done.”
Sharpening skill sets: “SmarterTravel is more than a travel company or a digital marketing company, and more than the sum of those parts. We have an amazing team that can plan and execute on our vision. One of the most exciting aspects of working here is how we make decisions as a company. We put a great deal of analysis and thought as a team into smart risks and logical extensions of our business. Working at SmarterTravel has given me opportunities to grow my skill set as we grow our capabilities, and it will continue to do so. I can’t wait to see what’s next for us!”
LogRocket’s technology enables engineering and product teams to replay how users interact with their sites so they can reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. The company’s platform also lets teams monitor site performance; convert and retain customers; track and manage errors; and increase engagement.
United teams making a difference: “As a tenured employee, the biggest reason I’ve stayed at LogRocket is the feeling that we’re moving forward as a team to accomplish some very lofty goals,” Meth said. “Account executives, sales development reps, and engineering and marketing teams are truly being heard by each and every person around them. Over the past year we went from another session replay solution to building an extremely competitive product with multiple differentiators. This does not happen at most companies.”
What’s most exciting about the work: “The ability to work closely with upper management to get a sense of how to build out a sales team and its channels. Not often do you have the ability to work with the cofounders directly in order to push deals over the line — whether it’s legal negotiations or performance testing. Our executives are incredibly generous with their time, so it’s motivating to pick their brains in order to learn how to better sell, manage and voice the opportunities you want to grow into.”
