It’s been a rough few months for the U.S. economy. More than 40 million jobless claims were filed by Americans in the past 10 weeks, according to the Washington Post. But despite many businesses facing uneasy futures, a number of local tech companies are still growing.
The following five Seattle companies — representing industries ranging from fintech to cybersecurity — are looking to add top talent to their teams.
The companies solve a diverse set of challenges: Remitly supports immigrants through an international banking platform, while Assurance wants to improve the personal insurance industry. And the professionals we spoke with said their employers offer more than paychecks: These businesses are building robust team cultures, too.
Below, five tech professionals shared what makes their teams unique. A few themes? A focus on customer satisfaction, positive impacts and creative collaboration.
What they do: Remitly lets users send money internationally across different platforms, including mobile, with fair exchange rates and low fees. They also operate their own immigrant-focused bank called Passbook that allows users to sign up with a wide variety of picture IDs.
One thing that would surprise people about Remitly: “Remitly hands responsibility to our employees right from the first day,” Abhinav Jain, a software development engineer, said. “We are encouraged to embrace our values, ‘aim for the stars’ and ‘don’t be afraid to fail.’ We let our people break and create things as part of their learning, and we see that translate into innovation and solutions that have a meaningful impact on our customers.”
Remitly hands responsibility to our employees right from the first day.”
One trait all team members share: Jain said being customer-centric is their most important cultural value. “Our team at Remitly is passionate about transforming the lives of our customers and their families around the globe through the products and services we work on every day. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, sending monetary help to loved ones back home is more important now than ever. It is a necessity. People are restricted in one place and many brick-and-mortar providers are closed or only able to provide limited services. Our team is committed to providing our customers with a service they can depend on in a time that is so uncertain.”
What they do: ServiceNow transforms manual ways of working into modern digital workflows. Their mission? To help employees and customers work effectively through the enterprise.
One thing that would surprise people about ServiceNow: “Despite the economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, on April 14, we made a pledge to protect the jobs of our 11,000-person global workforce through 2020 and noted that we expect to continue hiring for new jobs worldwide this year,” Director of Talent Marketing Liz Du said. “As our CEO Bill McDermott said, “We want our employees focused on supporting our customers, not worried about their own jobs.”
We want our employees focused on supporting our customers, not worried about their own jobs.”
One trait all team members share: “Our focus on customers. We were founded with the belief that ordinary people could have great experiences at work and it’s a vision that everyone at ServiceNow holds close today,” Du said. “One of our company’s core values is ‘deliver customer success.’ Our goal is to be a strategic partner to our customers across their entire journey with us. We truly want to make work, work better for them.”
What they do: Unity Technologies is a software platform that develops 3D technology and VR visualization tools with the goal to make physical navigation more accessible. They work with companies in the gaming, automotive, film and architectural industries to enhance their operations with the help of 3D interfaces.
One thing that would surprise people about Unity Technologies: “Unity is truly a global company. While our HQ is in San Francisco, we were founded in Copenhagen with offices in more than 40 countries with locations in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region,” said Amber Hayes, a recruiting executive. “We grew by 40 percent last year with plans to do the same again in 2020. We’re more than 3,200 people strong and counting.”
The world is better with more creators in it.”
One trait all team members share: “The Unity team is driven by the idea that the world is better with more creators in it,” Hayes said. “We live our values and operate under the notion that the best idea wins. We have an open line of communication across our entire company, and people are encouraged to share their ideas, and perspectives.”
What they do: Ekata provides global identity verification via APIs and a SaaS solution. They have verified over more than a billion transactions requests across 238 countries to help companies reduce customer friction and catch fraud.
One thing that would surprise people about Ekata: People are surprised that a company of around 175 people has such a wide global presence. “In addition to our Seattle office, we have an engineering office in Budapest with roughly 30 engineers and product managers, and we have sales offices with eight people in Amsterdam and four people in Singapore,” Chief of Staff Drew Hackleman said.
“These offices, and Ekata’s overall growth, are being driven by our global customer base and product suite. Our fraud prevention and identity validation products are used by the largest e-commerce and payment companies around the globe, and they rely on Ekata to deliver effective solutions regardless of the country from which their customers are transacting. As a result, we have built a truly global identity graph and API product suite to service our customers globally.”
When conflict does come up, it is healthy conflict as both sides know they’re working toward the same goal.”
One trait all team members share: “Humility and teamwork across our team,” Hackleman said. “Ekata fosters a strong environment for teams to rally around a defined set of goals that everyone is striving for. When conflict does come up, it is healthy conflict as both sides know they’re working toward the same goal. I personally find this to be an extremely powerful motivator to come in and push myself to be better each day as I know those around me are doing the same.”
What they do: Assurance uses machine learning and human expertise to create personalized plans that best match individual insurance needs.
One thing that would surprise people about Assurance: Many employees at Assurance don’t have prior insurance or financial industry experience. “In many ways, we see this as one of our strengths,” Chief Data Scientist Allison Arzeno said. “Assurance strives to bring people together from all different backgrounds, because we believe that is how innovation really thrives. Many of our teams contain some people with deep insurance or financial expertise, and many others with impressive technical chops learned from their experiences in a wide variety of industries. We can then put our heads together to invent and discover solutions to deliver the most value possible, for our business and for our customers.”
We are constantly trying to deliver the most results with the least resources in the shortest amount of time.”
One trait all team members share: “A strong desire to collaborate, so we can achieve more together than any one of us could possibly achieve on our own,” Arzeno said. “We have a culture that requires humility and a willingness to accept that your idea might not be the best, but as a team we can always come up with the best solutions together. We are constantly trying to deliver the most results with the least resources in the shortest amount of time. To be successful at this, we need to challenge each other and ourselves to build new solutions together.”
