The Austin tech scene is booming.
Over the last year, even as a global pandemic upended life as we knew it, Silicon Hills tech companies saw $1.8 billion in venture capital funding, according to the Austin Chamber of Commerce’s 2020 annual report. What’s more, the report showed that 45 companies relocated to Austin in 2020, which could bring nearly 13,000 new jobs to the area.
From Arrive Logistics to Brightpearl, OJO Labs, Saatva and more, job opportunities abound for those wanting to be part of the action — and if their opportunities are any indication, this year is shaping up to be another one for the books for the capital city.
What they do: Pushnami is an omnichannel subscriber engagement and messaging platform.
As a tenured employee, what has been the biggest reason you’ve stayed at your company so long?
The reason that I see myself at Pushnami long term is that our leadership team consistently puts me in a position to be successful. Every day at Pushnami is an opportunity to learn something new and develop my skillset, and the people around me are just as motivated to win as I am.
Some companies say that you have a chance to bring new ideas to the table, but they don’t really mean it and rarely end up listening to anyone outside of the inner circle anyway.
That really isn’t the case at Pushnami, and if I have a new idea that I feel passionate about, I know that my voice will be heard. I really do care about all of my coworkers and it’s been amazing to experience everyone’s personal and professional growth from my very first day up to now. I’m excited and optimistic for what the future holds at Pushnami and I’m proud to be a small part of our long-term success.
Every day at Pushnami is an opportunity to learn something new and develop my skillset.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
When working in the B2B SaaS industry, you have to stay agile and flexible — otherwise, you’ll get left behind. Pushnami is constantly evolving, which as a marketer is challenging but definitely exciting. We’ve experienced rapid growth since we started just a few years ago and recently we sent our 500 billionth message from our platform. It feels like a wild roller coaster ride some days, but I’m not ready to get off any time soon!
What they do: OJO Labs is an AI-powered platform that’s designed to help homebuyers, sellers and owners navigate the complex real estate landscape. OJO also offers an enterprise solution designed to help brokerages and agents connect with more homebuyers and sellers.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at your current company, and why?
I wasn’t in the market for a new job when I was first introduced to OJO, but I was intrigued by the job description. The AI interaction designer had the unique opportunity to define a product’s personality and build a content strategy. It sounded interesting and exciting, so I started the interview process. My plan initially was just to see how it went, but with every interaction, I became more excited about the company and role. And it was the people that kept me coming back.
Everyone at OJO is passionate about our mission, extremely talented in their field and so welcoming. As I met more of the team, I realized they were eager to understand how I could contribute and add value. Everyone was generous with their time to help me understand the dynamics of the company. The team here at OJO was definitely what made me decide to accept the job — and it’s what has kept me around for more than three years now.
Everyone at OJO is passionate about our mission, extremely talented in their field and so welcoming.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed or, more specifically, the work you’ll do to help your company get there?
At OJO, we have the opportunity to impact people’s lives in a really meaningful way. Homeownership is one of the most reliable sources for building wealth, but the process is complicated and can feel inaccessible for people with challenging financial situations or little experience. OJO strives to demystify that process for people. We can help homebuyers build confidence and then connect them with trusted experts to navigate the transaction.
I work with the product marketing team to find ways we can help people understand how OJO brings them closer to homeownership. I also collaborate closely with our product teams to map out how we can connect people to the right resources at the optimum time in their home buying journey. It’s an enormous task, for sure, but when we solve it, we’ll make homeownership accessible to anyone. What’s more exciting than that?
What they do: Saatva is a direct-to-consumer luxury mattress and home furnishing brand.
As a tenured employee, what has been the biggest reason you’ve stayed at your company so long?
I’ve been a part of the Saatva engineering department for over three years and one thing that has never changed has been our commitment to hiring great people, not just great developers. I’ve never worked at a company where every person you interact with is in your corner and cares about the collaboration rather than the credit. There’s not one developer here that doesn’t feel comfortable asking for help, or conversely, offering it if they think they can contribute. In that same spirit, we always strive to include as many voices as we can in the decisions that impact the rest of the team. As we grow, it’s obviously more difficult to get everyone in a room, but if someone has an opinion, we’re going to make sure it’s heard.
It’s impressive to me that we’ve maintained this high standard even as we’ve doubled, tripled and quadrupled in size. As a company grows, it often falls into a cadence of filling seats rather than completing and complementing teams, but not for us. Our leadership has kept the developers in the driver’s seat when it comes to hiring their peers, which I think is not only a testament to their trust in us, but to their confidence in our process and expectations.
We always strive to include as many voices as we can in the decisions that impact the rest of the team.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed or, more specifically, the work you'll do to help your company get there?
The e-commerce world has a bright new light shining on it after the last 12 months and it has illuminated some pretty exciting possibilities. I’m, of course, excited for the growing success of Saatva and what we’re preparing to achieve in the future, but that’s not all. Over the last year, we’ve built an even stronger team of insanely smart and creative individuals who are going to be a blast to learn with as we uncover the best solutions for our user experience.
Already A/B tests are churning, UX research is ramping up, and our developers are iterating into better and better experiences — but that’s just a Tuesday. Our product, design and engineering squads are gearing up to shake things up and the best part is, anyone can have an impact in the direction we take our solutions. Whether you’re a brand new junior developer or a seasoned product designer, a question here or a suggestion there can spur brand new conversations that will find their resolutions in our users’ hands. There’s no doubt that machine learning, personalization and engaging user experiences will be fun to build, but in all honesty, I’m most excited about continuing this awesome path with the folks on my team.
What they do: Arrive is a freight brokerage that streamlines processes for carriers, shippers and representatives.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted your job at your current company, and why?
Over the length of my career, I’ve come to understand the importance of high-quality leadership. I joined Arrive because of the leadership’s focus on culture and company vision. The entire executive team is energetic, inspirational and smart, but they are also acutely focused on Arrive’s culture and what it means to work here. I enjoy my daily work and my role, but the people at Arrive, from leadership to my team and more, are what makes the job the best I’ve ever had.
I’m excited about the combination of energy within Arrive and the energy within the logistics industry itself.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed?
Looking to the future, I’m excited about the combination of energy within Arrive and the energy within the logistics industry itself. Logistics is being disrupted in a fantastically interesting way, and there is an opportunity for my team to solve new problems and create new products with enormous impact.
The logistics industry tends to view technology as a set of tools without enough emphasis on the overall experience. At Arrive, we are developing technology that is focused on the user — carriers, shippers and reps — with a goal to truly delight them, so we put a great deal of effort into big-picture design and usability. It’s one thing to advance your goals, but we don’t just want our users to use the software — we want users to truly engage with the software. It’s an exciting time at Arrive and we’re going to accomplish some amazing things this year.
What they do: Bold Commerce services companies with customizable e-commerce apps that optimize their businesses.
As a tenured employee, what has been the biggest reason you’ve stayed at your company so long?
I’ve been with Bold for 14 months now and, as cliche as this sounds, it’s the people. The people at any company make up the fabric of the culture, the product and the organization. As almost all companies have experienced with the coronavirus pandemic, I’ve seen how courageous and resilient we are in adapting to this “new normal.” It’s inspiring to see how we’ve come together as a team to continue to focus on our merchants’ businesses.
It’s inspiring to see how we’ve come together as a team to continue to focus on our merchants’ businesses.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed or, more specifically, the work you’ll do to help your company get there?
For me, it’s exciting to see what type of impact we will make for our merchants and partners alike. I’m excited to help build teams that serve our agency and technology partners with first-class support, products and services while having a lot of fun along the way.
What they do: All Web Leads (AWL) is a digital marketing company that uses internet marketing to turn consumer interest in insurance products into policy sales for insurance carriers and agents.
As a tenured employee, what has been the biggest reason you’ve stayed at your company so long?
Working for AWL has been such a wonderful experience for me. AWL has taken an industry that has been around for over 100 years and implemented technology, allowing our company to evolve into an insurance powerhouse. First and foremost, it is the company values that have kept me engaged, intrigued and wanting to continue my path with AWL. Even though we are working virtually, the passion of my coworkers is infectious, and it is a collaboration of ideas for the betterment of the business that has created a fast-paced, dynamic attitude that makes you want to strive to work hard and be a part of something great.
Even though we are working virtually, the passion of my coworkers is infectious.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed or, more specifically, the work you’ll do to help your company get there?
My role is as a training support specialist, I get to meet and engage with all the new property and casualty insurance agents that we hire at AWL. Our agents play such a prominent role in the success of our company and it is critical for our department to introduce our new agents into our fun, hard-working environment. What excites me the most about the future is being able to assist in the expansion of AWL and train the agents to be their absolute best!
What they do: Brightpearl is a retail operations platform for retailers and wholesalers.
As a tenured employee, what has been the biggest reason you’ve stayed at your company so long?
The biggest reason I have stayed at Brightpearl is because I work with intelligent people who are adept at solving problems. This is true across all teams. I attribute this to the company’s culture and approach to hiring great talent.
I’ve stayed at Brightpearl because I work with intelligent people who are adept at solving problems.”
Looking to the future, what excites you most about where your company is headed or, more specifically, the work you’ll do to help your company get there?
The company is growing, which means new talented hires with different perspectives are joining. As a manager helping to onboard and coach the customer success and support teams, we are building a scalable model to assist our customer base and each other. This is an exciting time to tackle growth challenges.
