When Zee Perez Canals first started at Riskified, she had recently switched career paths. With no previous experience in the e-commerce sector, Perez Canals said she was able to rely on the company’s detailed onboarding program for guidance and support.
Looking back, the technical solutions specialist said that the resources the e-commerce tech platform provided — and continues to provide — changed the way she looks at approaching challenges.
“The training I received put me ahead of the game and prepared me for a successful future in my role,” she said.
Leadership at Riskified is looking to expand the team once again. But they’re not the only employer in NYC looking to fill a variety of roles. So are local tech startups Stella Connect, BentoBox, DriveWealth and Ribbon Health. Employees from each company shared their experiences tackling real-world problems with teams of like-minded individuals.
Might you be the next new, senior front-end engineer, client success manager or data analyst?
What they do: Stella Connect is a SaaS platform that uses customer feedback to help customer service agents hone their skill sets. The technology allows users to manage distributed agents, coach agents, organize one-on-one meetings and more.
Stella Connect’s company culture in one word: Supportive. “In the year or so since I have joined the company, I’ve been overwhelmed by the support I’ve received,” Controller Joel Kleiner said. “Professionally, everyone from the leadership team and the finance department have helped and encouraged me to grow.” On a personal level, Kleiner says Stella Connect has supported him through a new baby, flexible scheduling and most recently, a cross-country move.
The coolest project Kleiner has worked on recently: “As Stella’s controller, I live and breathe the details of the company’s financials and growth initiatives,” Kleiner said. “When COVID-19 started and the business world changed, we did not know how Stella Connect would be affected.” Kleiner worked on different cross-functional projects to proactively mitigate any possible areas of risk to the company. He said that experience transformed him professionally. “During this time of uncertainty, I was able to help sustain business growth with a people-first approach,” he said. “I learned to think of others and their challenges.”
What they do: BentoBox is a hospitality platform that allows restaurant professionals to manage their websites online, set up digital ordering options and offer customers gift cards and merchandise.
BentoBox’s company culture in one word: Hospitality. “A lot of people associate this word with restaurants,” Product Manager Betsy Chen said. “But I’ve always felt that hospitality is having empathy with the people around you, whether it’s customers or co-workers.”
“At a restaurant, I know I have to bring someone a fork so they can eat their food. At work, I know that I have to provide context and data so users can make a decision.”
Chen’s professional growth journey: “In my five years at BentoBox, I’ve learned that sometimes, you don’t have to know it all,” Chen said. “Everyone does things differently. You don’t have to have all the answers, so check your ego and ask for help.” Since taking her own advice, Chen said she hired a VP of customer success who has significantly built out their CS team. The people she managed? They now manage other people.
What they do: DriveWealth’s cloud-based, API-driven brokerage infrastructure helps financial institutions make investing more transparent and accessible for their customers. Partner solutions experts support users with on-site development assistance, API documentation, workflow and product examples.
DriveWealth’s company culture in one word: Fast-paced. “We constantly strived to move away from manual processes, which are time-consuming and error-prone, by integrating with the latest APIs from vendors for various internal features,” Principal Engineer Sid Pai Raikar said. His API team recently upgraded the entire money movement infrastructure, which previously involved daily manual CSV-file uploads and constant human interaction. Now, it’s a fully automated workflow. They are currently in the process of enhancing the customer identification program and “know your customer” infrastructure to automate domestic and international user and account approvals.
The coolest project Pai Raikar has worked on recently: Partner settlements via APIs. “I built an API-based solution to completely automate the reconciliation process with our partners,” he said. This solution provides a real-time summary and breakdown of payables or receivables due on trade settlement date. It allows the back-office or operations team to automatically net settle every end-user account for partners at the click of a button. Creating the solution involved understanding existing settlement processes, gathering requirements and pain points, and coming up with innovative ways to help partners –– all while keeping software compliant with industry regulations.
What they do: Ribbon Health is a healthcare platform that supplies providers and organizations with an API layer to increase transparency regarding insurance plans, costs and quality of care.
Ribbon Health’s company culture in one word: Thoughtful. “Our team is committed to putting each other first, reflecting on areas of both excellence and growth, and effectively giving and receiving feedback,” Senior Software Engineer Alicia Gansley said. For example, every new member of the Ribbon team writes a document detailing their “working norms,” explaining their problem-solving and collaboration styles, approach to feedback and stress and work-life balance priorities. Each department then reviews the document as a team so they can create an environment where everyone feels empowered to do their best work.
Why Gansley chose to work at Ribbon Health: “I’ve always been curious about joining a startup as an early engineer,” Gansley said. “I was drawn in by Ribbon specifically because, despite everything the company had already accomplished, every person I spoke to was humble, collegial and committed to an important mission.”
Gansley said she is particularly excited about building a data management platform for the company’s customers.
What they do: Riskified helps e-commerce merchants increase revenue, manage risk and improve customer experience by using machine-learning algorithms to recognize legitimate customers and let them complete their purchases.
Riskified’s company culture in one word: Autonomy. “As employees, we are trusted to have ownership over our work, which gives us the individual power to make an impact on the company’s success,” Technical Solutions Specialist Zee Perez Canals said. “This sense of responsibility and trust has given me the opportunity to work on projects in my areas of interest and has been crucial for my overall success and engagement at Riskified.” Perez Canals said knowing that her opinion matters, and that her work will impact the success of her team and the company as a whole, is rewarding.
Perez Canals’ professional growth journey: “Starting on my first day, I learned so much about the industry, the company and other teams,” Perez Canals said of her onboarding experience at Riskified. “The training I received put me ahead of the game and prepared me for a successful future in my role.” Over the last two years, she has taken advantage of professional development resources like their learning and development team’s courses and workshops on a variety of topics. She said she’s also learned from her peers and manager in knowledge-sharing sessions about everything from the inner workings of their technology to tips and tricks on how to successfully complete a project.
