Built In NYC’s 7 Featured Companies of the Month

From sports bets to fintech, these companies are expanding their teams.
Written by Avery Komlofske
December 1, 2022Updated: November 30, 2022

While news about layoffs and market downturns have caused understandable concern, the NYC job market is still rife with opportunity. 

According to a report released by the city’s comptroller, NYC’s tech sector ballooned tremendously in the last five years, reaching 172,570 jobs in 2021 — its highest level ever. Built In NYC alone currently advertises over 7,000 jobs. Anyone looking for tech work in New York City is spoiled for choice, even in the current economic climate.

Built In NYC is here to help narrow the search. This month, we’re featuring seven companies from a wide range of industries looking to expand their teams. Whether your interests lie in fintech, gambling, biometrics or insurance, each of these companies have a culture and product worth exploring. 

Haven TechnologiesCaesars Sportsbook, Checkout, Visible Alpha, Flex, Mantl and CAIS are all hiring right now — if any of them sound interesting, check out their job postings on Built In NYC!

 

Haven Technologies employees posing for a photo with a number of silly props. On the far left, a man is holding a plastic skeleton. In the top center, one is on a corded phone, with the man on his right holding a pineapple. On the bottom left, a woman is wearing a captain's hat. The woman next to her is in a pink feather boa, and the person on that woman's right is holding a prop flamingo.
Haven Technologies

 

Frannie Melegrito
Head of Recruiting • Haven Technologies

 

Haven Technologies is a life, annuity and disability insurance platform, now accessible in SaaS form for anyone.

 

Describe your company culture in one word. 

Welcoming.

When I was first interviewing at Haven Tech, I heard about how we strived to create an environment where everyone can bring their authentic self to work. What struck me when I came on board was that it was more than a nice interview talking point.

I’ve seen this mantra in action almost daily at Haven Tech, from little things to big moments. I’ve seen it when my colleagues have left food in the kitchen that represents a piece of their culture to share with others. I saw it when in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement — we came together as a company for an open discussion to hear first-hand from our Black employees about their lived experiences. It was in play when we learned to make pierogi from our Ukrainian colleagues and when we launched our ERGs and heard directly in an all-hands meetings from leaders about why DEI matters to them on a personal level.

Because here’s the truth: At Haven Tech, we know that when everyone can be their authentic self, they do their best work. That, in turn, makes our products and services better. So, it’s a win all around.

At Haven Tech, we know that when everyone can be their authentic self, they do their best work.”

 

What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally? 

Without a doubt, the coolest project was helping launch Haven Tech — prior to 2021, we were Haven Life.

From flexing my autonomous decision-making muscles to honing my creative side, launching Haven Tech helped me grow professionally in a variety of ways. As we were planning for the launch, I had to stand up a new recruiting function for the organization — including everything from employer branding to operational compliance and legal aspects. I had a seat at the table, which forced me to find my inner entrepreneur and a confidence in myself that enabled me to make decisions that I knew would quite literally impact the entire organization.

All of it was admittedly a bit daunting at first, but in the almost decade I have been in talent acquisition, launching Haven Tech was where I’ve learned the most. I feel so lucky that I now get to come to work each day and can focus on recruiting the best talent for Haven Tech because of the foundation built.

 

 

Michael Amoroso
Product Strategy Lead • Caesars Sportsbook & Casino

 

Caesars Sportsbook and Casino serves over 20 million users daily with its mobile and desktop casinos and betting sites.

 

Describe your company culture in one word. 

Nimble. 

Caesars Digital has grown exponentially over the last couple of years, but we’ve maintained our agility. As an organization, we pride ourselves on looking inward and practicing continuous improvement. We put our priorities through this same rigorous process — when evaluating our roadmap, we ask what we can do at this moment to produce the most entertaining product for our customers.

An example of our nimbleness was on display during the initial pandemic lockdown. With most sports leagues shutting down, we were concerned about what we could offer our customers to help get them through these difficult times. While our most engaged customers were willing to wager on fringe sports like table tennis, we prioritized building a digital casino so that other customers could have all of the casino games they’ve come to love right in their pocket.

We were able to reprioritize our initiatives, develop and launch a digital casino in less than two months. It’s this type of thinking on our feet that made the pandemic a little more entertaining. And we could only do this with a team that can quickly align on what matters to our customers.

The ability to tell stories objectively through numbers is rewarding. It’s like predicting the future!”

 

What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?

The opportunity to develop Caesars Digital’s long-term strategy is pretty cool. The product team’s goal is to come up with a vision that inspires our entire organization — achieving this takes a lot of work. Conversations are had with team members throughout the organization, no matter their level. We research our competitive landscape, look internally at our business and where we want to go and, most importantly, we speak with our customers about their wants and needs. Over time, I’ve shown that this process works, and it’s afforded me the autonomy to work the way I want.

My favorite part of the entire process is choosing the metrics that will have the most impact on our collective success. The ability to tell stories objectively through numbers is rewarding. We map out our future and inspire the team to fulfill their destiny. It’s like predicting the future!

Being involved in the ever-growing, competitive landscape of digital gaming is thrilling. Caesars Digital has a lot to do over the next couple of years, and the only way we get there is through alignment across our entire organization so that we deliver the most entertaining gaming products to our customers.

 

 

Natalie Galán
Manager of Americas Recruitment (and Global Latine Community Leader and Co-Founder) • Checkout.com

 

Checkout is a cloud-based payment platform built with the goals of performance and scalability. It is the strategic payments partner for companies like Patreon, Dashlane and Udacity.

 

Describe your company culture in one word. 

Empowering.

There isn’t a day that goes by where I’m not challenged or supported in doing my best work — whether through my leadership team, my cross-functional peers or my own direct reports. I am learning daily from each of them and encouraged to go outside of my comfort zone to excel in my role.

I was the first recruiter and leader on the ground in the USA for the talent acquisition team. When I joined, we were focused on making key hires that would be foundational to Checkout’s operations and success in the US. Being new to the organization and the region came with a “no time to be shy” attitude on my end. When I needed help from my peers in other regions, I was embraced and supported throughout the enablement process and empowered to be autonomous. I was hired to do a job and was, more importantly, trusted to do it without hesitation. There is no better feeling than sitting back and watching your drive and vision come into fruition thanks to the support of your peers.

There is no better feeling than sitting back and watching your drive and vision come into fruition thanks to the support of your peers.”

 

What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?

Joining Checkout.com as a Latina and the first recruiting leader in the Americas, I wanted to ensure my voice was heard and that my presence had an impact on our diversity and inclusion efforts. Through past experience, I know it isn’t always easy being a Latina leader in tech. I recognized the need for a Latine community at Checkout.com. Immediately, I was passionate about bringing the employee resource group to life.

With the support of our diversity & inclusion team, we built the Latine Community’s mission, strategy and content with the aim of making Latines feel represented, supported and empowered. With the help of our members and allies, the Latine Community officially launched in advance of Hispanic Heritage Month. We were the fastest growing Community in Checkout.com history, reaching 100 members in under 48 hours.

I learned so much from this experience — patience mostly. Things that make the biggest impact don’t happen overnight. It truly takes time to cultivate ideas and ensure the desired message is received. The opportunity and outcome was humbling. I am eager to continue growing our community and see what we can accomplish!

 

 

Some of Visible Alpha's employees at a table together.
Visible Alpha

 

Kirsten Behncke Colyer
CHRO • Visible Alpha

 

Visible Alpha aims to improve investment research through predictive data analysis and financial tools.

 

Describe your company culture in one word.

Thoughtful.

“Row together” is our number one value, but if I have to pick just one word, “thoughtful” resonates the most. We lead from a place of empathy and consideration. In every situation, we assure that our policies are employee-friendly and flexible enough for most unforeseen circumstances.

We have expanded beyond our executive coaching efforts to provide mentoring and coaching with Chief for our female leaders and added Bravely professional coaching for all of our employees in the US. In the spirit of rowing together, we are also continuously rolling out videos under the banner of “Culture Bites” to teach each other about the different cultures we operate in as a global company.

As CHRO I personally meet with every new hire after their onboarding, and they tell me how helpful, collaborative and supportive everyone was in the process — which goes to the core of our culture in all our global offices.

In addition to rowing together and thoughtfulness, in the annual employee engagement survey, our employees tell us how much they appreciate being part of VA’s inclusive community by giving us the highest marks on caring about our employees, their families and the communities we operate in.

I personally meet with every new hire after their onboarding, and they tell me how helpful, collaborative and supportive everyone was in the process.”

 

How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?

I joined the company in October 2019. We were operating with more of a regional focus, and I had been asked to develop a global people strategy. Three years later as a globally diverse executive team, we have rolled out a strong company mission, theory of impact and comprehensive values we aim to live by every day with our actions and processes. With our value of continuous learning, we have rolled out a global partnership with Coursera to provide unlimited learning opportunities for our employees in all offices. The success of this rollout was documented in a whitepaper by Coursera.

Lately, we have been working on career ladders for our most common roles at VA to provide employees with career perspectives that enable them to grow not only within their own teams but across teams and departments.

With our strong and continued growth, we have expanded our original global footprint in India, the US and the UK to APAC through added offices in Hong Kong, Japan and Australia.

All our efforts have elevated us from a start-up to a growth company, and we feel that our journey has just begun.

 

 

Jesse Geller
Head of Product Design • Flex

 

Flex’s goal is to revolutionize the way people pay rent and bills by breaking those payments up into smaller chunks throughout the month.

 

Describe your company culture in one word. 

Flexible. 

Flex isn’t just the name of the company — it’s how we operate. While this is true for all our teams, the design team especially recognizes how much we still have to learn about how our product fits into the lives of our customers. As we gain insight through research, testing and data, we adapt our perspective and roadmaps to constantly improve our services. Recently, we learned that some customers were struggling to use our self-pay feature — which is a backup payment method when the automated rent payment doesn’t go through for any number of reasons. To address this problem, we quickly made some revisions to the way we alert customers to the issue, and explain how they can use self-pay to resolve it.

Flex isn’t just the name of the company — it’s how we operate.”

 

How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?

I’ve been with Flex for over a year, and during that time, I’ve seen the company headcount increase by three or four times. When I started, I only had a loose sense of what my role in the organization was. As with many team members at the time, we worked on a bit of everything — even projects well outside of our comfort zones and areas of expertise. While I was able to move quickly in this environment, I was forced to make a lot of assumptions because I lacked peers and stakeholders to guide and challenge my thinking. As the company has matured and we’ve brought on experts in different facets of financial products, my work has become a lot more sophisticated. By having other Flexers from teams like marketing, engineering and leadership provide input for the problems I’m solving, I’m operating with a much clearer perspective.

 

 

Lilly Dyer
Customer Training and Onboarding Manager • MANTL

 

MANTL’s platform helps consumers and businesses easily open accounts with local and community banks and credit unions in order to help those institutions grow.

 

Describe your company culture in one word. 

Supportive. 

Being a remote-first company can sometimes make it difficult to feel connected to your coworkers or supported overall. Over the last year, though, I have felt more supported being on my team that spans across multiple time zones and states than I ever felt working in an office sitting next to my coworkers. 

Recently, we decided to take on the huge task of training one of our largest customers in person, with only a couple of weeks to prepare. It was an “all hands on deck” endeavor that ultimately spanned across multiple teams. Everyone put in countless hours, lent a hand wherever it needed to go — regardless of regular job duties — and while on site, the entire company was prepared and available to help with troubleshooting or just be there to allow the onsite team to be as successful as possible. It was a great example of how our success is not our own here, but instead shared and celebrated between us all. At MANTL we are supported, and that’s why we are successful now and will continue to be in the future.

I’m excited to approach a new skill with the mindset that I have the support of my team, and other teams, to help me be successful.”

 

How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?

I’ve been with MANTL for one year, and during this time I have been challenged in ways I never imagined. I’ve been given autonomy to complete tasks outside of what my normal job entails, and I have loved learning how to push myself in those experiences. I’m no longer worried that I will do something wrong — instead, I’m excited to approach a new skill with the mindset that I have the support of my team, and other teams, to help me be successful. Sometimes start-up cultures can get a bad rap because a lot of times we are asked to wear many hats or put all hands on deck, but that’s what I love most. I love feeling like I can contribute across the board and that I am more than just my title. I know I can face whatever challenge comes next at MANTL head-on, and that is a skill I am grateful for.

 

 

CAIS's technology team posing for a photo.
Source: CAIS

 

Fahad Hossain
Associate, Product Management • CAIS

 

CAIS provides improved access to and education about alternative investment funds to financial advisors. Such alternative funds include hedge funds, private equity, real estate and more.

 

Describe your company culture in one word. 

Engaging. 

Our team is a pioneer in the space of alternative investments. Before joining CAIS our team members worked in various fields, ranging from financial services and technology to media. Our different areas of experience promote thought-provoking discussions and innovative ideas. A typical call with the product team has everyone talking — all perspectives are seen and heard. 

We always ask our teams to think big when building the platform. No opinions are wrong and questions are always encouraged. We are extremely collaborative and united by our shared common goal: To help make alternative investments, and learning about them, more accessible.

 

How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?

I’ve been in the company for 6 months, and I can say that there’s been tremendous skill growth. I’ve been able to expand my knowledge in an industry poised for growth — learned how to manage roadmaps and vision for a growing platform, and how to build team momentum and camaraderie for exciting initiatives in and outside of technology. 

Recently, we’ve been working on migrating various data sets for Alternatives onto the CAIS platform. My team and I have had the opportunity to explore and learn many different tools, from Snowflake to Pendo, and new technologies with our engineering arm to allow our products to scale at an incredible rate. Additionally, the chance to analyze and learn about an entirely new realm of financial products has been fascinating. I feel supported by our team and our leaders to keep learning, growing and driving forward.

 

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