2020 has definitely been one for the history books.
Between the coronavirus pandemic, the continued fight for racial equality, the presidential election and countless natural disasters, it’s warranted to feel stressed and anxious when reflecting on 2020’s events. But there are some bluer skies ahead.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (USBLS), the job market is — slowly but surely — on the mend despite the many challenges thrown its way this year. The professional and technical services industry is doing particularly well, with approximately 56,000 jobs added in October. The USBLS even predicts that technology industry jobs will continue to increase over the next ten years.
Built In Colorado rounded up eight companies that are a part of that uptick in hiring. From Vorto to Demoflow, Sovrn and more, we caught up with company leaders to gain some insight into their culture, growth opportunities and cool projects they’re working on.
What they do: Checkr provides advanced background check technology for companies of all sizes. The company believes that all candidates should have a fair chance to work.
Checkr’s company culture in one word: “Ownership,” Senior Director of Operations Preethi Bhansali said. “I’m constantly humbled to work with a team whose members take so much ownership and pride in the work they do. From the unwavering focus we have on providing a positive candidate experience to pushing ourselves to continuously innovate, my colleagues at Checkr take on each challenge with tremendous ownership and a drive to results.”
I’m constantly humbled to work with team whose members take so much ownership and pride in the work they do.”
Bhansali’s growth at Checkr: “I have been with Checkr for three and a half years within the operations team,” Bhansali said. “Over that time, our scope has grown tremendously as we’ve built out new teams to support various internal and customer-facing initiatives. My teams and I have been able to engage more broadly with various teams across the company as we’ve expanded scope, and this has led to many opportunities for folks in operations to explore opportunities in other parts of the organization.”
What they do: Church Community Builder, a division of Pushpay, is a mobile software company that provides an all-in-one solution to help churches reach and engage with their communities.
Pushpay’s culture in one word: “Supportive,” Robert Manez, a technical data services member, said. “Since my first day on the job, I’ve felt very supported by my manager and team members. My manager, Chiceaux, does an excellent job of leading our team with integrity and empathy, and those traits are a part of our social norms and expectations. As a result, I feel a lot of trust and support in our group. We have the autonomy to do great work, we have opportunities to learn and grow, and we have psychological safety for open and productive communication.”
Since my first day on the job, I’ve felt very supported by my manager and team members.”
Manez’s growth at Pushpay: “I’ve been with the company for almost five months. In that short time, I’ve had many opportunities to grow my technical knowledge by utilizing SQL (structured query language) for data fixes, utilizing VBA (visual basics for applications) to automate data migration tasks in Excel, and learning the data migration and software implementation processes.”
What they do: Guild Education expands education opportunities for working adults by partnering with leading employers to build strategic education benefits programs for their employees.
Guild’s culture in one word: “I’m going to go with two words: growth mindset,” Chief Technology and Payments Officer Bijal Shah said. “The concept of a growth mindset refers to the belief that our most basic abilities can be developed by learning, developing and staying resilient in the face of adversity. Internally, we call this “having a learner’s mindset,” which is one of our core values.
“Our commitment to this mindset enables our mission of unlocking opportunity and economic mobility through education and upskilling for America’s workforce. A growth mindset also reflects how our teams operate, with an orientation toward growth by learning and experimenting.
“Employees come to Guild with different backgrounds and experiences and share a passion for and commitment to ensuring the students that we support succeed in unlocking opportunity. As part of that commitment, our employees are focused on trying new things, finding creative solutions in the face of setbacks, and reflecting on past experiences in order to achieve the best outcomes for our students and overall business.”
A growth mindset also reflects how our teams operate, with an orientation toward growth by learning and experimenting.”
Shah’s growth at Guild: “Over my two and a half years at Guild, I’ve overseen our technology, payments and operations teams, which focus on building, enhancing and enabling Guild’s core platform that connects employers to academic institutions,” Shah said. “This platform helps frontline employees of those employers go back to school and further their skills without incurring any short- or long-term debt.
“Over time, we aim to shift the conversation on school and work as well, so that more and more Americans can get a job, go to college or get the skills they need to drive economic opportunity.”
What they do: Artificial intelligence company VORTO enables businesses to be more economically and environmentally sustainable by digitally transforming their supply chain.
VORTO’s culture in one word: “Relentless,” Operations Manager Anna Murphy said. “Our credo in the office is ‘win or die,’ — we even have a neon sign with it on our wall! Our culture is relentless and revolutionary because we don’t give up. At VORTO, we won’t stop until we reach our goals and we all have the same goal, which is to revolutionize the traditional supply chain to make businesses more sustainable.”
Our culture is relentless and revolutionary because we don’t give up.”
Murphy’s growth at VORTO: “Throughout my career with VORTO, I’ve grown ten times over. I’ve been implementing our autonomous supply-chain platform with a Fortune 200 company to revolutionize their supply chain, and by being hands-on through our day-to-day operations, I’ve experienced exponential growth. Our company allows for team members to be involved in all aspects of the business and become extremely well-rounded individuals.”
What they do: Software company Sovrn provides products and services to online publishers in order to help them grow, operate their business, understand their readership and manage consumer data.
Sovrn’s culture in one word: “Empowered,” Software Engineering Manager Corina Lunn said. “At Sovrn, you have the opportunity to build your career, product, software, technology and team how you think is best. A great example of this is the quarterly innovation week. Anyone in the company can pitch a new idea, find a few like-minded people to try to build the next product, change the tech behind an existing feature or do some research into the next big thing. It’s completely up to you. We have seen some amazing ideas come out of innovation week that were then taken on as full products with teams behind them. And it can give engineers and non-engineers an opportunity to get involved in new areas that could change the path of their careers.”
At Sovrn, you have the opportunity to build your career, product, software, technology and team how you think is best.”
Lunn’s growth at Sovrn: “I have been with Sovrn for nine months, having started two weeks before we all went into lockdown,” Lunn said. “Coming into a new company while everyone was remote was a little daunting but I shouldn’t have worried. Sovrn has been supportive in all aspects of my career. In the short time I have been here, I have had the opportunity to improve my technical skills through numerous conferences as well as studying toward my AWS (Amazon Web Services) certifications.
“I have also improved my management skills thanks to constant coaching from both the leadership team and my team of engineers. I have learned so much about empowering my teams and helping to develop their careers, all while delivering on the product. This has led to an amazing opportunity to expand my responsibilities, taking on a new team and having an even bigger influence at Sovrn.”
What they do: Software company TrackVia develops low-code application platforms that empower businesses with overloaded IT departments and limited developer resources to rapidly configure and develop their own applications.
TrackVia’s culture in one word: “Empowered,” Executive Vice President of Marketing Charles Var said. “In a world full of gimmicks, cheap tricks and publicity stunts, TrackVia’s culture is, and has always been, about being authentic and treating employees like the highly-intelligent, grown-up adults that they are. Instead of talking about Ping-Pong tables and kegerators, we talk about professional growth opportunities, social and political change and making a real difference in people’s lives. Ultimately, we want to empower employees to achieve more, learn more and grow more, both personally and professionally, here at TrackVia.
“A great example is that one of my marketing teammates had a real passion for employee culture. She felt compelled to have the company — and all our employees — revisit our core tenants. As a result of her passion and deep effort, we have a set of codes that truly embody each and everyone at TrackVia. That’s pretty cool in my book.”
TrackVia’s culture is, and has always been, about being authentic and treating employees like the highly-intelligent, grown-up adults that they are.”
Var’s growth at TrackVia: “I’m actually a boomerang baby with TrackVia,” Var said. “I worked here between 2011 and 2017, left to pursue another career opportunity, then gratefully returned to work for TrackVia in 2019. Despite having spent most of my career at several Fortune 100 technology companies, I can genuinely say that I’ve learned and grown more while working at TrackVia than any other place. While I’ve learned a lot more about my day to day, I think the most valuable lessons I’ve picked up have been about people and business.
“For example, the importance of culture. At previous companies, they always talked about culture. But it wasn’t until I worked at TrackVia did I fully recognize and appreciate its true significance and impact. I’m a better marketer, better executive and a better person as a result — or so I hope and believe. At the end of the day, personal and professional betterment is what TrackVia is all about. We’ll leave the Ping-Pong tables for the other guys.”
What they do: Demoflow is a live sales workspace that standardizes, streamlines and scales processes for remote sales teams.
Demoflow’s culture in one word: “Redefine,” Product Engineer Lucas Bazemore said. “The selling environment (and the world as a whole) is always changing and evolving. We’re constantly brainstorming, experimenting with new ideas and running retrospectives in order to redefine our processes, ourselves and our product in order to provide the most effective experience for our customers and our company.
“The world changed around us in the infancy of our company, so we had to change, too. We were initially focused on presentations and demos given by a single person. With the whole world moving remote, we had to redefine our product to focus on the true need — collaborative team selling. We effectively refocused our offering to face the challenges of teams today and the result has been amazing. Our goal is to redefine the sales landscape, and the only way to do that is to embrace personal growth and redefine ourselves in the process.”
Our goal is to redefine the sales landscape, and the only way to do that is to embrace personal growth and redefine ourselves in the process.”
The coolest project Bazemore has worked on recently: “Demoflow is now a collaborative remote selling platform for teams,” Bazemore said. “That wasn’t how it started. Initially, it was mostly focused on demos given by a single person — that’s all changed.
“To complement that change, I worked directly with customers to design and build a fundamental infrastructure change to support multiple collaborative functionalities including: viewing other people’s demos, creating permissions, inviting teammates, and allowing multiple people to build demos and multiple presenters to co-drive the demo (a feature that isn’t currently possible on any other platform that exists).
“With this project, I was able to take ownership through design, development, release and beyond. I love working on this product and this problem space because there is plenty of room for continuous improvement and reinvention. I personally want to move to a leadership role, and I want to ensure that we’re building a product that people love. This is the perfect environment to do exactly that.”