At Bilt, employees aren’t just making a difference in other people’s lives — they’re changing their own.
The company offers a loyalty program that rewards members on rent, gym membership and other spending, helping people get more out of their routine payments.
“We’re not just innovating for growth’s sake; we’re building something we’d personally use and love,” Senior Vice President of People Alli Trussell said.
Bilt’s people-first mission drives everything Trussell and her teammates do, from building solutions to connecting with each other. At Upside, Senior Manager of Consumer Analytics Andy Thompson and his peers have had a similar experience, motivated by the company’s aim to “advance the economic power of people living and working in the real world.”
Upside’s mobile app enables consumers to earn cash back on purchases at restaurants, grocery stores and gas stations, and so far, the company has put over $1 billion back into people’s pockets. And according to Thompson, this impact is made possible by the company’s people, who live and breathe its mission every day.
“That mission shapes how we work: We act like owners, make everything measurable and build for real people,” he said.
Having the chance to make a difference in the world is what compelled Trussell and Thompson to join their current employers — and they’re not alone. Below, the two leaders, along with representatives from three other companies, share how a noble mission convinced them to step into their current roles, how this makes them feel connected to their day-to-day work and the advice they’d offer job seekers interested in joining their companies.
Stepful is a learning platform dedicated to re-imagining healthcare training for allied health professional jobs, such as medical assistants, pharmacy technicians and surgical technologists.
Tell us about Stepful’s mission. How does that mission influence the company culture, and did it impact your decision to join the team?
Stepful is on an ambitious mission to help learners launch high-demand health careers with an inspired learning and careers platform. This mission permeates every aspect of the company culture, and from what I’ve seen during my time here, it really focuses everyone’s daily decisions for the better.
Stepful’s mission impacted my decision to first apply to the company because I was looking for a mission-driven organization within the edtech sector, having worked in that industry previously. More importantly, however, the more I learned about Stepful’s mission to launch learners into health careers, the more I realized that this was strikingly similar to my own personal life goals, as I had extensively volunteered with community organizations with this same mission, albeit in the tech space. Although the industries, healthcare and technology, are different, the impact that I wanted to make in the world was the same, and I found that Stepful’s mission and my personal goals are perfectly aligned in this respect. Because of this, since having joined the company, I find that I am highly gratified and motivated in my day-to-day work.
From your perspective, how does your work connect to the overall company mission?
As a product engineer on the learning team, I deliver a quality learning product that helps students achieve their goals and secure careers in healthcare. The work my team and I do is a critical part of Stepful’s overall mission: to launch students into high-demand healthcare careers. We build the platform that starts this student journey, successfully delivering them to our career services platform, where they can begin their job search.
“The work my team and I do is a critical part of Stepful’s overall mission: to launch students into high-demand healthcare careers.”
Because our work is so critical, every project feels directly connected to the company’s mission. For example, our learning platform traditionally offered a linear learning-to-externship experience. I recently helped launch a new onsite learning platform for students participating in a Stepful course alongside an apprenticeship. By more seamlessly integrating the didactic and on-the-job training, I saw a direct link between the engineering work I was doing and our company’s core mission of launching healthcare careers. This makes every project feel urgent and meaningful.
What advice would you give a jobseeker hoping to join Stepful?
Stepful employees genuinely live our company values. A successful job seeker will resonate with these principles — ”Care First,” “Learn Quickly,” “Build Together” and “Own It” — as they are fundamental to our culture. We encourage you to let these values guide your approach throughout the application process, from how you navigate the job listing to how you solve problems presented in interviews.
On the engineering team, we specifically look for candidates who demonstrate these values. For instance, a great candidate might show they care first by being deeply product-minded, focusing on delivering a high-quality product that provides a joyful experience for our students. Our product engineers work in close collaboration with the product team to ensure this happens. Alternatively, a strong candidate could be someone who shows they own it by taking on any project or task, big or small, and seeing it through to completion. Our engineers are given a great deal of ownership and aren’t afraid to make informed decisions about their work. By embodying these values, you’ll not only succeed in our interview process but also thrive as a member of our team.
Upside’s mobile app enables consumers to earn cash back on purchases at restaurants, grocery stores and gas stations.
Tell us about Upside’s mission. How does that mission influence the company culture, and did it impact your decision to join the team?
At Upside, our mission is simple and bold: We exist to advance the economic power of people living and working in the real world. We’ve already put over $1 billion back into people’s pockets by connecting them with retailers on our two-sided marketplace. The best part is, we’re just getting started. That mission shapes how we work: We act like owners, make everything measurable and build for real people. It absolutely influenced my decision to join. I’ve spent my career in mission-driven roles, and I love that we also commit 1 percent of revenue to offset emissions and fight food waste. The more we grow, the more good we do. It’s rewarding being in a data-driven role at a truly data-driven company. One fun cultural touchstone is celebrating “twinning,” when multiple people on the team wear the same outfit. Whenever this happens, we snap a photo and post it to Slack!
“I’ve spent my career in mission-driven roles, and I love that we also commit 1 percent of revenue to offset emissions and fight food waste.”
From your perspective, how does your work connect to the overall company mission?
As a product analytics manager, I helped build App 360, a suite of dashboards that keeps our team dialed into product performance. Living our “Make it Measurable” value, we’ve used these insights to spot friction in the user journey, prioritize fixes and even catch bugs early so we can ship better experiences faster. Measuring app performance leads to better user experience, which leads to more successful trips and more cash back in people’s pockets.
What advice would you give a jobseeker hoping to join Upside?
Start by using the Upside app at a gas station, grocery store or restaurant near you. Seeing the marketplace in action is the best intro. Then come ready to “Be an Owner:” Propose what you’d improve and why; “Make it Measurable:” Bring a hypothesis and the metrics you’d track; and “Represent the Real World:” Consider both consumers and retailers.
Bilt’s loyalty program enables people to earn points and access benefits on rent payments, condominium and co-op fees, fitness classes and more.
Tell us about Bilt’s mission. How does that mission influence the company culture, and did it impact your decision to join the team?
Bilt’s mission is simple: to help people love where they live. We believe you should be rewarded for the 80 percent of your spend that happens in and around your home, from paying rent to dining in your neighborhood. When we build the ecosystem right, everyone wins — our members, our Alliance partners and our merchants.
That mission shapes our culture in a very real way. We aren’t building a product for a distant audience; we are our own best test group. Most of us are renters and city dwellers ourselves, so every feature or benefit we create feels like we’re building for a friend. It creates a culture of ownership and pride, where every idea on the table has the potential to shape the daily lives of millions. It was a major reason I joined the team. The mission combines ambition with authenticity. We’re not just innovating for growth’s sake; we’re building something we’d personally use and love. That alignment made the decision to join Bilt an easy one.
“Most of us are renters and city dwellers ourselves, so every feature or benefit we create feels like we’re building for a friend.”
From your perspective, how does your work connect to the overall company mission?
My goal is to make sure people love their jobs at Bilt and feel both challenged and fulfilled in them. I draw inspiration directly from our product. Just like Bilt members enjoy an exclusive rewards ecosystem, I see our employee experience as building a kind of “membership club” for some of the most ambitious and innovative people in New York City.
If I do my job right, the person sitting next to you becomes your biggest motivator. Ambitious people need other ambitious people to push them further, and our culture of ownership and high performance reflects that. For example, we’ve designed our compensation philosophy to reward ownership and impact rather than titles. Whether you’re a manager or an expert, your growth is defined by what you build and contribute, not by climbing a traditional ladder. That principle ties directly back to our mission of helping people love where they live, because our team has to love where they work first.
What advice would you give a jobseeker hoping to join Bilt?
Come ready to do the best work of your career. Bilt is a place for builders, people who thrive on solving hard problems and turning ambitious ideas into reality. The most successful people here focus on simple, iterative progress and don’t wait for a perfect roadmap to get started. And just as important, know that only half your job is written down on the page. The other half hasn’t been discovered yet. Our culture rewards curiosity, ownership and the ability to see opportunities others might miss. If that excites you, you’ll feel right at home at Bilt.
Employees can use Healthee’s AI-powered platform to access, manage and navigate health benefits, whether that involves setting up a telehealth appointment, finding the most cost-effective care or more.
Tell us about Healthee’s mission. How does that mission influence the company culture, and did it impact your decision to join the team?
When Healthee says we’re on a mission to make access to a healthy life effortless, we mean it. Our product team drives the organization by ensuring that the work they — and we — do together breaks down the barriers of accessing healthcare as quickly as possible.
For me, our mission was the reason I joined Healthee. In my former career as a registered nurse, I was constantly exposed to the repercussions, both on the individual patient level and on the healthcare system itself, of delays in care. Knowing that my work contributes to something that tangibly helps alleviate stress for individuals and the healthcare system made the decision to join an easy one.
“Knowing that my work contributes to something that tangibly helps alleviate stress for individuals and on the healthcare system made the decision to join an easy one.”
From your perspective, how does your work connect to the overall company mission?
In my role as a partnerships success manager, I support clients that roll out Healthee’s products to members at scale — sometimes thousands, or hundreds of thousands, at once. Knowing that each member and their family now has access to tools that make choosing and navigating their health plans simple and painless is sincerely rewarding.
What advice would you give a jobseeker hoping to join Healthee?
Come in with curiosity and a genuine desire to make healthcare simpler. Healthee is a place where proactive, mission-driven people thrive. We’re fast-moving, so flexibility and problem-solving are key, but the payoff is that you see your impact quickly. I’d also say: Don’t be afraid to bring your voice to the table. At Healthee, great ideas come from everywhere, and even early on, you’ll have the chance to shape how we grow and how we deliver on our mission.
Marble Health aims to make it easier for students to access mental health care, offering a platform that connects students with in-network virtual therapists without making them join a waitlist.
Tell us about Marble Health’s mission. How does that mission influence the company culture, and did it impact your decision to join the team?
Our mission is to solve the youth mental health crisis by making care fast, affordable and truly effective. We partner directly with schools to quickly connect students to care, then provide a platform where they can collaborate on that care with therapists and families. By providing group, individual and family care, we meet kids’ needs in the way that’s best for them. Our work not only directly addresses the long waitlists and access barriers that too often leave families without help, but it’s also redefining what effective care looks like.
That mission shapes our culture in everything we do. The team is collaborative, curious and deeply focused on solving problems for students and schools. Ideas are welcomed from everyone, critical thinking is valued and we hold each other accountable while celebrating wins together. People at Marble are smart, driven and genuinely a joy to work with, which makes it a place where you can do your best work. For me personally, the mission was a huge reason I joined. I want my work to have a meaningful impact, and being able to contribute directly to improving access to mental health care for kids is both motivating and rewarding.
“I want my work to have a meaningful impact, and being able to contribute directly to improving access to mental health care for kids is both motivating and rewarding.”
From your perspective, how does your work connect to the overall company mission?
Because Marble is still a small and nimble team, almost everything I work on connects directly to our mission. For example, I’m currently building our first patient-facing portal so students and guardians can easily view and manage appointments. Making scheduling simpler removes a major barrier that often keeps kids from getting care.
Our approach to building features also reflects our mission. When our operations or growth team identifies an issue or requests a new feature, we prioritize it and act quickly. For smaller features, we skip lengthy specs or product docs and focus on shipping fast. That way, students, families, and schools see the impact immediately. This bias toward speed and action ensures that everything I work on is tightly connected to Marble’s goal: getting kids into care as quickly and seamlessly as possible. It’s satisfying to know that the tools I build directly help real students access the support they need.
What advice would you give a jobseeker hoping to join Marble Health?
My advice is to spend time learning about Marble and thinking about how your own story connects to our mission. We care deeply about hiring teammates who are as committed to solving the youth mental health crisis as we are. Being able to clearly explain why this work matters to you and how your skills can contribute goes a long way.
Because our product team is still small, engineers and other team members play a big role in shaping what we build. We don’t follow a traditional scrum model with dedicated product managers and designers for every project, so having strong product thinking is key. You should be comfortable evaluating user needs, weighing trade-offs and helping decide what work is most important.
More broadly, the people who thrive at Marble embody our three must-have traits: introspective team player, relentless drive and operational excellence. If you can demonstrate those qualities in how you approach your work and your problem-solving, you’ll be a great fit here.
