How did you join Scale?
I knew of Scale because one of my friends from college worked here. When I
was choosing my first job, I was considering either joining a large tech
company or a small startup. All my internships had been at large tech
companies, so at the time I was nervous about whether I wanted to join a
small startup. But I knew I wanted to do something that had a higher
ceiling, where I could be really excited about the possibilities.
What about the company’s mission is the most compelling to you?
I strongly believe in our mission to democratize and accelerate the
development of AI. What excites me is that we're solving problems that are
new, that other companies haven't solved before. We're tackling issues
that are going to be more and more important as AI becomes more and more
prevalent. So, I think the most compelling part of the mission for me is
the impact of AI and the role that we get to play in it.
You worked at big companies prior to joining Scale. What was the
transition like? What advice do you share with others contemplating a
similar move?
I liked that at Scale, I was given a lot of ownership from day one. At
larger companies, sometimes it can take years before you're really trusted
to make large decisions, and at Scale I was given the opportunity to grow
really quickly, to give input, and to contribute to work that I felt was
very impactful very quickly. In terms of advice, I would say don't feel
like you're confined to just what your job title might be. There might
often be many different things you need to do to achieve an outcome.
Sometimes that's engineering, sometimes that's operations, sometimes
that's product management. And I think one of the things that has made
Scale successful is we have a lot of people who are willing to do things
outside of their job description to achieve important outcomes, and so I
think that is a valuable piece of advice.
What is the most exciting project you’ve worked on?
What I'm most proud of is my work as the product manager for the 2D team.
While I was working on 2D, we saw large growth to the business, in terms
of number of customers and revenue. At the same time, we did a lot to
improve our margins and reduce our costs. I'm very proud of that team and
how we were able to achieve that amount of growth. It was the first time
in my career that I was able to work on something at that level.
What are some of your favorite things about the culture?
I really like that people are encouraged to disagree with each other and
to have conversations about those disagreements. I think that helps make
Scale a really great place to learn. I also really like the people at
Scale - they’re a lot of fun to work with and have really great senses of
humor.
What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned here?
Problem-solving skills and the ability to own a business outcome. And
there's not one specific skill that's necessary for that, but I think
gaining confidence in my ability to do that, and gaining experience in
doing that has been very valuable.