Silicon Valley has been known as the tech epicenter of the country since the 1970s. However, as technology becomes more advanced and startups become more popular, a new region of the Golden State is giving Silicon Valley a run for its money: Los Angeles.
In fact, the LA tech scene is thriving with over 6,300 startups across the area with the most popular industries ranging from consumer web to digital media and e-commerce.
So if the flourishing LA tech scene sounds exciting to you, then you’re in the right place. We rounded up six companies that are currently looking for talented people to join their ranks.
What they do: Healthtech software company PatientPop helps healthcare providers to grow their practices with products that modernize their unique medical services.
Why Senior Tech Recruiter Victoria Rasmussen accepted a job at PatientPop: “Many companies talk about how great their culture is, but I could feel it as soon as I stepped foot into the office,” Rasmussen said. “From being greeted by Melissa Hokama at the front desk to people saying hello as I went on the office tour, and most of all, the interviewers being so warm and genuine.
“I was initially interested in PatientPop because I wanted to join a growth stage company, where I could have an impact and quickly grow my career. Equity would also be nice. I researched companies that were performing well and that had a mission I aligned with. PatientPop’s sales were growing almost 2x year-over-year, had recently closed a round of funding and was ramping up hiring. I was also told about the company’s focus on internal career growth which I found really exciting.
“Since I came from the healthcare industry, I have always wanted to help people and also have been a patient at many, many doctors offices, I immediately identified with PatientPop’s mission. The job was a perfect culmination of things I wanted (relationships, tech, recruiting and helping people) that deciding to join PatientPop was an easy decision.”
Many companies talk about how great their culture is, but I could feel it as soon as I stepped foot into the office.”
What excites Rasmussen about the future of PatientPop: “Last year was a tough year for everyone. PatientPop not only survived and got through challenges but also came out in a much stronger position. We have built a stronger team, are well-positioned financially and are going to rocket in the next 24 months. It’s exciting to get to see all the hard work pay off and get to be part of the success.”
What they do: Stamps.com is an online provider of postage and shipping software solutions. With a number of brands under its umbrella, it helps individuals and businesses run their shipping operations more smoothly and function more successfully.
Why Senior Manager of Data Center Operations Tony Ferro accepted a job at Stamps.com: “I accepted a position at Stamps.com after seeing their commitment to modernizing their infrastructure,” Ferro said. “We are constantly evaluating new technology and how it can help streamline all aspects of our operations, not just the development and tech teams.”
We are constantly looking to innovate and rethink our processes, even if they aren’t broken.”
What excites Ferro about the future of Stamps.com: “What excites me the most about working for Stamps.com is that we are constantly looking to innovate and rethink our processes, even if they aren’t broken,” Ferro said. “Especially from the technology perspective, nothing is off-limits and management is always willing to entertain any and all ideas that are geared towards efficiency and quality of life improvements.”
What they do: Through its proprietary software program, SmartFinancial aims to deliver customers with an easier, more transparent insurance-buying experience.
Why Director of Paid Media Naeem Shariff accepted a position at SmartFinancial: “I had the luxury of working with the SmartFinancial team prior to officially receiving an offer, which made my decision to accept the job even easier,” Shariff said. “After being in the digital marketing space for almost 15 years, I’ve worked for a few different companies and I have been able to understand just how important it is to have great leaders throughout the company.
“After (virtually) meeting the team, I immediately realized that anyone I spoke with, no matter what their role, took ownership of their responsibilities, showed continuous excitement for what they’re accomplishing and was eager to help the company continue to grow and succeed. That doesn’t come naturally. It starts with great leadership from the top, opportunities to excel as well as feeling appreciated for the work you’re accomplishing. Since I joined, that is exactly what I’ve experienced. I was welcomed with open arms and I have been given the opportunity to take ownership and grow the business. Looking for the right position during a pandemic was already difficult, SmartFinancial made it easy and I’m excited to see what great things we can all continue to do together.”
I was welcomed with open arms and I have been given the opportunity to take ownership and grow the business.”
What excites Shariff about the future of SmartFinancial: “The growth potential of SmartFinancial and the learning and knowledge sharing opportunities is what excites me the most about where the company is headed. The executive team has experience in growing businesses in the past, our goals are continuously being surpassed and it feels like we’re just getting started.
“As for the work that I will do to help SmartFinancial achieve the success that I know it will have, I will not only work on expanding the brand using my own marketing knowledge, but I’ll take advantage of collaboration opportunities with the many different teams within the company. SmartFinancial has already built a great high-performance team and I believe that with individuals understanding and having an appreciation for the contributions that other teams provide allows the whole company to keep succeeding.”
What they do: Sure aims to simplify the sales and service of digital insurance through its enterprise SaaS platform and APIs.
Why Director of Backend Engineering Kyle Snell has stayed at Sure: “The technical endeavors and challenges at Sure are constantly evolving, which is a big reason as to why I like working here,” Snell said. “Insurance in itself is an intricate and highly detailed industry and building insurance software solutions adds an additional layer to the existing complexity. As an engineering team, we’ve worked hard to develop an infrastructure and codebase that both expects and works well with the intricacies of the many products configured on our platform.
“We see every new product and feature as an opportunity to find creative and innovative ways to incorporate them into our existing framework and find ways of making them as reusable as possible. This mindset, as opposed to constantly bolting on new business logic, allows us to have an elegant, and most importantly, an approachable codebase that is capable of expanding its capabilities to any requirement in the insurance space.”
Successfully scaling an engineering team goes beyond just hiring the right individuals, and we’ve all worked hard to be mindful of the many other supporting items.”
What excites Snell about the future of Sure: “I’ve really enjoyed watching the entire Sure team grow, especially on the engineering side. Successfully scaling an engineering team goes beyond just hiring the right individuals, and we’ve all worked hard to be mindful of the many other supporting items. From improving our onboarding to maintaining technical and company-specific documentation, to constantly finding ways to increase cross-team communication, we push to ensure all of our team members are consistently set up for success.
“As a management team, one of our responsibilities is to establish and improve our team conventions and practices, and we do this with regular input from our colleagues and teammates. At the same time, we all understand that we need to remain flexible as we continue to grow, and be willing to adapt when things that worked well for a team of five aren’t working as well for a team of 20. This has resulted in processes that are well established and easy to follow, yet also leave room to be fluid as we move forward. Having designed our team processes with scalability and adaptability in mind from the start has greatly helped prevent the ‘growing pains’ that are common in rapidly expanding companies.”
What they do: Friendbuy is a marketing technology platform that focuses solely on word-of-mouth referrals.
Why Head of Partnerships Samantha Samuels has stayed at Friendbuy: “I’ve worked at Friendbuy for over six years and I wake up every day excited to get to work,” Samuels said. ”Each day is new with exciting challenges. What I love so much about Friendbuy is that you can create your opportunities and my tenure here exemplifies this sentiment.
“I started as an account executive, then became the first customer success manager at the company and then was fortunate to lead a team of incredible CSMs for the next four years. I’ve recently transitioned into spearheading our partnerships team and I’ve taken the learnings and experience working closely with our customers to innovate in this new position. If you’re ambitious, self-directed, collaborative and love tech, Friendbuy is definitely the place for you to thrive in your career.”
If you’re ambitious, self-directed, collaborative and love tech, Friendbuy is definitely the place for you to thrive in your career.”
What Samuels is excited to accomplish in her role in the future: “As head of partnerships, I’m really excited about building a new revenue stream for Friendbuy through our technology partners and agency partnerships. Our goal is to elevate Friendbuy’s brand in the e-commerce and martech ecosystem to accelerate product adoption. I’m confident that with the right strategy and focused execution, Friendbuy can scale quickly and efficiently.”
What they do: Smartly.io is an advertising technology company that aims to automate clients’ social advertising in order to unlock greater performance and creativity across Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat.
The reason for Customer Success Team Lead Dylan Douglas’ tenure at Smartly.io: “I’ve been at Smartly.io for over three years and the number one reason I’ve stayed is because of the people,” Douglas said. “I work with a growing team of brilliant, cross-functional and growth-minded people, and I feel challenged by them every day (in a good way). The work of helping our customers improve their marketing performance often doesn’t feel like work because of the people I work with and the culture that we’ve created and maintained as we’ve grown.”
I’ve been at Smartly.io for over three years and the number one reason I’ve stayed is because of the people.”
What excites Douglas about the future of Smartly.io: “Smartly.io has recently added new solutions for Snapchat and Pinterest and I’ve grown more excited as we continue to add support for new platforms and service models. The reason we’re going in this direction is driven by what our clients want and need based on feedback they continue to share with us. We’re positioned to help our customers as their needs change and as they look to experiment and grow their businesses via channels outside of just Facebook and Instagram. This is key for Smartly.io to continue to add value and I’m glad that our leadership team has continued down the path they started almost eight years ago. My team will continue to provide clients with the best experience possible to take their status quo ways of working to the next level.”
