My First 3 Months as a Venmo Engineer
Hey guys, I’ve joined a new and awesome NYC startup, Venmo. Last week marks my 3-month anniversary as a Venmo engineer. I want to share my experience here and provide a glimpse of what it’s like for me to work at one of the most exciting startups in Silicon Alley. I say “work” in a loose sense because it’s not just a job to me, and after reading this, I hope you’ll understand what I mean.
As I’m typing, I’m lying on the Venmo bed in our office. Last week I severely sprained my ankle during a football game. Our co-founder, and 2 other engineers at Venmo spent all day with me at the hospital. I injured my ankle in a team-wide, 6-on-6 football game during the middle of the day; it was pretty awesome. Because I still can’t walk, everybody at Venmo has been remarkably accommodating, and has no disputes with my sleeping in the office for the past few days. (I share this anecdote because our bed is outrageously comfy, and provides an intangibly high amount of huzzah to our team culture and spirits.)
For those of you that don’t know, Venmo is a way to pay your friends on a mobile device. There is an Android and iPhone app. The company has about 18 rock star employees (update: 2 guys are starting soon, so I guess we have 20 now). I joined as roughly employee #10. I’m technically an iPhone developer, but my job consists of far more than just iPhone programming: hiring, deciding the direction of Venmo, and eating copious* amounts of M&Ms to name a few. Just last week, we spent hours discussing the merits of requiring Facebook or where to place the new slide-to-pay. Today we spent hours making our witty thoughts go viral on quickmeme.com. We’re pretty hilarious. (preface: that’s Matt Di Pasquale’s profile picture for every social application)
The office is pretty hard to describe until you’ve seen it. The best word to convey its atmosphere is “dorm”. One wall is painted entirely Venmo blue with our logo in the middle, we have a kitchen area with food and drinks, and people are constantly coming and going. Our meeting room isn’t just called the meeting room, it’s dubbed the “Magic Room”, for obvious reasons. Like many others, I chose to raise my desk so I can stand while at my desk, but others prefer sitting. We wear whatever is comfortable, feast on healthy snacks, and lie in bed when we need a break.
As I’m typing, I’m lying on the Venmo bed in our office. Last week I severely sprained my ankle during a football game. Our co-founder, and 2 other engineers at Venmo spent all day with me at the hospital. I injured my ankle in a team-wide, 6-on-6 football game during the middle of the day; it was pretty awesome. Because I still can’t walk, everybody at Venmo has been remarkably accommodating, and has no disputes with my sleeping in the office for the past few days. (I share this anecdote because our bed is outrageously comfy, and provides an intangibly high amount of huzzah to our team culture and spirits.)
For those of you that don’t know, Venmo is a way to pay your friends on a mobile device. There is an Android and iPhone app. The company has about 18 rock star employees (update: 2 guys are starting soon, so I guess we have 20 now). I joined as roughly employee #10. I’m technically an iPhone developer, but my job consists of far more than just iPhone programming: hiring, deciding the direction of Venmo, and eating copious* amounts of M&Ms to name a few. Just last week, we spent hours discussing the merits of requiring Facebook or where to place the new slide-to-pay. Today we spent hours making our witty thoughts go viral on quickmeme.com. We’re pretty hilarious. (preface: that’s Matt Di Pasquale’s profile picture for every social application)
The office is pretty hard to describe until you’ve seen it. The best word to convey its atmosphere is “dorm”. One wall is painted entirely Venmo blue with our logo in the middle, we have a kitchen area with food and drinks, and people are constantly coming and going. Our meeting room isn’t just called the meeting room, it’s dubbed the “Magic Room”, for obvious reasons. Like many others, I chose to raise my desk so I can stand while at my desk, but others prefer sitting. We wear whatever is comfortable, feast on healthy snacks, and lie in bed when we need a break.
A few elect to work 9-5pm, but I’m on a later schedule so I’ve been coming in
Though we all have different productivity schedules, we unanimously agree that our team is extremely* athletic (no joke, we challenge any startup to any team sports game**). We even enjoy gym memberships courtesy of Venmo. We frequently work out or play sports in the middle of the day. More importantly, I hang out with many of them on weekends and can say confidently that after just 3 months, I feel quite close to many of them. We grab dinner on weekends, get drinks at night, and even bring the party indoors during our Venmo hackathons.
If you’re wondering when I actually “work”, the truthful answer is that I never feel like I’m really “working”. I really hate to tell people that I was “at work” or “working late” because to me, it’s not working in the traditional career sense. Don’t get me wrong, we work really hard and spend a significant part of the day programming, but not once have I felt unmotivated to be doing it. I wake up every morning and am truly excited to work with my friends. I’m so inspired by my coworkers to learn, improve, and work on the most amazing product that it has never become a chore. I think everyone we hire has the same mentality too. I frequently program until 10pm, midnight, and occasionally even 4am, but I have a blast doing it and am rarely alone at those times. My friends are in disbelief when I tell them that I love working 7 days a week or that I get home at 4:30am on some weekdays.
But they’ve come around. When a new batch of Venmo stickers arrived, my friends each individually (I am not kidding) asked for Venmo stickers to put on the backs of their phones. How awesome is that?! And just like my programming, providing those stickers is just as important to me. Now that my friends have had a chance to see the office and experience Venmo’s contagious vibes, they see that work for me isn’t just about programming. It’s the complete experience.
Playing football with the team, writing this post, and handing out Venmo t-shirts are just as valuable to me as writing good code. And I think that’s what makes us unique and successful. The people here are genuinely excited and passionate to help shape Venmo’s culture and future.
Next time you’re in the Chelsea area, feel free to reach out to me and come visit the Venmo office. If you’re lucky and visit after 11pm, you might even get to join us as we “work” at the late-night African food joint.
* accentuate with any fitting expletive to convey additional emphasis
** seriously. any startup interested in a team sport competition, find me @johngraham262
