Klaviyo

As an engineer, there were plenty of opportunities for boundless experimentation at Klaviyo that provided career growth and product contribution. Everyone has the freedom to spin up servers they need and spend time researching and learning new technologies. The product team was excellent to work with as an engineer, and they allowed engineering to have a lot of input into the roadmap.

Come here to learn a lot about distributed systems, all Amazon web services, and the email sending pipeline integrating into ecommerce. You will learn a great, helpful amount to enable you for your next role.

There needs to be prioritization into the following R&D principles to make the team world class:

• Aligned dev environments: right now there are 5 different independently designed systems and bug recreation & new local feature implementation is challenging
• Product team leaders need more experience: more experienced leaders could help design better UIs and hold more rigid stances on goals & roadmaps
• Chocked-full of 1st-time startup employees: this is dangerous because without careful attention burnout can be produced & inefficient systems of operation
• Not an attractive start-up for financial gains: stock prices were always expensive and the plethora of shares handed out to Engs mostly cannot be afforded by them, and hopefully AMT will not bite them later (many of them do not understand AMT so this is scary)
• You'll have to work days, sometimes late at nights, and be on call. It's very difficult for the company to understand work-life balance, and that's clear when you hear about the CEO even working during his wedding.

There's a day in a startup when the CEO needs to code less as a main contributor, but can continue as a prototyper of pet projects. The best move for Klaviyo to become a known brand-name is to have a face on it. The CEO should go out, shake hands, orate, and be an industry leader and get out of the dark closet coding all day.

The lack of middle management on R&D has evolved the company into a "top dog environment." As a Senior-level employee I was told on day 1 by a young individual with 3 years of professional experience and no college experience, "you have to fight for what you want here, that's the only way to get it." Egos like this need to be snuffed out and tracks need to be built to fill the void with targeted employee growth goals. In addition, without clearly defined leaders on the R&D team, everyone challenges each other for being a team leader, and this can be frustrating.

Defend employees when back-channeled negativity is experienced. The form of resolution with the least effort is ignorance, but this deeply roots issues. For example, I have been told, "X said you have a target painted on your back and he's out to get you," and my manager would not resolve the issue, but simply play the telephone game. Defend your employees, snuff out the baddies, and praise the well-behaved, "move the needle forward" employees.