Pinterest

The head of engineering has a mantra he repeats often: "be unfailingly kind."

It's felt throughout the engineering organization. People go out of their way to be courteous and helpful, sometimes at the expense of productivity. This makes working at Pinterest a joy.

It makes it easy for new employees to quickly ramp up and for long-time employees to continue to grow. It makes me excited to come into work every day.

The company's values are in the right place. I truly believe that more diverse teams build better products, and Pinterest is making investments in recruiting and inclusion that will pay off for years to come.

The best part is that none of this comes at the expense of the awesome technology that we continue to pioneer at a breathtaking pace. Our visual search team is way ahead of everyone else, and even Apple itself is envious of our work on AsyncDisplayKit.

As Pinterest grows and matures, working here will become more routine, and the people who made this company great will gradually depart to take on new adventures. But that hasn't happened yet. And I'm loving every minute of the present.

The speed of our growth and the realities of the San Francisco real estate market have forced us to split our workforce over two buildings, a few blocks away from one another.

This has meant we're not as close-knit as we once were, and it's harder to maintain working relationships that span both buildings.