Wealthsimple

After interviewing with 20+ small to mid size Canadian firms, I decided to join the Wealthsimple team [early 2017]. Their biggest differentiator [compared to other Canadian-based startups] was their ambition: they are attempting to build a multi-billion dollar business, and are placing their bets on international growth (in 2017, they've expanded the business to both the US and UK!). The leadership team understands the importance of being a technology-first company; nearly 50% of the company is engineering/product, and their competitive compensation structure has helped them hire an impressively strong and diverse team of experts.

The fast-scaling company means that even new employees can take on a lot of responsibility; my day-to-day work has a very direct impact upon the company. The culture is comparable to an SF or NY based startup: catered lunches, monthly team events, fitness benefits and more - the company really values its employees, and wants to help them work as efficiently as possible. They also place a focus on constant learning - there are both company-wide and engineering-specific 'Lunch and Learns' every week. Overall, I have no doubt that WS is one of the most exciting companies to work for in Canada: my only regret is not being able to join them sooner!

The fast-moving "ship-it first, ask question laster" culture can lead to unexpected issues or surprises that affect clients and other teams across the company, forcing them to drop what they're doing and step in to help find quick solutions.

This environment can also lead to scenarios where teams end up building quick or 'exciting' solutions, rather than focusing on longer-term, high impact projects. For teams outside of engineering, the workload can be quite demanding, especially during tax/RRSP season. While it's something that company is attempting to address, it is certainly a pain-point as the business continues to scale faster and faster.

• Try to refine our plethora of company initiatives to the few projects that have the highest impact
• Double down on the focus to improve work-life balance and diversity across the company
• Improve avenues for cross-team communication
• Keep dreaming big!