What Are You Waiting For? These 7 Seattle Companies Are Growing.

The following employers share a common theme: They’re growing, and they’re all focused on building culture-first companies.

At Seattle-based Ekata and DefinedCrowd, fostering people-driven environments means encouraging collaboration through consistent dialogue and going the extra mile to give new team members a warm welcome. Meanwhile, at DreamBox Learning and Ideoclick, an emphasis on employee wellbeing and human development through flexible working arrangements and companywide traditions increases morale.

Not only are these local companies tackling big-picture challenges like reimagining how people receive healthcare and the pace at which elementary students learn, but they’re also looking for talented teammates to join their ranks. 

Might you be the right fit for a position at one of the following seven tech organizations? 

 

What they do: Ideoclick helps businesses that sell on Amazon achieve results via an e-commerce optimization platform. The software delivers comprehensive cloud-based expertise and insight based on reporting, analytics and content optimization. 

 

Ideoclick’s company culture in one word: Innovative. “Ideoclick was born out of a desire to do something new,” Senior Director of People and Culture Jamie Kuhnhausen said. “Our founders knew there was a better way to help brands sell products and engage with their customers on Amazon.”  

Innovation has been a core tenet from the company’s early days, and Ideoclick recently named a new chief innovation officer to provide leadership and energy to fuel their ongoing efforts. 

“By putting a strong leader at the helm, we have advanced our ability to pursue innovation relentlessly through ideating, creating, and designing new services, technologies, and solutions,” she added. 

 

Enabling employees to be their best: “I joined Ideoclick in January of this year as the company’s first people leader,” Kuhnhausen said. “It’s been a crazy ride. Our team has delivered a lot in that time, but the project I’m most excited about is our work location and enablement program.” 

The program is rooted in enabling employees regardless of where they choose to work or live. At Ideoclick, leadership tries to steer away from work location classifications. Rather, they focus on how they can help create an ideal work environment for every team member. As a result, employees get to choose to work wherever they work best. 

“We’ve created unique benefits designed to further enable employees to be productive regardless of where they choose to do their work,” Kuhnhausen said. “We are in growth mode. We hire employees who like to move fast, be creative, and deliver.”

 

What they do: DefinedCrowd is an intelligent data platform for artificial intelligence and machine learning. The company offers businesses efficient data pipelines to collect, process and enrich training data by combining crowdsourcing, tools and machine learning capabilities. 

 

DefinedCrowd’s company culture in one word: Welcoming. “Expanding my career path and choosing to make a change during COVID-19 came with challenges,” Head of Sales Tina Kirkpatrick said. “How to connect with others when our normal face-to-face channels were on pause was top of mind for me. From the start, DefinedCrowd employees from all types of tenure reached out to give me a warm welcome. These interactions were meaningful and full of personal greetings.”

Kirkpatrick said she was assigned a DC buddy who has consistently been there to support her by answering questions and offering guidance. Members from the hiring team have reached out to check in and provided online meetups for newcomers. “DC teammates from across the globe have reached out to offer support on projects in a way that feels as though they are just down the hall,” she added.

 

Shifting your professional mindset: “There is a pivot point in your career when your internal dialogue moves from ‘I want that company to want me,’ to, ‘I have worth that will make an impact at that company,’” Kirkpatrick said.  

“I sought after a company that was stepping out, taking risks and cultivating the next wave of AI development. I looked for a founder who was willing to take their vision and decide to be a builder. I wanted to jump in to further develop that mindset for myself. In two months, the DC team has encouraged me to step in, be bold and share my voice. I am optimistic about the future with my teammates and believe that optimism starts with DC looking to make an impact together.”

 

What they do: Convoy builds technology to find smarter ways to connect shippers with carriers while solving some of the toughest problems in the freight industry. Convoy maximizes earnings for carriers by keeping their trucks full and lowers total costs for shippers.

 

An emphasis on diverse teams: At Convoy, team members are interested in understanding different perspectives. “Diversity is one of the most impactful contributors to any high-performing team,” Senior Account Manager Shannon Fraser previously told Built In. “It drives innovation, effective decision-making and efficient problem-solving.” 

 

Making moves: In Seattle, Convoy is one of only a few privately-held companies valued at more than $1 billion, according to a recent GeekWire article. The company raised $400 million at a $2.7 billion valuation last fall. 

 

What they do: 98point6 offers private, text-based diagnosis and primary care treatment via a mobile app. The healthtech company pairs deep technology with board-certified physicians to make primary care more accessible and affordable.

 

98point6’s company culture in one word: Growth. “Our company has experienced a rapid expansion over the last few years and it’s required our engineering org to create a culture of constant mentorship and mutual learning to support our new employees and help all team members continue to grow personally and professionally,” Engineering Manager Emily Leland said. 

For example, one of the web team’s more introverted new members built up the courage and confidence to present a problem around their testing suite and proposed a solution after only a few weeks at the company. 

 

Professional development in action: “I started as an intern on the 98point6 web development team more than three years ago, and loved it so much that I kept working part time until I finished school,” Leland said. 

A year later, she started as a full-time engineer and was able to work on both the web and back-end codebases, learn to do outage retrospectives and write design docs. “I have since transitioned into being an engineering manager, which has given me the opportunity to learn about mentoring engineers, project management and how to work more collaboratively with teams across the company,” she added. 

 

What they do: Ekata provides companies with global identity verification via APIs and a SaaS solution. The organization’s product suite is powered by the Ekata Identity Engine, which uses machine learning to derive unique data links from the team’s customer network.

 

Ekata’s company culture in one word: Collaborative. “Ekata fosters a strong environment for teams to rally around a defined set of goals,” Chief of Staff Drew Hackleman previously told Built In. “When conflict does come up, it is healthy conflict as both sides know they’re working toward the same goal. I personally find this to be an extremely powerful motivator to come in and push myself to be better each day.”  

 

Fighting the good fight: Earlier this month, Ekata released an Account Opening API. The API is meant to expedite the user experience for good customers and prevent bad actors from using stolen or synthetic identities to gain instant credit, seek loans or launder money.

 

What they do: DreamBox Learning provides students of all levels with a personalized learning experience. The team uses a combination of a rigorous K-8 math curriculum and a motivating learning environment –– as well as adaptive technology –– to meet students where they are.

 

Company traditions: At DreamBox Learning, team members are known for having Nerf dart wars, ringing an office bell to signify big deals, and a gong to signify new concurrency records. “DreamBox is also big-time into Halloween, with elaborate decorations and team competitions,” CTO Todd Howson previously told Built In. 

 

Placing trust above all else: DreamBox Learning managers encourage their direct reports by giving them ownership. “Once you’ve hired great people, you need to give them direction by defining reality in the form of clear expectations and business strategies,” VP of Engineering Lorenzo Pasqualis previously told Built In. “Once you’ve defined reality, you need to respect your people by giving them your full trust and getting out of their way.” 

 

What they do: Axon is a software, hardware and artificial intelligence company that develops technology and weapons products for law enforcement and civilian protection.

 

Mission-driven: “Our mission is to protect life,” Vice President of Axon Records Bryan Wheeler previously told Built In. “All over the world, we encounter communities dealing with very significant challenges when it comes to public safety. We want to help solve these really hard problems.” 

 

Core values: In addition to protecting life, employees abide by the values “preserve truth” and “accelerate justice.” According to the company website, that means enabling better insights and transparency through technology and streamlining tedious, error-prone parts of an officer’s job.