Q&A With Deserve Employees

Preparing to jump ship

positive, fun and intense at the same time!

informal, casual, lots of energy as people are working crazy hard on big projects. steadily growing headcount and improving the place.

more cross functional communication

Don't be a penny pincher

Lean. Everything about our business is lean. What other companies do with teams of 20, we're doing with one or two. The culture is improving steadily. We don't have all the fancy perks of Gacebook or Foogle, but we're starting to see some more investment in our office space and company culture.

Demand a lot without corresponding pay hikes or bonuses

CEO leads by example. He is always there, sets clear agenda, holds people accountable and is fair and clear in his communication!

Our CEO is super present in the company and leads by example. People say he doesn't have an off switch, and that's true. We all work hard to get us closer to our vision, but it's clear that the leadership team is working double time. It's very transparent here. You can voice questions, concerns, or suggestions to Kalpesh, and he will give each point serious consideration. It's rare to have that kind of direct line to a CEO, and for your CEO to give actual thought to your suggestions. You definitely get that here. We're young and scrappy, but people feel like our feedback isn't disappearing into a void. He's super relatable, too. People feel confident in how he's running the company, but Kalpesh also does well in connecting with employees individually.

the opportunity to disrupt the credit card market

The potential. We're set to do some good, and we might just do well, too. Nobody grows up saying they want to work in B2B SaaS. Helping underserved people have access to credit and a financial future? That's just incredible.

the mission to help deserving but underserved (by traditional banking system) population get access to credit.

pretty good. Don't have to work on weekends unless there is a deadline to meet!

Work-life balance here is normal and comparable for about any Silicon Valley start-up. Our official office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. but some people come in earlier and some later. At the end of the day, the name of the game is what we're able to achieve, not how long we're in our pods. There may be the occasional late evening, but everyone here knows the stakes of what we're doing and that everyone's in it here together. We work hard and put in the time needed because we actually believe in what we do.

People don't usually work over the weekends unless they are under a deadline. They get to work a couple of days a month from home.

What about the vision excites you? Why do you want to work at SelfScore? What will you seek to do in your first week, month here? What research have you done about us?

Depends on a role. They are generally trying to assess fit based on Aptitude, Attitude, Energy, Integrity and Reliability.

Cordial and informal. We want our candidates to succeed, and we want to make sure we get the actual picture. There aren't any trick questions or curve balls. We're not asking candidates to estimate how many employees the postal service has, or how many refrigerators are made in India every year. When appropriate, we'll invite candidates to give a short presentation with a reasonable expectation of time needed to complete. Every new hire will have met with Kalpesh, our CEO, and most interviews will include what of our leadership team is present in office that day. We tend to move really quickly as well. Our interview process doesn't draw out for weeks on end.

rigorous.

The only real difficulty is that we've done and created everything that a traditional credit firm has, just we've done it with 30 people. We were founded on providing credit to international students, but as we continue to expand our offerings, it looks like that area of our business will be taking off the most.

customer acquisition is growing at triple digit y/y.

Typical benefits of most SV places. Good health, 401K, vision, etc.

Gold level health benefits (include health, dental and vision), 401K and vacation.

Deserve shares a quaint little office in downtown Menlo Park with another tech start-up. We have an open floor plan with almost everyone working in our all-hands space. Our C-suite has their own offices, but everything here is considerably open. We're expanding headcount, but the space is currently very comfortable for the team. There's a shared kitchen and pantry, too.

The people. The company's vision is pretty noble to provide credit to people who traditionally wouldn't have a chance to get it, so when you bring together an entire team of people who believe in that, you have the workings of an amazing culture. Everyone here is insanely driven, wicked smart, and there's always a buzz in the office with everything happening.

This is why everyone here works as hard as they do. People feel like the company has incredible potential with new product offerings and the overall direction of the company. Every month, every day we're all in that much better of a position, and it's exciting to see what we've already done with such a small team.

There's not a single day here that's the same! We're a small team that's competing with long-established companies in the space so you're often taking on a lot of various responsibilities and projects to bring us closer to our goals. The pace is pretty quick, but reasonable, and while we're continuing to grow it's all hands on deck.

The exciting part about working at a start-up is that everyday is different, and you're routinely wearing a lot of different hats to make things happen. That's definitely true here! It's a pretty quick pace but the leadership is also mindful of everyone's bandwidth. People come here because they want to be part of something big and make a difference, and the pace reflects that.

Some of the team do work remotely, including some of the leadership team who don't live in the Bay but fly in every week. There are some exceptions, but it's part of the culture that people try to be physically in the office as often as possible so we do our best collaborative work.

2 weeks PTO per year plus standard sick leave, etc. There's been talk about switching to more untracked-type plans as the company grows.

We're still a small team, which means that most of our current hires are for roles where we need to bring in outside talent. We have had interns who have returned to work full-time, and with the future of the company looking so positive, there are clear opportunities to move up after getting to learn our products. Our CEO takes a hands-on approach to management, and effort and initiative here don't go overlooked.