Steven Church is a product manager at 57Blocks. In this interview, Steven tells the story of how he came into the fold of 57Blocks. It seemed that Steven had always been attracted to this team, regardless of what name they went by. For years, and in various cities around the world, Steven actively pursued working with the team. Why? Steven tells us here.
Walk us through your journey of joining 57Blocks.
I worked for an advertising company where my job was to use various platforms to upload our clients advertisements and target the best locations to place their ads on. One of the platforms was created by the team at TubeMogul, part of which became 57Blocks. I liked working with TubeMogul because they had the best customer service and highest ad performance. After working with TubeMogul executives on several occasions, I asked if they had any open positions. Although they had no open positions at the moment, they said they’d keep me in mind.
True to their word, a month later, TubeMogul contacted me announcing the opening of their Chicago office. Immediately I flew from Detroit to Chicago, to interview at TubeMogul. Already, I had great rapport with many people on the team. In my interview, some of the interviewers said, “Wait a minute, didn’t we meet a few months ago?” Without further questions, they hired me on the spot.
I joined the Chicago team when there were merely eight of us. In five years, we grew to over 60 people. I started with account management, where I was running campaigns for clients. Then, I was promoted to manage the team of account managers. Eventually, I moved again to Detroit and managed the team there, as well as the team in New York.
After that, I joined the application engineering team in sunny California, where they fixed “bugs” in the code. I worked there for two years.
My girlfriend was living in Shanghai at the time, so naturally I wanted to be closer to her. I found an excellent English teaching program that I was interested in joining since I had positive experiences working with youth in the past. When TubeMogul learned of my plans to move to Shanghai, they connected me with Peter Wang, VP of Engineering, who invited me to their Chengdu team in China. Seeing their efforts to keep me made me feel valued as an essential team member.
When I moved to Chengdu, I was essentially the middleman between the engineers and the product people. I made sure that engineers got all the information they needed about what they were building and why they were building it. This enabled them to weigh in their expert opinions about how to build a better product, which I would communicate to the product people. We ran like a well oiled machine.
One year after I joined TubeMogul in Chengdu, Adobe, who has acquired us, decided to shut down the Chengdu office because they were consolidating. Our team was devastated, but with or without Adobe or TubeMogul, our team would become its own company with Peter as our CEO!
For six months I stayed in Chengdu, but my girlfriend was in Shanghai and I had to convince her to marry me before it was too late.
To my disappointment, my marriage visa did not permit me to work for our new company. I had to go back to my original plan of being a teacher. I could only teach on weekends, so my weeks were very relaxed. Boring, in fact. Eventually, I got so bored that I contacted Peter and asked if we could figure out how to work together again. It took a few months, but when another advertising company needed a product, I was ready to get back to it with my team! That was my life for the last 8 years.
What drew you to work with the TubeMogul, now 57Blocks, team?
There’s something special about them. I’ve worked with average teams, where issues aren’t quickly resolved, deadlines are missed, and improvements are not a priority. What sets 57Blocks apart is I can bring them an issue and they know what to do. They get it done. They’re ready for whatever issues pop up and still deliver on time.
What were the challenges and successes in the early days of 57Blocks?
After the consolidation, we were Tokenpad, a platform for cryptocurrency investing. We had just started to get ICOs and IPOs for Tokenpad. The product was ready, and we had plans to build another. Then, cryptocurrency crashed.
We had to survive. We still had an amazing engineering team with huge tech acumen, so we went back to what we do best: building products. I would say the success was having the team ready.
What is your proudest moment at 57Blocks?
When Adobe made the announcement, we were devastated. We didn’t want to disband the team. When Peter pitched the idea of preserving the team and forming a new company, everyone was excited and relieved. It shows that people on this team had also built good relationships and wanted to stay together.
What core value of 57Blocks resonates with you?
On my TubeMogul mug, it says “GSD”, which means “Get Shit Done”.
Hearing the CEO say, “I don’t care what happens, just get that shit done!” in a professional setting resonated with me. We keep our word and do whatever it takes to deliver. I really value that.
What’s a win that you have celebrated recently, work related or otherwise, that we can share with the community?
The team I work with for an advertising product had a win recently. When Apple launched iOS 14, which has a new way to track users, my team was able to find a solution that allowed our advertising clients to continue to track users in accordance with iOS 14. This new solution to a problem plaguing advertisers across the market was discovered in one week and implemented in one month!
How do you define success?
Success is building a product that my team and I can be proud of. It can’t just be “good enough”. We have to be happy with the results.
You have a great deal of background in advertising. What caused you to pivot out of advertising and into product?
When I managed advertising campaigns, I spent my day hearing what clients needed and delivering. My strength has always been understanding what the client wants, how we can do it, and how it can be better. Product is perfect for me.
What would your perfect workday include?
If my morning is perfect, complete with breakfast and coffee, my day will be, too.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
In Shanghai. I’d like to be working alongside people on my team to build another project or product.
On a more personal note, what do you like to do when you’re not at work?
I love the food in China! My wife and I like to try new restaurants around the cities. The food in China is so much better than anywhere else in the world.
Oh, you must have loved the spicy food of Chengdu!
Yeah, that was a shocker. I always thought I loved spicy food. Ting, from the team, became one of my best friends in Chengdu. We would always eat together. I would be sweating profusely while eating. He was concerned, but I was in heaven.
What is one thing that you can’t do but wish that you could?
My top priority is learning Mandarin. I can order food and help my wife in the kitchen, which is when she speaks Mandarin to me. As much as I love it, I want to have conversations in Mandarin outside of food.
If you couldn’t work in tech and money weren’t an object, what’s another business that you would launch?
I’d launch a video game company. One of my hobbies is making small games for myself. When I was teaching, I had a class where the kids would write out a strategy game, similar to Dungeons and Dragons. They made a dungeon map and wrote out how to get from point A with different options. Then, I would pick one game and program it so the class could play together.
What are your plans for your holiday?
My wife and I are going to a resort I used to work at before I went to college. I’ll be teaching her how to ski!
What is your favorite place in the world?
Vail, Colorado. That’s where we’ll be going on holiday!
What is your biggest fear?
Heights. It’s tough living on the 17th floor.
What is your favorite possession?
A sign my brother stole from a restaurant we worked at called “The Coffee Shop” that’s next to grandma’s summerhouse in Michigan.
Who inspires you?
My grandma, because she was very business savvy. She expected people to speak with total honesty and keep their promises. She instilled these values in her family. Her and my grandpa were a total power couple. They left meetings with a deal written in their notebook. They never needed a contract because they always delivered and held everyone to the same standard.
What is your greatest accomplishment?
I’m proud to have graduated from my hometown university because it was founded by my grandpa. It meant a lot to my grandma. She said he would have been proud, too.
