Why You Shouldn’t Work At Apptopia
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I founded Apptopia in November 2011 when I was 25 years old. If you asked “2011 Jonathan” what he thought the one thing he would be best at when starting Apptopia — he would have told you (without hesitation) — “Hiring!”.
2011 Jonathan was an idiot. A naive idiot. Let the official record show, I was wrong. So so wrong.
Hiring good people has been one of our greatest challenges over the last 5+ years. As the company has grown, and I have matured as a leader I’ve learned a lot about hiring and how to do it well. The single biggest lesson I learned is that the hiring process needs to be a mutual evaluation. That might sound obvious, but so often is the employer in the power seat and the driver of the entire process. This is a huge mistake, as its equally as costly to hire a bad employee as it is to hire a great employee who doesn’t want to work at your company or isn’t happy there. Just like in all relationships, it needs to be a mutual excitement / evaluation otherwise it won’t work.
As a result, I have invested a lot of time telling candidates exactly why they shouldn’t work here, what our faults are, etc. Transparency and forwardness have been the most valuable arrows in my quiver as a hiring manager. Below I am want to outline in detail what its like to work at Apptopia in 2017, and exactly why you should AND shouldn’t take a job here.
Why You Shouldn’t Work Here
— It’s Really Challenging
— It Can Be Intense
— You Will Work More Hours Than Your Friends
— You Can Make More Money Somewhere Else
1) “It’s Really Challenging”
Working at Apptopia will not be easy. We are going to challenge you mentally. One of the reasons we are as successful as we are today is because we move fast and we are unbelievably crafty. We will not be satisfied with B+ work, because we want to be the best and we will demand the absolute best out of you. That is going to require you to push yourself, accept difficult to hear feedback, and keep trying no matter how many times you fail.
2) “It Can Be Intense”
If you have ever played sports competitively, you know that moment when you are at a pivotal moment of the game…You know that next move you make, shot you take, etc is an impactful one. It will change the course of the game and you, in that moment have the ability to affect the entire outcome. For a lot of people they don’t ever want to be in that situation, it gives them anxiety and isn’t enjoyable or productive. For people like Ray Allen, David Ortiz, Peyton Manning, etc — this is when they thrive the most.
At Apptopia we are right on the edge of something big. We succeeded where 98% of businesses fail. We are one of a few companies in the world who can compete directly with App Annie (the 500lb Gorilla) and we can actually do it better than them. We are close to something really big, and there is an intensity about that which is in the air here. For some people this is what drives them, but for others this is not an environment that they can be successful in.
3) “You Will Work More Hours Than Your Friends”
You will have your company email on your phone. You will not work 9 to 5. We will demand a lot from you, but it will be reasonable and attainable. Our focus is on setting and achieving those goals. Regardless of if you are in sales, marketing, data science, etc it doesn’t matter, rarely is hitting your goals as simple as investing X # of hours a day. There will be quiet weeks and there will be product launch weeks when its an all hands on deck mentality. We expect you to be flexible and invest your time accordingly.
For those who are Seinfeld fans you might remember the concept of “Even Steven” . We very much employ this methodology here. Meaning if you bust your ass for a launch or to get something done on the weekend, you should take the time back another time (leave early one day, sleep in, etc).
4) “You Can Make More Money Somewhere Else”
We are a well funded company, we make substantial revenue every single month, and we are not profitable by choice (i.e. we are growing fast and continuing to push for more). We pay market salaries, and strongly disagree with underpaying employees (nearly every study i’ve read proves that people who are worried about money are unable to perform at their best). However, we definitely do not and will not pay the most. You will always be able to get a job at Experian, Forrester, Oracle, Fidelity, etc. and make a higher base salary than you can here at Apptopia.
Most people I interview believe that a salary increase is due because they are switching jobs. We do not subscribe to this logic, and likely will not offer you a salary increase from your previous role (unless you were grossly underpaid).
However, we will give you the opportunity to make more than you were previously. But it needs to be earned. You need to be willing to bet on yourself. We are big believers that words get you in the door and actions are what make you indispensable. Its highly likely that if you were to accept a job here we would offer you a compensation package that looked something like:
— Day 1 Salary = $X (where X is similar to your current salary)
— Day 90 Salary = $Y (where Y is likely a 5–10% increase from X)
— Day 365 Salary = $Z (where Z is likely over 20% increase from Y)
Why You Should Work Here
— We Are Really Transparent
— It Is The Best Thing For Your Career
— Our Executive Team Is Special
— You Can Have An Impact
1) “We Are Really Transparent”
Its a shame but “Transparency” is quickly becoming an over used / cliche start up term. So allow me fight the cliche and explain in detail why I choose this word…
One of the most poisonous things that can happen to you professionally is to have someone not tell you the truth about how you are performing. If you don’t make mistakes (or even know you are making them), how can you ever evolve and grow and improve? The worst / most dangerous types of managers are those who are quiet and complacent. Stagnation is your enemy as an employee.
At Apptopia we are very honest and very direct. If we don’t think you did a good job we will tell you that immediately. We will tell you why we felt you underperformed and we will ask you to do it again.
Do you remember the last time you had that piece of lettuce in your teeth? You got home, realized it, and angrily texted your friend asking how they let you go the entire meal without telling you? Apptopia is the friend who tells you whats stuck in your teeth. We are a no bullshit, no politics environment. When you are moving as fast as we move there is no time to waste on anything but moving forward, getting better, and getting to the desired end result. As someone who is looking to grow there is no more productive environment than this.
Have you ever worked at a company where you came in one day and someone you worked with for years was just gone? Nobody knew what happened? You were confused and you could have heard a pin drop that day. Yup…we don’t do that. We share publicly with our team:
— When employees are let go or choose to leave
— Weekly updates on revenue, churn, and other major company KPIs
*No matter what the circumstance, we never violate past employees privacy or speak disrespectfully about them. We simply make sure that when someone leaves or is let go, you hear about it from us first. No wondering, guessing, or being in the dark.
2) “It Is The Best Thing For Your Career”
There are a lot of different ways to accomplish any goal. Growing your career is no exception to this. You can grow through education, climbing “the ladder”, working on your own, etc. Working at Apptopia is by no means the only way to get where you want to go. However, to my core I believe its one of the best. Allow me to elaborate….
I am terrified of rollercoasters. Yup, I said it. I go to Disney World pretty frequently and often find myself standing in line for a ride next to a 5 year old who is jumping in excitement while my face is white as a ghost, knuckles clenched. Its because when I was younger my parents never made me go on rides I was scared of, they never threw me in the mud. You know the kid on the playground who was better at the monkey bars than you? Its because they fell and cried their eyes out 10 times before that. Working at Apptopia is actually kind of like falling off the monkey bars, crying, and doing it again.
We are going to give you 3–4x the amount of responsibility and free reign than your experience dictates and that you would get at any other company. To some this could be overwhelming, even paralyzing. But the reality is that there is no better and quicker way to learn than diving in head first and starting to make some mistakes (a LOT of mistakes preferable). How you should think about Apptopia is that being successful here allows you to actually skip a step in your career path. Which means that when you choose to move to your next opportunity after Apptopia, you will be ahead of your peers, earning more money, capable of taking on more responsibility and in a more senior role than you would have been otherwise. Apptopia is the ultimate spring board for career & personal growth.
3) “Our Executive Team Is Special”
Most hugely successful people you meet are in some way, shape, or form a product of other successful people they were exposed to or were mentored by. For me that person was David Hauser, Founder of Grasshopper
One of the most important reasons you need to work here is because you have the opportunity to surround yourself with truly special people. Our executive team comes from all different walks of life, but they have all been hugely successful in their careers thus far. These are the people you have the opportunity to learn from, get mentored by, and be exposed to every single day:
Chief Technology Officer — Serge Balyuk
Chief Marketing Officer — Mike Schneider
Chief Product Officer — Liron Markus
Chief Analytics Officer — John Mercer
These 4 are battle tested, humble, caring, fun, diligent, and extremely passionate about their trade. In my 10+ year career there are few people i’ve ever worked with who I respect and have learned as much from as these 4. There is no more powerful way to learn than through Osmosis. Working here gives you that opportunity in spades.
4) “You Can Have An Impact”
You can choose to be a part of the machine, or you can choose to be the linchpin. Apptopia is a company of linchpin’s. We all rely on each other in order to get our specific jobs done and move the ship closer to our end goal. If you choose to work at Apptopia you get to be part of something bigger than any one of its parts. Every single employee in our company today has the ability to have a direct impact on our bottom line. At Apptopia you get to put your thoughts, ideas, and efforts into motion in near real time. You get to see how those ideas play out, you get to iterate on those ideas, improve them, and go home at night and tangibly observe / feel the impact your efforts had on the whole.
Throughout this post i’ve talked a lot about career growth, learning, money, etc. However the one thing we didn’t discuss yet is human satisfaction. Going home at night, having a drink, and knowing that what you did today had an actual impact on the bigger picture. While at the end of the day working at Apptopia is absolutely a challenging experience, what you sacrifice in effort you get back two fold in satisfaction. Most of our best ideas have consistently come from our team, not our executives, not me, not my business partner, but our team. Everyone who works here gets a meaningful platform to inspire change, and very few of your peers can lie in bed at night and say that.
Not Everyone Likes You
If you know me, or have worked with me, you know that I am someone who cares deeply about the people around me. Often times you will hear me describe our team as the people I go to battle with each & every day. I am honest and open with the people that choose to be here every day. However, the reality is that no matter who you are, how nice you are, how much you pay, people will always dislike you, not understand you, disagree with you, bash you anonymously, etc.
Apptopia is no exception to this. All you have to do is read our GlassDoor Reviews to know that some people love us and some people don’t. But people will always have an opinion. I chose to write this in-depth post not to persuade you one way or the other, but to give you a transparent view into who we are, why we get up in the morning, and what it would be like to be part of our team / family. Hopefully this helps you as you make a decision about what is the best next step in your career.
If you have any questions about Apptopia, what its like to work here, reviews you’ve read, concerns you have, etc. please feel free to contact me directly:
Jon AT apptopia DOT com
855-apptopia ext 701
@jonathanckay
There is nothing more important to me than the people who come to work here every day, so please don’t hesitate to reach out if I can do anything to help.
— JK
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Some Resources & Facts & Benefits:
*All of the below are available for download
— Please ask about our monthly HSA Contributions, which are very competitive.
