The enriching experience of coding for social impact

My name is Jaime and I’m a Lead Developer at Bridge for Billions, the online incubator for early-stage ventures. In this article I’m gonna explain why I joined Bridge for Billions after my graduation and why I still find it the best workplace after two years.

Personal connection and trust

Back in September 2015, I had just graduated and was starting to search for a job. I preferred to work in a small company where I could learn and contribute a lot in the field I wanted to focus on, web development. While searching for startup jobs I found Bridge for Billions.

My first contact with the company was with the CEO Pablo himself. I had a very informal interview with him at Google Campus Madrid and found him very passionate about his project. At that moment, he had just arrived back in Spain in order to find developers to make Bridge for Billions’ web application a reality.

I pretty much liked the project from the very beginning. The way Pablo explained it to me seemed very fascinating. Despite the initial good impression, enrolling into this kind of very early-stage project is not an easy decision, you are going to spend a lot of time on a project that may or may not succeed. But I trusted Bridge and Pablo himself given his transparency and the personal connection we had from the very beginning. I knew we could work well together.

Enrolling into this kind of very early-stage project is not an easy decision, you are going to spend a lot of time on a project that may or may not succeed.

Sharing ideals, sharing missions

As the months went by, more colleagues joined the boat, and all of them integrated into the team easily. I still find this a privilege. You have probably heard that in small-team companies all colleagues have to get along with each-other, otherwise the wheel is not gonna roll. While this could be the norm, at Bridge for Billions we also share a passion for helping others, entrepreneurs in our case.

This is the main reason why I’m still working at Bridge and not another company. I love coding but when you spend so many hours writing tons of code, at some point you ask yourself where all these instructions and algorithms are going. Then I think, “this is helping entrepreneurs to make their dreams come true” which can sound drippy or artificial but it is the truth.

Nowadays technology and specifically the internet is everywhere (or at least it should be), and it has become a necessity for society in many aspects. But I also think sometimes we are only focusing on developing tech products for a minority that already has resources. At Bridge for Billions we focus more on those who do not have these resources. Maybe we can call this “humanitarian” engineering and I find this to be my primary motivation while coding.

I love coding but when you spend so many hours writing tons of code, at some point you ask yourself where all these instructions and algorithms are going.

Being yourself and embracing the differences

We have this joke at Bridge for Billions every time there is someone new joining us. We ask for our CEO Pablo to try to identify the personality of the new colleague based on the 16 Personalities test, and he is right 99% of the time. The point is that doesn’t matter if you are an an introvert or an extrovert to work here, if you prefer samba or techno. Bridge for Billions just want you to be yourself, share your experiences and learn a lot from the rest of the team.

Our small team is formed by people from all continents and our international mindset is reflected in our work and product. This is also another big challenge in dealing with customers from different regions / timezones / languages, a challenge that we embrace with determination.

No matter where you come from, you have a place at Bridge for Billions if you want to create social impact. I truly see myself as a privileged not only because I’m working on what I enjoy most but also because of the motivation I feel by empowering communities that lack support.

Bridge for Billions just want you to be yourself, share your experiences and learn a lot from the rest of the team.