Matt Spitz on leading a new engineering team
Dropboxer Matt shares his experience helping to open the New York office and leading its engineering team
What did you do before Dropbox?
I grew up in San Francisco and moved to New York in 2009. I was Meebo’s first remote engineer about built a dynamically-optimizing ad server. Then, at Hunch (later eBay via acquisition), I led a team to transition Hunch’s recommendation algorithms to eBay’s infrastructure. Most recently, I spent a year working with a friend on a number of projects from a video-messaging app to a retail feedback service. Nothing we built took off, but the lessons we learned were invaluable, and I wouldn’t trade that time for anything else.
What do you do at Dropbox?
I lead engineering in New York, managing several engineering teams across product and infrastructure.
Why did you decide to join Dropbox?
The tech scene in New York has grown substantially since 2009, but to me, there aren’t a lot of companies with challenging engineering problems at the core of their business. Fewer yet are the companies that are small enough that every individual can have a massive impact. The opportunity to open Dropbox’s office in New York gave me the best of both worlds — the chance to work on hard problems with world-class engineers while also having an impact shaping the cultural and technical foundation of the office.
How would you describe Dropbox New York?
The New York office has a different set of challenges than those at headquarters in San Francisco. We’re a growing office, and many of the decisions regarding the culture and day-to-day work in the office have yet to be made. We see this as an incredible opportunity to make these decisions that will someday be taken for granted as the office is more established. We’re not afraid to try new things and iterate until we’ve created a great place to work.
New York has both a sales and engineering team that work together closely. This provides both organizations the chance to learn from one another and gain a broader perspective on Dropbox as a company. Both sales and engineering benefit from this balance in the office, and it makes us all better individual contributors.
I’m proud to work with such a talented and driven group of people.
What do you like to do when you have time away from work?
Despite living in a densely populated city, my wife Lori and I love the outdoors (much more so during the summer!). Our longer vacations are more strenuous than not; we’ve climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, trekked through Patagonia, and tramped across New Zealand. I’m not sure what’s relaxing about hiking all day and passing out in the same sweaty clothes, but I’m glad that we’re both into it!
What do you enjoy most about your current role, and what is most challenging?
The most exciting part of my role is the opportunity to make an impact on this office and, more generally, the tech scene in New York. I hold myself accountable for building the best place for this city’s top talent to work on challenging, meaningful engineering problems. The most daunting part, of course, is making it happen. Dropbox is a dynamic company that moves quickly, and I face new challenges daily. But, that’s what makes my job fun and, ultimately, very rewarding.
How has the New York office changed since it opened?
The biggest change since we opened was moving into our own space. We started in a temporary office, renting rooms by the month. By the time we left, we were renting ten rooms with individual keys, constantly asking “who has the keys?” We certainly bonded over the peculiarities of that setup, but we’ve since moved into a beautiful new space with lots of potential for us to make it our own.
We hear you’re in a tribute band! Could you tell us a little more about it?
I’ve played jazz guitar since I was thirteen, and in college, I played in two 12-piece funk bands. It was a lot of fun. When I moved to New York, I didn’t have any musical contacts, and while browsing Craigslist, I saw a posting for the lead guitar role in a Pearl Jam tribute band. For as long as I’ve listened to music, I’ve been obsessed with Pearl Jam, so it was a dream come true. The band, named The Lost Dogs after a 2003 compilation of B-sides and rarities, have played all over New York City, and it’s a blast.
I also play bass in a gospel band, but that’s another story.
What are you excited about in the next year?
In our first year, we spent a lot of time figuring out engineering projects and processes in our office. We’re still learning as we grow, but we have a much stronger base than we had initially. We’ve carefully hired an incredible team thus far, and we’ve carved out substantial ownership of meaningful projects, both user-facing products and infrastructure. With this foundation in 2015, New York has started to hit its stride, and I’m excited to see what this team will accomplish.
Another thing I’m excited about is our new engineering offices that opened recently in Seattle and Herzliya, Israel. In New York, we’ve pioneered remote development at Dropbox, and sharing our experience with other offices has reminded me of how much we’ve learned thus far.
Dropbox is growing. We’d love for you to join us.
