Last week marked my 9 month anniversary since I left Amazon to join Sonder as the Director of Operations. Sonder is building the world’s first deconstructed hotel in cities all around the world, combining the best of neighborhood homes with the quality and consistency of a hotel. Sonder leases units, furnishes them beautifully, and then rents them for short and long-term stays.
As is true when working at a start-up, the last 9 months have simultaneously felt like 1 week and 10 years. I took a moment to reflect on my time at Sonder thus far and why leaving the comforts of big tech and joining Sonder was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Leave Amazon for a startup? You’re crazy!
At Amazon, I was the City Leader / GM for Prime Now responsible for the Northern California and Southwest US markets. It was an amazing job with a wonderful group of coworkers and we were, as Amazon puts it, “Working Hard, Having Fun, and Making History.” Despite this, Sonder was able to woo me away for a few reasons:
Adventure calls. I had spent my career until then working in strategy consulting and big tech (with a stint to get my MBA at MIT Sloan). While working at big companies can offer some compelling perks, you’re still a cog in a very, very big wheel. Decision making is slow. Execution is even slower. Big tech companies will always be there, and the time was right to take a risk and embark on a new adventure.
Travel & hospitality. As someone who has lived in over 4 countries and traveled to over 65, a passion for travel flows through my veins. Sonder is already in 16 markets across 4 countries; we dream of a world where you can travel to any city and stay in a beautifully-designed space that makes it feel as if you could live there.
Operations-focused business. Amazon helped me hone my passion for operations in a consumer-focused company. At Sonder, we are building a world-class operations team to deliver amazing experiences for our guests. Today, I lead our supply chain operations team (sourcing the 300+ items that go into each apartment) and our onboarding operations team (getting a Sonder unit from empty to hosting our first guest as fast as possible).
Big brand ambitions — We aren’t the only company working in this space, but we are the only one that aspires to build a differentiated brand in what is quickly becoming a commodity market. We have a large team of in-house designers who create bespoke experiences in each of our units. In the future, we will enable our guests to be able to customize and elevate every aspect of their Sonder experience. We aren’t just a run-of-the-mill vacation rental company — we are building the world’s first deconstructed hotel.
Company in hyper-growth — This year alone, we will have grown from 13 markets to over 24 across 4 countries and two continents. We have over 80 open roles in our HQ in San Francisco and in every city we operate in. We’re taking off!
What gets me excited about Sonder
At Sonder, we don’t shy away from the hard work — we believe that controlling the operations means delivering a consistent and jaw-dropping experience for our guests.
Complex operations? Bring it on. When I tell people about Sonder, many of them say, “Oh, it’s just Airbnb, but a hotel.” Yes and no. At the end of the day, Airbnb’s operations aren’t that complex — the company is simply an online marketplace. The day-to-day operations of the millions of homes on Airbnb are left to local hosts. At Sonder, we don’t shy away from the hard work — we believe that controlling the operations means delivering a consistent and jaw-dropping experience for our guests. We own the entire process from selecting the best neighborhoods to source our units, designing and furnishing the units in a style worthy of Apartment Therapy, and obsessing over all the details — everything from the type of mattress (fun fact: we design and manufacture our own custom mattress — The SonderSleep) to the color palette of the branding we have for each city. On top of that, we provide a virtual concierge and guest services that would make any hotel jealous.
Strip it all down, build it back up with technology. At the end of the day, Sonder isn’t just managing short-term rentals. Our operations teams are building the world’s first deconstructed hotel. Our rooms aren’t just in one building — they’re distributed across an entire city. As a result, we’ve had to strip down all of the core functionalities of what it means to deliver an amazing guest experience and build it back up using technology as the backbone. For example:
- Optimizing housekeeping isn’t just about managing a clock-in, clock-out schedule — it’s about building the right scheduling tools to efficiently manage our flexible workforce to reduce costs.
- Furnishing a room isn’t about the same cookie-cutter designs you’d find at a chain hotel, it’s about developing the supply chain technology to bring a highly differentiated and bespoke experience to our guests, while increasing speed and reducing costs.
- In the future, our technology will redefine what it means to be a hospitality company. Imagine: every request handled at the touch of a button, every need anticipated and addressed. It’s travel customized to you.
People make the difference. At the end of the day, building a successful operations organization depends on the people you hire. We are building a world-class operations organization both at HQ and our local cities. Our city operations teams always go the extra mile to deliver for our guests. Our HQ operations teams collaborate with stakeholders across the company to build scalable solutions to our most challenging problems. In addition, I get to collaborate with some of the most talented leaders in their fields. Check out a few of my amazing colleagues here:
- Vivek Subramanian, VP Engineering & Product (ex Coupang, Oracle)
- Deeksha Hebbar, VP Central Operations (ex McKinsey, Luxe)
- Julia Otis, Interior Design Operations (ex Airbnb)
- Khang Tran, Director of Engineering (ex Uber)
- Kiran Rao, Director of Biz Ops & Analytics (ex LinkedIn)
- Laura Hoxie, Director of Hospitality (ex Hilton)
- Ashley Redmond, Director of Interior Design (Featured in Architectural Digest, Vogue, and People magazines)
Join us!
For the first time in my life, I can honestly say, I love my job. I’ve grown and learned more here in the last 9 months than I would have in a larger company in probably 5 years.
For sure, there are challenging days that leave me drained and others that I wish would never end. To me, the mark of a great job is one where you feel like are constantly growing, and Sonder has provided me with that opportunity and then some. I leave work each and every day a more mature professional and a better person.
If you’d like to learn more, here are a few things you can do:
- Check out our open roles here. We have over 80 open roles and I bet there’s something that will resonate with you. We are hiring across all of our geographies throughout the US, Canada, and Europe.
- Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn or email me at jeff.sun@sonder.com. Our beautiful office is located in the heart of San Francisco’s Design District — swing by for coffee or lunch anytime!
- Like this article and feel free to share it with others!
