First Weeks at Virta
When I began interviewing at Virta, I was quickly taken by the team’s culture and could envision myself thriving there. After learning more about the science and technology behind Virta, I became cautiously optimistic about their mission to reverse type 2 diabetes in 100 million people by 2025. When I received my offer, the people, the values they embodied, and their passion to accomplish the mission were the major factors that ultimately led to my decision to join the team.
My First Day
Every Monday at Virta begins with an all-hands meeting. At my first all-hands, my fellow new hires and I were introduced to the entire company. A “gratitude round” followed our introductions, where Virtans thanked and recognized one another. It became increasingly apparent to me how integral gratitude was to Virta’s culture when we reached the part of the meeting where Sami, our co-founder and CEO, addressed the team. The first thing he did was turn to me and my fellow new hires to say, “Thanks for choosing us, as we all have a choice.” He continues to say this to every Virtan who joins, receives a promotion, or celebrates a work anniversary. I found it comforting to witness this recognition of both incoming and veteran Virtans as human beings with other career options. I had never been in an environment where having a sense of gratitude and expressing it was encouraged so much, and I have since adopted it and continue to practice it, at and outside of work.
People First
As I spent my first few weeks setting up my development environment and ramping up on projects, I became further immersed in the “People First” culture at Virta.
I found that all of my coworkers care deeply about our patients and believe in the importance of our mission to reverse type 2 diabetes. Even over the course of a coffee chat or lunch, it was clear to me that my peers were intrinsically motivated to contribute to making Virta as successful as possible.
Many of my teammates follow the same dietary changes that Virta patients make as part of their treatment, and some of them have had personal experience with diabetes. As a result, many of the snacks in our offices are low carb, and our weekly catered lunches include ketogenic entrées. Virtans then have the option to try the dietary changes to better empathize with our patients. As we grow, patient and employee populations will become increasingly diverse, and it will be important to be able to accommodate a growing variety of limitations that our patients may have around the treatment. I am proud to say that we have a group at Virta, called Virtans for Diversity, that actively works to improve the accessibility of the Virta treatment, especially when it comes to food choices.
Finally, among Virtans, there is a strong sense of care for each other that extends beyond the “gratitude round” I observed on my first day. In fact, there is even a #gratitude Slack channel which allows all teams to see what wins are happening across the company and specifically who to thank for them. Within and outside my immediate team, I have observed many Virtans encouraging each other to take care of themselves by taking small breaks during the workday or taking time off to capitalize on a good flight deal. Within my working group, one-to-one meetings with my manager and team lead always include questions about my personal well-being and progress towards growing as a developer.
How Things Have Changed Since Joining
Since my first day in January, the number of employees at Virta has doubled, and we are still growing. New Virtans join every week in our offices around the country, and frankly, it’s tough to keep up with all the new faces. For new Virtans, it takes a bit more effort to meet everyone, and, in the case of the San Francisco office, we have outgrown our coworking space to the point that we have offices on multiple floors. (We’ll be moving into our own space in the next couple of months).
As for the geographic spread of our offices, we have taken steps as a company to help Virtans feel connected to each other and to promote collaboration across the entire team. Virta recently unveiled a rotation program that encourages Virtans to visit different office locations to foster interpersonal connections. In addition, our engineering team is continually working to improve meetings involving remote engineers. Luckily, other teams at Virta have a lot of experience with this, and we can use their models to ensure our Denver engineering group feels included. With our efforts to normalize meetings with remote employees and the rotation program, I am confident that Virta will overcome our current growing pains.
While there has been a lot of change, the “people first” attitude that I deeply appreciated during my early days has remained constant. I distinctly remember during a one-to-one meeting, my manager noticed that I was periodically attempting to soothe some pain in my wrists while typing notes. Having experienced wrist issues himself due to frequent typing and mouse work, he mentioned that I should take breaks while working and, if I ever needed any ergonomic equipment for work, I could always expense it. Similarly, my team lead made it clear during a retrospective that if there is even the slightest amount of wrist pain due to work, it would be best to go home to avoid further aggravating it, since these injuries often escalate rapidly. I continue to feel extremely grateful for the level of compassion shown by the people I work with, and I try to exhibit this as well.
Looking Forward
As with anything, there is always room for improvement, and I think that is what excites me the most about working at Virta. Our culture is constantly changing and maturing. There are so many ways in which we can improve ourselves to better treat our patients as well as fostering an encouraging and exciting work environment. I cannot wait to see how Virta will grow and evolve. As our fearless leader Sami loves to say: “Onwards and upwards!”
