After the demise of Group Commerce, I went on the hunt to find a new start-up job. I found Betterment, and I couldn’t be happier.

So it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything substantial about myself. In June, my employer, Group Commerce, fail-merged (the market dried up and they merged with a competitior), and they decided to let nearly everyone go. Before everything collapsed, there were internal whisperings of what was going to happen, so I started looking for a new place to work. Having realized that working in the start-up space was a good fit for me, I focused my search in that sector of the job market.

I found a few companies that I was interested in, and I began frantically prepping for interviews by asking basically every smart person I knew to quiz me. After talking to a few places, I decided to check out Betterment. I heard about it about a month earlier from a good friend that I worked with at Group Commerce. Betterment provides a personal finance tool for investing one’s money in the simplest, most elegant way possible. Elevator pitch: Sign up online; link your checking account; create a goal for what you might want to do with your money in x years; set up automatic deposts; and you’re invested in a diversified market portfolio. My friend happened to have already spoken to Betterment about a position, and was contemplating accepting it or one of a few other offers he had. He convinced me to go out for some drinks with the Engineering team and see what I thought, and boy am I glad that I did.

I went with some soon-to-be-former co-workers to meet the Betterment people for drinks, and I had the opportunity just talk shop a little bit. It was awesome to be able to meet with a group of possible future co-workers in a neutral environment before going in for an interview. It really removed a lot of the fear and uncertainty from the equation. I loved what I heard in conversations that night, and so I decided to schedule an interview.

The interview was a great experience. I spent a few hours at the Betterment office, and I met with 5 or so people. They all challenged me to prove how I would be a great fit for the company, and, as it turns out, I did a good enough job to earn myself an offer.

That all happened back in May. Since then, I’ve accepted, taken a month off the spend with my wonderful girlfriend, and started working there. I have to say, after working at Group Commerce, getting to know and love that environment, I am surprised at how much I love working at Betterment. I was hoping that it would be at least as good of an environment as Group Commerce, but it has proven to be even better. I am fortunate that in addition to myself, a group of other Group Commerce engineers also came along for the ride at Betterment. That undoubtedly has made the trasition to a new company easier, but I have already made some real friends at Betterment, and I continue to grow those relationships every day.

I could not be happier with where I’ve landed. Now I am doing everything in my power to make Betterment a hugely successful company…

… fingers crossed!