
"MURAL Raises $23M to Reimagine Visual Collaboration 🚀"
Below is an article originally written by Mariano Suarez-Battan, Co-Founder & CEO at PowerToFly Partner MURAL, and published on January 27, 2020. Go to MURAL's page on PowerToFly to see their open positions and learn more.
Today we announced a $23M Series A round of funding led by Radian Capital, and quickly followed by Endeavor Catalyst and Gradient Ventures. Thank you Weston, Darian, and your teams. You truly understand our vision (you're also our power users!) and want to help us achieve it.
Thanks to our members 🙏
To our early adopters, investors and partners, thank you for being our champions on this journey. Thank you for being part of this passionate community and for your contribution to making MURAL the leading player in design thinking and visual collaboration in the enterprise space.
You have been using MURAL to solve important problems, just like Pearson and GitHub. You have been scaling a culture of innovation, like IBM and USAA, improving your productivity, reducing travel costs for in-person meetings and changing the way you engage with your teams and clients.
You kept us true to our core and helped us continually improve the experience to what it's become today. We are just getting started and have ambitious goals to transform how we work.
Please continue to spread the word to people who are learning the power of visual collaboration and seeing the future of remote work.
Thanks to our partners 🙏
LUMA Institute, Jeff Gothelf, IBM Design, Jeanne Liedtka, David Bland, IDEO, Robert Skrobe, Erik Flowers and Megan Miller, AJ&Smart, XPLANE, Voltage Control, Etch Sprints, Territory, Jay Melone, Daniel Stillman, and Google Sprint. You dramatically improved the client experience by bringing your know-how, methodologies, frameworks and templates into the product. There are thousands of innovation consultants, design experts, facilitators and coaches like you in our network, who are deeply committed to fostering creative innovation and work transformation. Thank you Tim Brown for introducing me to Phil Gilbert and igniting our enterprise journey. There are many more of you we still need to thank.
Thanks to our team 🙏
There are currently over one hundred Muralists working across six time zones. You and many others have contributed to our success along the way and brought your full selves to work everyday. What started as an insight while working on a video game about emotions, has now turned into a passionate visual collaboration community who regularly express how fun and easy it is to engage with their teams. We have you to thank.
Thank you Pato and Agus for always being there. You are true friends and dedicated co-founders. Thank you Cele, Guido and Juli for jumping in early on and staying with us. Thank you Jim for being a guiding star in building a world-class customer success team.
And most recently Kap (aka Greg Kaplan), who came over from IBM after seeing the impact of MURAL on its business, and who will now help us dramatically improve how we serve our customers and work together with partners.
Why is this important to you? 🤔🤖
Artificial intelligence is coming for our jobs – especially jobs done by knowledge workers. And that's ok! Intelligent machines are faster and more accurate at a lot of repetitive tasks, and some automated help can be good. However, it's imagination work that makes us human.
Imagination comes first, before creativity. It's about envisioning what's possible, then going and making it happen as teams, and as people. Spending more time on imagination work will help us focus on a better future. Visualizing what's possible will allow us as humans to be able to have a better dialog and ultimately achieve more together.
- We believe anybody with a brain is an imagination worker.
- We believe guided methods and facilitators help teams achieve more.
- We believe work can happen anywhere and the best ideas can come from the most quiet person in the back of the room.
There are one million people out there just like you – visual thinkers, collaborators, leaders, and facilitators – who want to change the world in big and small ways. Now it's our job to find them and their teams, to fulfill our mission to connect the global distributed workforce and support enterprise brands in their cultural transformations.
What's next? 🕵️
We can't wait to show you what we're working on!
We already have a great team and culture, but we're looking to grow. By the end of 2020, we're looking to double our size. We'll keep bringing people on board that care about our mission to power up imagination workers globally.
We have an internal goal of improving how we work so we can showcase best practices in visual and remote collaboration across teams and geographies.
We'll be expanding our product team in Buenos Aires, the Bay Area, and remote locations, as well as our sales team based in the U.S., Europe, and expanding into APAC. If you are passionate about design thinking, remote work, and helping humans achieve through imagination, say hello: https://mural.co/jobs
- Faster and better core product.
You already love the simplicity and fun of working in MURAL. We want to keep that and make the platform run faster, to help you achieve your outcomes faster.
You will also get help from the platform and team to prepare, run and wrap up workshops and meetings. Our head of customer experience, Jim Kalbach, literally wrote the book on how to provide customers with real value — it's the core of what we do.
- Integrated community.
Our clients hire MURAL to drive their culture transformations, enable their teams to work more efficiently and make faster decisions, and reduce travel costs for in-person meetings. That doesn't just happen with software. Coaches, facilitators, and specialists need to collaborate with different teams and get the most out of them. Internal and external consultants are catalysts and shepherds of that change and we want to become a place where they can showcase their work, in addition to delivering great service.
We will also continue to support our education program, offering free, unlimited access to students, educators or instructors — or anyone who is preparing future generations of imagination workers.
- Double down on enterprise readiness.
We serve 40 percent of the Fortune 100, and many more great enterprises. We support thousands of members across our largest clients (tens of thousands at IBM alone!). We have been SOC2 compliant for five years, but we are just getting started!
Our approach to helping large firms will evolve with more solution selling. Our learning services will be unleashed after a period of beta testing. We will continue to focus on the most pressing needs of our enterprise customers as they continue to hire us to solve important problems.
Thank you again!
Now back to work 😜
P.S. If you're as excited about this news as we are, consider sharing it with your network 📈
Engineering Teams Are Growing At CallRail! Join Them!
💎 Are CallRail's engineering teams the right fit for you? Watch the video to the end to find out!
📼 Engineering teams at CallRail encourage collaboration, communication, and empathy. Ayana Reddick, Senior Software Engineer at CallRail, shares what they are looking for in candidates and tells you why you’ll thrive there.
📼Engineering teams want candidates who have a growth mindset, love to learn, and are really good at communication. They also value team members who are excited about solving problems and working collaboratively. If you think you have what it takes, don't hesitate to apply.
📼At CallRail, engineering teams use Ruby on Rails for their backend, Angular on their frontend, and PostgreSQL for persistent data. They also use Jira for creating and tracking tickets, GitHub for their version control, and AWS for many cloud tools. Get familiar with these resources if you want to join them!
Engineering Teams And Diversity - Company’s Culture
CallRail seeks to hire from underrepresented groups. They pride themselves in selecting from a pool of very diverse candidates. They value the work that people do over their resumes. They encourage people to take their authentic selves to work. And they strive to create a supportive and welcoming environment. For this, they have Employee Resource Groups, that give voice to, provide safe spaces for, and educate the company at large. Some of their ERGs include the Rainbow Coalition, Black and Brown, Women Circle, and more.
🧑💼 Are you interested in joining CallRail? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get to Know Ayana Reddick
If you are interested in a career at CallRail, you can connect with Ayana on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to mention this video!
More About CallRail
CallRail is here to bring complete visibility to the marketers who rely on quality inbound leads to measure success. Their customers live in a results-driven world, and giving them a clear view of their digital marketing efforts is the priority for CallRail. They see the opportunities in surfacing and connecting data from calls, forms, and beyond—helping their customers get to better outcomes.
Careers in Web Development: Which One's For You?
We all have our favorite websites– the ones we frequent, bookmark, and recommend to others. You might even enjoy some website features so much that you’ve found yourself wondering why they aren’t more popular. Or maybe you’ve experienced times where you were frustrated with a website and wished you could add features or even design your own!
If you’ve ever found yourself intrigued at the prospect of designing and developing your own websites, then a career as a web developer might be just for you!
As a web developer you would be responsible for coding, designing, optimizing, and maintaining websites. Today, there are over 1.7 billion websites in the world and, in turn, the demand for web developers is on the rise. In order to figure out what kind of web development work best suits you let’s start with an introduction to the three main roles in web development that you can choose from.
The Three Types of Web Development Jobs
Front-End Web Development: The Creative Side
Think of front-end development as the décor of a house. The color scheme, furniture, manicured lawns, and overall aesthetic. In terms of a website, front-end development is laser-focused on the appearance of a website and its presentation on different devices. If you’re considering a role in front-end development, it’s important to learn programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These three languages go hand-in-hand. HTML allows you to create user interface elements, CSS helps you with stylistic elements, and JavaScript allows you to incorporate online tools and connect your website to back-end functions.
In addition to programming skills, front-end developers need to be detail oriented, creative, willing to keep up with the latest trends in web development, cyber security conscious, and geared toward user-friendly designs. The median salary for a front-end developer can reach well into the $90,000 to $100,000 range.
Back-End Web Development: The Logical Counterpart
While a house can be beautifully decorated, it’s incomplete without a solid foundation and efficient infrastructure. Similarly, a well-designed website depends on logical and functional code to power the features of that website. Back-end web development is code-heavy and focused on the specifics of how a website works. If you enjoy the analytical challenge of creating the behind-the-scenes code that powers a website, then back-end development is for you.
Since this role is more code-heavy, it’s important that you learn numerous programming languages and understand algorithms and data structures. Some languages that are essential to back-end development are Ruby, Python, SQL, and JavaScript. Back-end developers also ensure that users can successfully retrieve and access data. This requires creating and using APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) which act as messengers that relay data related requests. Additionally, developing the code for the inner workings of a website also requires back-end developers to be conscious of the user interface features designed by front-end developers and to internally mitigate potential security risks. Due to the increased technical aspect of this position, back-end developers normally earn higher salaries than front-end developers. The average median salary for this role is around $118,000 per year.
Full-Stack Web Development: A Little Bit of Everything
A full-stack developer is essentially the Jack (or Jill)-of-all-trades in web development. Full-stack developers need to be knowledgeable about both front-end and back-end roles. This does not necessarily imply that you would need to be an expert in both roles, but you should fully understand the different applications and synergies they each imply. In order to work in this position, you will need to know the programming languages used by front-end and back-end developers. In addition to these languages, full-stack developers also specialize in databases, storage, HTTP, REST, and web architecture.
Full-stack developers are often required to act as liaisons between front-end and back-end developers. Full-stack developers need to be both problem solvers and great communicators. The end goal for a full-stack developer is to ensure that the user’s experience is seamless, both on the front-end and on the back-end. In return, you can expect to earn a median salary of $100,000 – $115,000 a year for this role.
Taking the Next Step
Web development is both in-demand and lucrative! All three roles described above contribute to specific aspects of web development and the scope of each one can be customized to the industries and positions you feel best suit you. Regardless of which role you choose, all of them need a foundation in programming.
To gain the programming skills needed in each role, you can enroll in courses or learn independently. Coding bootcamps are a great way to boost your skillset quickly and efficiently.
Click here for some of our highly rated programming bootcamp options! Make sure to check out the discounts available to PowerToFly members.
Ashlee Bobb on Taking Advantage of Nike’s Financial Literacy Program
Below is an article originally published in April 2022 on Nike’s LinkedIn. Visit Nike's company page on PowerToFly to see their open positions and learn more.
“In my early twenties, I wasn’t the best at saving money. So, when I got the job at Nike and found out a financial coach was offered to me — for free! — I thought, ‘It’s time to be an adult. I should use this service to help me learn how to buy stock, tell me what I’m doing right with my money and where I can improve.’”
That’s Ashlee Bobb, Nike Media and Influencer Relations Manager, on the free, unlimited access to financial coaching offered to every U.S. Nike employee through EY Navigate™. EY coaches are trained on Nike’s benefits and programs, so Ashlee was able to work with her coach on a budget and savings plan utilizing Nike’s 401k match and Employee Stock Purchase Plan – all in one 45-minute session. She left the meeting feeling confident about what her next paycheck would look like and how her money would work for her.
“The EY coaches are really willing to come on the journey with you,” Bobb says, adding that hers was willing to work with the fact that, hey, she’s not going to give up take out, but still wants to save for the future. “The cool thing is I can see how this financial guidance could help me down the road when I decide to get married, buy a house, have a kid. Every Nike employee should take advantage.”
Sound like the kind of company you want to be a part of? Check out our open roles on jobs.nike.com3 Ways to Lead with Purpose: Insight from Light & Wonder’s Erika Morrison
Erika Morrison is a naturally passionate and encouraging leader. From leading her family in giving back to their community, to coaching adolescents in track and cheer, to managing her team at Light & Wonder during the pandemic, her experience is rich with lessons to share with up-and-coming leaders.
“I believe in motivation, positivity, inspiring, finding the good in everything, everybody,” she says. In addition to 30+ years in the tech field, Erika is a wife, a mother of two, an avid exercise lover, and has even been a small-business owner.
We sat down with Erika to hear about the experiences that have led her to her current role as a Software Engineering Manager at Light & Wonder, as well as three practical ways to lead with purpose.
Seeing Potential in Others
Erika has always been fascinated by the world of technology. Growing up, she loved cassette tapes, DVD players, phones, and whatever other gadgets she could get her hands on. When her dad brought home a PC Junior, it didn’t take long before she started programming on it. She designed her own trivia game, using what she learned in her middle school programming classes. “I was typing the questions in and programming the answers. I had a blast writing it and showing it to my family. I remember I wanted to show everyone what I made. That was my first real desire to get into programming.”
Erika followed that instinct into college where she majored in Business Administration and minored in Computer Science. The kickstart to her tech career came when she landed a computer operating job while still in school. She comments, “I was originally applying for a secretarial position at this company. But someone looked at my studies and experience and saw potential in me. I didn't think I was ready for that because I was still so young, I was still in school.”
Erika went on to work as a programmer analyst and software engineer for multiple major Casino based companies. During this time, she even started and ran a local event-planning business, which fine-tuned her skills in successful customer service.
Then, someone saw potential in Erika again. A former coworker reached out and offered her a leadership position with the company that would become Light & Wonder. Erika took on the role of Software Engineering Manager and says “it’s been opportunity after opportunity ever since.”
Managing Through the Pandemic
Erika believes that the best way to lead a team is to really get to know its members. “A lot of leading is knowing the people on your team,” she explains. “Know what each person needs — What may work for one person may not work for someone else. We have to take a little bit of who they are into consideration when attempting to motivate, to coach, to inspire because we're not all motivated by the same things.”
Prior to the pandemic, Erika and her team worked together in the office, which gave her the opportunity to do so. Once the pandemic hit, however, she had to pivot to incorporating virtual meetings to be able to generate that intimacy. She organizes bi-monthly check-ins with her team members where she intentionally asks for their individual preferences on communication and feedback.
“I have one-on-ones with each of my staff every two weeks. We go over the issues that they've had and then any questions or concerns or anything that they want to chat about. Sometimes it's business and sometimes it's personal. But, I feel like taking that extra time out just to have those conversations is extremely important.”
She also cohosts weekly remote Friday cocktail hours to cultivate her team’s relationships and check in on their mental health. “During the Friday cocktail hours, we would relax, ask some questions, or play some games. And it was nice to have that interaction again and connect with the team. It also allowed me to check in on everyone's mental health and make sure that if there was anything that we could do, we were here.”
Inspired to Encourage the Team
Erika is inspired by the example of her past and current mentors and their vision for her professional trajectory. She acknowledges that it was thanks to key people who saw her potential that she has been able to have these experiences. Erika’s own personal drive and passion for encouraging and uplifting others have led her to love her leadership position.
As a manager, Erika seeks the highest level of respect and excellence for her customers, while creating an encouraging work environment for her team. “I want to make sure that my team has everything that they need in order to succeed and get their jobs done the way they want to. I want them to have the level of success that they want.”
Erika ensures that her team members feel their significant contribution to the company and how they are serving with purpose. “We need to feel like we are part of something significant,” she says. “That’s my goal as a leader and for my team.”
3 Ways to Lead with Purpose:
Drawing from her experiences as a tech leader, business owner, coach, and community volunteer, she gives us three practical ways to lead with purpose in whatever context.
- Understand the “why”. “It’s extremely important to know the why of your company. Once you understand it from the company’s perspective, you can communicate it clearly to the team. And once you get that down, you’re able to help build a strong path for them to follow so that both “why’s” are in alignment. Knowing the why of your individual team members allows you to better manage, assist, and build a relationship with them.”
- Build consistency. “I think it’s very important that we are consistent and don't deviate from the why and the task at hand. Building consistency with others motivates and inspires people to give their best, even when we don’t feel like it. When dealing with a change or a huge transition, it’s extremely important to stick to the why’s, the steps we’re taking, and the right attitude."
- Remain positive. “You have to find positivity in everything because no matter what, it could always be worse. We can always find the negative things, but there are also always positive things. As a leader, I need to be empathetic, kind, and encouraging no matter what. It’s extremely important that I’m positive and involve my team members in the process.”
Follow this link for more information about Light & Wonder and their current openings!