Category: Hometap Happenings

Maxine, better known as “Max” here at Hometap, handles all things IT for the company — a role that comes with its fair share of challenges in a fully remote work environment.

CAREER HISTORY / BACKGROUND

Q1: You went to college for Japanese Studies and English. What led you to pursue a career in IT?

When I decided that staying in Japan wasn’t for me, I needed a new career path. I’ve been very fortunate to have friends in tech that allowed me to get my foot in the door at a startup. I knew that I liked helping people, and technology was something that came naturally enough to me that I figured I could make a career out of it.

Q2: You actually spent a semester studying abroad in Japan. What kind of impact did that make on you?

I think it’s really important to experience other places and people as much as you can. I’m from a very small town, and being able to travel alone and meet all kinds of new people really opened up my world view.

Q3: What’s the biggest learning from a past position that you find yourself applying at Hometap?

Everyone comes to the table with different experiences and expertise, and it’s important to remember! People can surprise you with what they know, and it’s important to always be learning whenever you can.

Q4: What’s the biggest challenge you face as an IT Engineer?

Remote working has really changed the way I work as an IT Engineer. Technology can be frustrating, and not being able to be hands on with the hardware can sometimes lead to issues taking longer to fix than they would if we were in person. The challenge has been finding innovative ways to resolve issues quickly remotely!

Q5: What’s the most rewarding part of the role?

I honestly love helping folks. When you’re trying to do your job and your tech isn’t working, it’s incredibly frustrating. I like being able to get folks back on their feet and knowing I’m helping keep the people who keep the company going, well…going!

Q6: What’s the best advice that you’ve received during your career?

It seems a bit silly, but the best advice I’ve gotten has always been that confidence and belief in yourself really do matter. I know that a lot of women in tech can relate to feelings of imposter syndrome, and I’ve been lucky to have a lot of female mentors show me just how much I can achieve if I don’t let myself get stuck in my own head!

AT HOMETAP

Q7: What led you to Hometap and appealed to you about your initial role here and the company?

An old coworker reached out to me that Hometap was hiring in IT. Initially, I wasn’t really looking for a new job, but the prospect of being able to build something here as the first IT hire was too enticing. That, on top of Hometap’s mission, convinced me it would be a good move for me.

Q8: What’s something you wish members of other teams within Hometap understood about IT or the work that you do specifically?

I wish more folks knew about the importance of information security, but we’re working on that right now! It’s sort of a cross function of IT and incredibly important when you work with the kinds of documents we do here at Hometap.

Q9: If you could trade jobs with anyone else at Hometap for a week, what position would it be?

I’m not sure if I could manage it for a whole week but I would love to hop into our Application Specialist team and help out with getting everything together for homeowner Investments. I know those folks work super hard and have to work through some pretty unique problems to make things run smoothly.

Q10: What’s one quality someone needs to be successful at Hometap?

You’re going to be successful here if you’re the kind of person who likes to ask questions! We are very collaborative and it’s important that you are investigative and want to find ways to make our processes better!

OFFICE CULTURE

Q11: What qualities do you look for in a company’s office culture?

I am always looking for a place where I can engage and be engaged. If I put in energy to a culture, I want that energy to be returned and I’ve found that everyone at Hometap is just as excited as I am to participate.

Q12: You’ve been with Hometap for almost a year now. What’s one word you would use to describe the culture here so far?

Collaborative. It’s a bit cliche but I think you can ask anyone here and they’d say something similar, the people are what make Hometap so special. We have such a good group of people here dedicated to being good owners and neighbors. Whether it’s for work or personal reasons, we all work together and support one another and it’s really nice to see.

Q13: What are the best and worst parts of working from home?

The best part of working from home is getting back the time I spent commuting. I feel like I have a much better work/life balance now that I can work from home. Of course, the drawback to that is not being able to engage with my coworkers in the same way you can in an office. The worst part is trying to solve a sticky IT issue that I know would be a lot easier to fix in person!

We’re hiring! Learn more about the open career opportunities at Hometap!

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As our first L&D Manager, Alex is using his background in the field to help build programs that hone Hometappers’ professional skills and create a culture of learning.

Q1: You studied accounting and finance in college. What led you to the L&D space?

My previous company encouraged innovative and new ideas often. I noticed a gap in our training and development programming and put together a business plan to fill it. This was endorsed by the senior leadership, and with a lot of support, I was able to lean into the L&D industry and build many programs.

Q2: Do you find yourself applying any skills or learnings from your past positions at Hometap?

Every day! Building relationships is so important, and I try to utilize my communication skills to get to know other Hometappers. The most important skill I have been able to bring to Hometap is Emotional Intelligence: working with those around, understanding how I feel, and how it impacts others.

Q3: What’s the biggest challenge you face as Learning & Development Manager?

Helping others understand the importance of taking time out of the business to work on yourself has long term benefits! It’s hard when we are all “busy” to step away and spend time developing, but it ALWAYS works out for your benefit.

Q4: What’s the most rewarding part of the role?

Seeing behavior change. Watching someone go through a learning experience and come out better equipped to tackle a situation.

Q5: How do you stay apprised of the most current news in the industry? What are you reading, listening to, or watching?

Gartner, LinkedIn, Association of Talent Development, and peers across the industry!

Q6: What’s the best advice that you’ve received during your career?

“There is no shade in the spotlight.” Be accountable and take ownership of what is yours and the decisions you make.

AT HOMETAP

Q7: What led you to Hometap and appealed to you about your initial role here and the company?

The culture, the business concept, and the leadership. I wanted to be a part of something exciting and something bigger than myself, and that feeling comes in buckets here at Hometap.

Q8: As Hometap’s first Learning & Development Manager, what is your biggest priority as you shape the role?

Building a culture of learning. Not making learning an agenda item, but being the ante to lead.

Q9: What’s something you wish members of other teams within Hometap understood about L&D or the work that you do specifically?

L&D isn’t just being in a classroom. In fact, the most impactful learning happens on the job in experiential training. So, don’t think L&D means school!

Q10: If you could trade jobs with anyone else at Hometap for a week, what position would it be?

I’d love to see what Andrew Vassallo does working with capital and investments for Hometap.

Q11: What’s one quality someone needs to be successful at Hometap?

Vulnerability.

OFFICE CULTURE

Q12: What qualities do you look for in a company’s office culture?

Transparency, diversity, and ownership.

Q13: You’ve been with Hometap for a few months now. What’s one word you would use to describe the culture here so far?

Community.

Q14: What are the best and worst parts of working from home?

The isolation! I am an extroverted person, so the lack of in-person collaboration isn’t my favorite. I do love being able to pick up and drop off my daughter to school and to work outside when the sun is shining!

We’re hiring! Learn more about the open career opportunities at Hometap!

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Rachel heads up Hometap’s marketing team, managing all programs and initiatives to increase awareness and spread the word about our product among homeowners.

Q1: You have experience working for global corporations and joined Hometap at the very early-startup stage. What attracted you to Hometap? 

I’ve actually worked for smaller, early stage companies the majority of my career, and have had a passion for startups ever since attending Babson’s MBA program, which is centered primarily around entrepreneurship. 

Prior to joining Hometap, I was working at Ingenico Group, which is a global, multi-billion dollar payments company based in Paris, France. I ended up there because I was working for a mobile point of sale (mPOS) startup company in Boston called ROAM, which ended up getting acquired by Ingenico a couple of years after I joined. I was then given the opportunity to build a new marketing team from the ground up for the Ingenico North America Region, while helping to reposition the company from a hardware-only payment terminal manufacturer to an omni-channel payment solution provider. So although I was working for a large, global company, in many ways, a lot of the work I was tasked with was very similar to that of working at a startup. 

Eventually, I wanted to get back to working at a true startup, while staying in the fintech industry. I stumbled upon Hometap, and was inspired by the company’s mission, and thought its home equity investment product was incredibly innovative and like nothing I had ever heard of before. As a homeowner myself, Hometap’s value proposition also really resonated with me. But what really sealed the deal was the company’s unbelievably impressive leadership team. I love being surrounded by really smart people who I can bounce ideas off of and continue to learn from, and I knew if I came to Hometap, I’d have the opportunity to grow. 

Q2: You’ve previously worked in various parts of the technology world, both in the payment solutions and mobile apps space. Are there any lessons or skills you’ve learned at previous companies that you find yourself applying at Hometap?

Every company I’ve worked at has offered unique products or services that are very different from the next. A lot of my career has been in the fintech industry, and although the companies have each been very different, they’ve all taught me the importance of really understanding the customer, what their pain points are, and how your product/services can help them overcome these challenges or achieve their goals. And whether that’s marketing a mobile point of sale solution to a retailer or marketing a home equity investment product to a consumer — it’s all about understanding your audience, where and how to reach them, and what messages will resonate with them. It’s also important to not be afraid to think outside the box and get creative in order to differentiate from the competition. Although the marketing channels I’ve used to reach my customers have not always been exactly the same — especially when going from B2B to B2C — I’ve found that the same general principles hold true. 

Q3: What’s the biggest challenge you face as Head of Marketing?

I think the biggest challenge is finding the right balance between driving the current programs and initiatives that are needed to ensure we’re hitting our quarterly goals and KPIs, while also pulling my head up to think about long-term strategy: i.e. what’s going to help us build and evolve our brand? How can we continue to differentiate ourselves in an increasingly competitive market and secure our spot as the category leader? What are some of the new channels or higher funnel campaigns we should be thinking about that may not lead to immediate conversions but are more of a “long game”? 

We have aggressive growth goals at Hometap, so it’s incredibly important that we continue to hit our weekly/monthly/quarterly targets, but if I’m not thinking further out, we’ll end up falling behind. Luckily, I have an incredibly talented team who I can trust to execute on all of our current initiatives, which has allowed me to spend more time thinking about what comes next. 

Q4: What’s the most rewarding part of the role? 

I’d say it’s a toss up between seeing how far my team has come/how much each individual has grown since joining Hometap and seeing how Hometap is truly making a positive impact on so many homeowners’ lives. 

The manager/leader in me loves mentoring each of the members of my team, pushing them to think about something in a different way or to take ownership of a project that may be outside their comfort zone all the way from conception through completion. Not every idea is a homerun, and there will of course always be times when a campaign or program fails, but it’s really rewarding to see each member of my team learn and grow from these experiences…and even more rewarding when something they’ve worked on meets or exceeds expected results. 

At the same time, the growth we’ve had has allowed us to help so many homeowners achieve their goals and improve their financing situations. Reading the hundreds of Trustpilot reviews talking about the incredible experiences homeowners have had with our company and how receiving a Home Equity Investment from us has changed their lives has made this the most rewarding job I’ve ever had. 

Q5: How do you stay apprised of the most current practices in marketing? What are you reading, listening to, or watching?

I’ve always loved HubSpot’s content and use them as a regular resource for best practices across all functional areas of marketing, and especially content marketing. I subscribe to a number of fintech marketing blogs/newsletters; the Fintech Marketing Hub is one. I really enjoy Backlinko’s newsletter and content on SEO. And I keep a very close eye on many of the fintech companies that I think are doing a great job from a brand/content/social media/demand generation perspective. I’m constantly screenshotting different social posts or digital ads from many of these brands and sending them to my team as inspiration. I’m sure it drives them nuts but I just can’t help myself.  

Q6: What’s the best advice — marketing-specific or not — that you’ve received during your career?

“Producing high quality work, and consistently delivering results is not always enough to be successful in marketing. You need to make sure people understand all of the work that goes into the work you’re doing and what happens behind the scenes.” 

It’s never really come naturally to me to talk about all the great work that my team or I have produced. And early on in my career, I took sort of a “head-down” approach, thinking that if I just consistently delivered high quality work, the results would speak for themselves. This strategy worked fine up to a certain point, but I’ve found that as I’ve taken on more leadership roles, it’s critically important that other departments and leaders throughout the organization understand the importance of marketing and all the work that goes into the millions of campaigns and initiatives we’re juggling that ultimately drive revenue for the business. Not only does this ensure my team gets the credit and recognition they deserve, but it also helps with securing the budgets and resources needed to continue to meet/exceed our goals. 

AT HOMETAP 

Q7: You oversee so many projects happening simultaneously (and for the time being, remotely). How do you stay on top of everything? 

I’m a pretty organized person by nature, but I have a few tactics that seem to work well for me: 

• I start each week with a list of to-dos, which are my top priorities for the week. I like to write these down in a notebook that I always have in front of me. There’s something so satisfying about crossing things off that list with a pen. 
• I have my team use Monday.com to manage projects and tasks. This is especially useful for projects that involve multiple people or teams, which the majority of the things we work on do. 
• I have weekly one-on-ones with each member of my team, where we use running agendas in Google Docs. This allows me to stay in the loop on all of the projects that are in play, and helps ensure things are moving forward and on schedule. 

Q8: What are the top qualities you look for when hiring a new member of the marketing team?

Having the necessary skills/experience for the specific position is obviously important. But I think the one quality I look for, no matter what role I’m hiring for, is natural curiosity. Even if a person has what looks like the “perfect” background or experience on paper, if I talk to them and don’t get the sense that they’re a naturally curious person with a desire to learn and hunger to grow, then I won’t hire them. I’d much rather hire a person with less experience, but who comes to the table with lots of insightful questions or brings up an interesting angle or idea during an interview that I hadn’t yet thought about. These are the people that will take the time to really dig in, roll up their sleeves, quickly get up to speed, and start adding immediate value to the team. 

Q9: Do you have a go-to interview question? What is it? 

Hmmm…nothing super interesting or unique. I always ask people to simply tell me their story and call out any transferable experiences to this role. This helps me understand how well they can “market” themselves, and also helps me identify how much research they’ve actually done about the company and position before talking to me. I also make sure I leave plenty of time for them to ask questions — one of the ways I test their level of ‘natural curiosity’. 

Q10: If you could trade jobs with anyone else at Hometap for a week, what position would it be? 

I think it would be Gregg Damiano, Director of Channel Sales. I’ve helped build partner programs at previous companies, and have been pretty involved in helping to lay the foundation for Hometap’s existing partner strategy (since ownership of this program used to sit within Marketing), and I just find the partner channel really interesting. I think it’s a huge opportunity for Hometap and there are so many directions in which we can take this, so I think it would be fun to dedicate an entire week to talking with partners, gaining new insights, and coming up with new creative ideas to help drive our partner program forward. 

Q11: What’s one quality someone needs to be successful at Hometap? 

Communication. There are so many cross-functional initiatives happening at all times, so it’s really important to be able to effectively communicate with other people/teams in order to drive projects forward and ensure things don’t get lost in translation. 

OFFICE CULTURE

Q12: What qualities do you look for in a company’s office culture? 

Transparency, trust, flexibility, fun (but not forced fun…I HATE this!) 

Q13: You’ve been with Hometap for almost three years now. What’s one word you would use to describe the culture here?

Collaborative.

Q14: What are the best and worst parts of working from home? 

Best: Having a more flexible schedule. I still have all of my meetings during normal work hours, but if I need to run an errand during the day or take care of my kids if they’re home sick from school, I can more easily do that. And if doing these things impacts the amount of work I can get done on that day, I can finish up later that night. 

Worst: Rarely leaving my home. Once I get in the zone, it’s often really hard for me to remember to take a break or go for a walk and get some fresh air. I often go the entire day without ever stepping outside. I’m definitely more productive at home, but it’s not always great for my mental or physical health. 

As Vice President of Sales, Dan oversees Hometap’s team of Investment Managers and makes sure they have all the skills, tools, and motivation they need to guide our homeowners through the Investment process.

 

Q1: You have a degree in Sports Entertainment and Event Management, and worked in events before moving into sales. Are there any skills that you developed during that time that have translated across industries? 

Events are all about creating an experience and being willing to do whatever it takes to deliver for your attendees.  I learned the importance of providing great customer service — and built up a strong tolerance to working long hours on my feet.

Q2: What’s the biggest challenge you face as VP of Sales?

The biggest challenge as VP of Sales is ensuring clear alignment across the organization. It’s even more of a challenge with everyone working remotely, so many team members coming onboard each month, and new initiatives surfacing each week.

Prioritizing follow-up meetings, continuously setting clear goals and expectations, and making sure the team is meeting frequently to share feedback on what’s working and the challenges we’re facing is key to overcoming these challenges. 

Q3: What’s the most rewarding part of the role? 

The most rewarding part of the role is reading homeowner reviews that highlight our easy and efficient process, our world-class customer experience, and the positive impact we are making in homeowners’ lives. 

Q4: How do you stay apprised of the most current practices in sales and/or fintech? What are you reading to, listening to, or watching?

I have a strong network of sales leaders that I stay really connected to. We are always sharing challenges we’re facing and best practices we use to handle them, along with ideas, feedback on new product implementations, and effective leadership strategies. 

I tend to listen to more podcasts and audiobooks these days. I typically gravitate towards leadership, team building, and sales strategy content. Simon Senik, GaryV, and Jeffery Hoffman are my favorite content creators to listen to. 

Q5: Growing up, I wanted to be a _______.

Sports Agent. This always seemed like such a fun and glamorous career. Having a passion for sports and watching sports movies as a kid like Jerry Maguire, the agent was always portrayed as this flashy, confident person who plays a key role in making things happen for professional athletes. As a kid, I was a bit on the smaller side and pretty self aware. So I figured that if I was not going to make it as a professional athlete, this was the next best thing

AT HOMETAP 

Q6: You’ve managed to not only maintain, but grow a tight-knit team of wildly passionate Investment Managers that are in constant contact and always rooting for each other. What’s your secret? 

It all starts with hiring the right people and setting clear expectations on what success looks like. We have a tremendous team of talented, hardworking, and loyal individuals. Our hiring strategy is focused more on finding strong character and specific attributes versus hiring for any specific set of skills. I believe it is important to consistently communicate a clear vision of where we are going, in order to create the alignment needed to get there.

We empower our team to be resourceful and to create solutions. We all trust each other to deliver on our mission each and every day. Everyone is willing to help out and root for one another because there is a strong belief that if the situation was reversed, they would do the same for them. 

Q7: What are the top qualities you look for when hiring an Investment Manager? 

Motivated, curious, coachable, and resourceful are the qualities I look for when hiring an Investment Manager. We believe in our sales training and process and we have a very clear and important mission at Hometap. This allows us to focus all our energy on identifying these qualities and setting everyone up for success.

Q8: Do you have a go-to interview question? What is it? 

I have two interview questions I always like to ask: (1) What is going to separate you from everyone else? and (2) Who would win in a fight, an alligator or a bear? There are specific attributes we look for when hiring sales talent. These questions are really helpful to identify key attributes that make up a successful sales person at Hometap.

The candidate’s answer to the first question tells me how confident they are and how aware they are of their strengths and weaknesses. Their answer to the second question tells me how curious they are in any given situation. There is no right or wrong answer to who will win in a fight, but what I’m looking for is the curiosity that is displayed as they think critically about their response. 

Q9: If you could trade jobs with anyone else at Hometap for a week, what position would it be? 

It would have to be with one of our Application Specialists. It’s such a critical role in the Investment process. As an Application Specialist, you get a chance to influence the sales process and customer experience, all from behind the scenes. I believe it would be a great learning experience for me and provide me with greater perspective on how to be a better teammate. 

Q10: What’s one quality someone needs to be successful at Hometap? 

Empathy. Everyone at Hometap is extremely passionate about our mission to make homeownership less stressful. We all have ambitious goals for ourselves and our teams, and work really hard to accomplish them. Empathy is essential for success at Hometap because it allows you to really listen with the intent to understand the situation and care deeply about the positive or negative impacts from someone else’s perspective. 

Q11: How do you stay in tune with the needs of our homeowners when you’re not in a position where you’re speaking with them daily? 

I’m always in discovery mode with my team to try and stay in tune with the needs of our homeowners. I am obsessed with listening to homeowner calls, and I’m known to guide a couple homeowners through the Investment process every couple months. This helps me stay sharp on the process and to understand how we can improve firsthand. I believe this makes me a better coach and a better business champion for our Product team as well. 

OFFICE CULTURE

Q12: What qualities do you look for in a company’s office culture? 

I like to feel the energy when I walk in the office. If it’s not there, I’ll make it a priority to create it. I enjoy seeing team members collaborating with each other and creating solutions together. 

Q13: How has shifting to a remote environment changed the dynamics of your team? 

It has completely changed since shifting to remote. We’re all spread out now, so we had to create new ways to share, learn, and work together. We learned how to onboard new team members in a remote environment and we have worked really hard to try and re-create the office culture through Zoom, Slack, and other systems. 

Q14: What are the best and worst parts of working from home? 

The best part is avoiding the commute and parking downtown. This allows me to spend more time with my family than I would if we were in the office. The worst part of working from home is not being around the team and missing out on all the relationship building and organic learning you get from being in the office. 

Q15: What are you most looking forward to about eventually returning to the office?

I’m most looking forward to designing and building out the sales floor. We’ve significantly grown our sales team since we transitioned to being remote in early 2020. It will be exciting to design the layout and theme to foster a world-class customer experience, strong collaboration, and a commitment to our mission. 

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As Chief Financial Officer, Tom handles all things fiscal for Hometap, including budgeting, forecasting, and business planning. 

CAREER HISTORY / FINANCE BACKGROUND 

Q1: Was there ever a point (either in your education or in your early career) when you considered another career path that wasn’t in finance? 

Well, a lot of my past experience hasn’t been in finance directly — I had general management roles at Fidelity, and spent six years at the Boston Consulting Group as a strategy and operations consultant. But I’ve always been a numbers geek (as a preschooler, I’d keep a running tab of the grocery bill as my mom made her way through the aisles), and have approached every role with a goal of improving key performance drivers.  

Q2: General Electric and Fidelity Investments are big names with big teams — what made you decide to bring your talents to a startup like Hometap? 

In a word, impact!  I went from BCG to Fidelity to have more of a sense of ownership, and this has been another step along that path. We move thoughtfully but fast, and it’s fun to see the results of your work on an ongoing and near real-time basis.  Luckily, I got reconnected with Jeff Glass a couple of years ago and happened to leave Fidelity at the same time Jeff was looking for a CFO.

Q3: What’s the biggest challenge you face as CFO at Hometap? 

Would be great to have a few more hours in each day! We have a big opportunity ahead of us to help homeowners and to grow an important company, so there’s always more to do than there is time.   

Q4: How do you measure the success of your team? 

There are three distinct parts of the CFO team: Finance, Data Science/Data Engineering, and Financial Product.  We have different quantitative metrics to gauge success in each, and the common denominator across all of them is Executing with Intention — are we getting the work done that can have the most positive impact on Hometap’s mission?

Q5: You took a break from finance for two years to fulfill a personal goal of full-time community service. What was that like? 

It was awesome — working with kids was wonderful and the school staff was a great team.  The school’s model focused on keeping the kids on task and out of trouble — classes from 8am to 2:30pm, sports and activities from 2:30 to 5, then back to school from 6 to 8 for homework.  So many great people: the kids, my colleagues, and the parents looking to get their kids to a better place. More than a few people thought I was crazy for leaving a successful career at GE for that, but it was such a worthwhile experience. One of the kids I taught is now principal of the school. Most importantly, I met my wife during that time.  

Q6: How did you decide on teaching and coaching at a tuition-free prep school?  What did you take away from that experience? 

I had figured out that I didn’t want to stay on the fast track at GE, and since college, I had thoughts of doing something service-oriented. I explored a few volunteer opportunities — another option I had was to teach business in Belize! — but decided on Nativity Prep after visiting the school. The takeaway? There are so many kids with talent who just need the right situation and support.

Q7: How do you stay apprised of all of the things you need to be aware of in this role (real estate, financial trends, etc.) 

Read, read, read, and follow the numbers — there’s a lot of great information out there about residential real estate, both quantitative and qualitative. I try to devote a little time each day to staying current. Also, the best consultants I worked with were those who had a knack for asking three more relevant questions in any given conversation.  I try to do that, even when I’m reading; what else should I know about given what I’m seeing here?

Q8: What’s something you wish members of other teams within Hometap understood about the finance team and/or the work that you do? 

This applies to more than just my team — there’s a lot that happens in the day-to-day across Hometap that is easy to miss because it’s done right. A former colleague used to call those activities “breathing” — you don’t really pay much attention to others doing it, but it’s important! Getting investors and lenders information they need, staying ahead of tax issues with a multi-state workforce, data wrangling to support future analysis — there’s not a lot of glory in it, but the team does a great job in getting the day-to-day right.  

At Hometap 

Q9: What are the qualities you’re looking for when recruiting members of your team? 

My parents both emigrated from Italy and my Dad put two kids through college by working as a waiter in New York City. His life showed me the importance of hard work and valuing relationships. Those two qualities are table stakes for me.  The ability to work with others is so important — there are very few roles in any company that create value without working across functional lines.  Another is the ability to recognize and focus on what’s important — there’s always more that can be done than there is time. 

Q10: Do you have a go-to interview question (when interviewing any role)? What is it? 

What do you consider success in your role? It gives me a sense of what candidates see as important and how they spend their time and frame their work to get to that. Another I stole from a b-school classmate: what have you learned this week? Business, technology, society — it’s all moving fast and successful people tend to have a way of learning relevant things all the time.   

Q11: If you could trade jobs with anyone else at Hometap for a week, what position would it be? 

Oooh, so many opportunities! If I had to pick one, I’d swap with one of the Investment Managers to get a frontline view of what our homeowners are saying when they come to our door.  

Q13: What’s one quality someone needs to be successful at Hometap? 

I could cheat by saying “follow Hometap’s values”, but if you really want to boil it down to one quality, I’d say accountability — people who are focused on driving to results that further Hometap’s mission while being good neighbors to their colleagues who are looking to do the same.  

Office Culture

Q14: What qualities do you look for in a company’s office culture? 

I’ve enjoyed work most when colleagues are all bought into the organization’s mission, we all work hard to get results, and we enjoy each other’s company.  Hometap hits on all three (even more so when we’re in the office!).  

Q15: What has been your best contribution to the happiness team? 

Amazon gift cards for contest winners!  Also, emphasizing in-person events when we can.  

Q16: What are the best and worst parts of working from home? 

Best part: more time seeing my family. Even if we’re all busy doing different things, we’re eating dinner together most days and I get the occasional drive-by to my home office from one of my kids. It’s also nice to have the extra time from not commuting — picking up my running again in advance of my first marathon in three years in September.

Worst part: I miss other people! Even for an introvert, there’s a limit to how much alone time is valuable, and co-location drives creativity and camaraderie in a way Zoom just doesn’t.

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