Interview With Keren Halperin, Feedvisor’s VP People & HR

We recently sat down with Keren Halperin, Feedvisor’s VP people & HR, to talk about Feedvisor’s rapid growth, global culture, and what it takes to succeed at the company.

How would you summarize Feedvisor’s growth this year? Which teams are currently hiring?

This has been a huge year for Feedvisor. In 2017, we expanded to the US, growing from a team of three in NYC and Seattle to a team of 30. We moved our headquarters from Tel Aviv to NYC, and our CEO, Victor Rosenman, moved there as well. Our heads of sales, marketing, and business development are in New York, and our chief customer officer is moving there too. The move will help us grow closer to our customers and strengthen our US presence. We’re staying focused on growing our customer-facing teams and hiring for many positions in marketing, sales, and customer success.

We’re also strengthening the company’s focus on data and machine learning so our technology can be even more cutting-edge, faster, and more competitive. That means we’re hiring all across our tech teams: research, algorithms, and development team leaders.

As a job seeker, why should I apply to Feedvisor?

We’re a fast-growing company in a red-hot space. We help businesses – small and large – succeed in the fast-moving, fast-growing eCommerce world.

Our company has a real choose-your-own-adventure type of culture. You can come, apply yourself, and define your role and impact. The roles are very broad and there’s a lot of white space and flexibility in structure. We keep changing and morphing. People love growing with our company, flexing their muscles, and learning something new every day.  

What does it take to succeed at Feedvisor?

The people who do best are experts in their field, and are also curious to explore domains other than their own. As a company, we believe in data and knowledge and are looking for people with broad horizons. For example, even if someone’s expertise is not on the technical side, they should still be able to contribute to technical conversations.

We love people who are data-driven in their decision making, who get to the truth through data collection and analysis, and not just gut feelings. We like our Feedvisors to be end-to-end owners who don’t need to be micromanaged. We love our people to take a task, break it apart, and conquer it. We look for people who don’t need too much guidance, can build strategies, and take them all the way. Resourcefulness and positive attitude are keys.

As a rapidly growing company, we love people who are comfortable with ambiguity. As we grow, things change rapidly and sometimes there’s a temporary information vacuum. That might be perceived as lack of control, but it’s all part of the growth process. So we’re looking for people who can be productive in such an environment and identify the opportunity for growth.

And of course, people must naturally love to cooperate and collaborate. We pride ourselves on the fact that we are all true team players.

What is unique about Feedvisor’s culture?

Our company is more diverse than the typical tech company, both in Israel and in the US. We believe in diversity of people that leads to diversity of thoughts and ideas, fosters innovation, and improves our decision-making abilities. For example, our development team is 30% female. We also have a lot of people with families, and quite a bit of age diversity, as well, with people in their 20s through their 50s. We hire the best and the brightest in our industry, and the diversity happened naturally. We also love that almost half of new Feedvisors came through our Employee Referral Program, brought in by a friend.

What are some of the challenges and lessons from working with global offices?

I don’t know if we know yet! It’s all new and we’re in the midst of it. The big challenge was hiring good people, and fortunately, we were able to do that. The next one was connecting the two offices: working on our communication and bridging the cultural differences. Constant communication, availability, and sharing are what’s most important.. We work hard to be available and responsive to each other, and we don’t shy away from transparency: We encourage sharing goals, progress, expectations, and status updates.

Open communication is really the key, hearing everyone out, explaining decisions, and assuming positive intent. Everyone wants to succeed together. Now that we’re closer to customers, we can visit them more often, and we feel closer literally and figuratively. We learn faster, and customers share more easily.

What advice would you give to someone starting at Feedvisor?

Don’t be afraid to learn on the go and don’t feel uncomfortable when you don’t know everything at the beginning. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and express your opinion even if it’s not mainstream.

Don’t be afraid of conflicts and voicing your concerns. No matter your position, try to understand how it is connected to the challenges the company is trying to solve. Try to understand how your day-to-day can improve the company as a whole. Identify the people who can help you be successful, and create relationships with them.

At Feedvisor we’re an optimistic crew — maintaining a positive outlook, a problem solving mindset, and a “can do” attitude help us do our jobs better, and have fun along the way.