Engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder recently celebrated the completion of a device that will travel deep into space to explore one of Jupiter’s moons. The instrument, designed to gather and analyze particles without surface contact, might give scientists a glimpse into whether or not the suspected saltwater oceans on Europa.
This news begs the question: What other out-of-this-world technology can we expect to launch from the Centennial State?
While they’re more likely to stay Earth-bound, tech teams across Colorado are building their own theoretical rocketships. As SonderMind engineers overcame a time-crunched feat to configure a new provider and insurance contract-tracking system without interrupting existing services, Crafted used their product, design and engineering expertise to take on a “technical puzzle” — developing new software while simultaneously modernizing legacy applications — for a Denver-based talent management client.
Meanwhile, the product team at Bonusly is trying out different methods and frameworks as a scaling strategy and Accelo continues to strengthen the foundation of their end-to-end sales and marketing process.
Built In sat down with leaders from a range of organizations within each of the aforementioned companies to learn more about what makes their culture and services stand out in the bustling Colorado tech scene. Best of all, they’re hiring even more starry-eyed talent to see these — and other — projects to fruition.
SonderMind’s virtual behavioral health platform makes finding and accessing therapy an easier process.
What unique element of SonderMind’s culture makes it stand out from its competition?
SonderMind is excellent at communicating its mission and core values so they are entrenched in its employees. I have colleagues who say their favorite part about SonderMind is starting the day working for a company that is actively making the world a better place. I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a company where people are as invested in the mission as they are here. It’s very inspiring; it connects us and pushes us to do our best work.
I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a company where people are as invested in the mission as they are here.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
I work on the billing team, so most of our feature work is on internal tooling that facilitates our revenue cycle management process. Recently, we completed a project that allows our company to operate more efficiently as we expand into more markets throughout the country. It was a major push for our team, involving a new configuration system for tracking our insurance and provider contracts, integrating the use of GeoJSON and upgrading our payment processing integration — all while maintaining availability of the existing systems as we converted to the new code within a four-month timeframe.
What was impressive and celebratory about this project was the foresight and planning compared to past projects and how our team and additional developers came together without sacrificing quality, speed or our mental health.
Bonusly’s employee engagement platform helps companies stay aligned by improving retention, productivity and recognition.
What unique element of Bonusly’s culture makes it stand out from its competition?
Autonomy. Bonusly’s leadership works hard to empower our teams to explore where we can make the most impact for the business and test out possible solutions in a quick and effective manner. Unlike the many classic “feature factories” out there, we are focused on identifying the major problems our customers are facing, finding opportunities for growth and whittling these down to make impactful product improvements.
Bonusly’s leadership works hard to empower our teams to explore where we can make the most impact for the business and test out possible solutions.”
What’s the biggest rocket ship-fueling project that you’re currently working on, and what do you enjoy most about it?
My team was given the initiative to “expand the frontier” from a product perspective. This was intentionally large and ambiguous, but the objective was essentially to determine how we will continue to scale as a business. We used Melissa Perri’s Product Katas framework and Teresa Torres’ opportunity solution trees as strategies to understand where we could make the most impact in an iterative fashion. We’re onto the experimentation portion now, where we get to test out one of our proposed solutions. We are hoping to de-risk a possible feature by testing out a quick and dirty solution in the product. I’m excited to see what we learn and hope it brings us closer to expanding the frontier.
Crafted is a product-minded consultancy that offers engineering, design and product management knowledge to help companies — and their products — thrive.
What unique element of Crafted’s service makes it stand out from its competition?
Crafted is hitting its stride at a time when technology is only moving faster, while the supply of skilled product development resources is not keeping up with its demand. By employing experienced product managers, UI/UX designers and software engineers who are equipped with industry-leading best practices, Crafted is in a strong position for growth and continued success.
We find that more companies are reaching out to us both for the expertise we have in our three disciplines — product management, UI/UX design and software engineering — and for our expertise in teaching those disciplines to our clients. Not only do we help them ship valuable products to their customers and users, we also help level up their teams and set them up for future success.
We have been told by most of our clients that our methods of delivery, enablement, collaboration and communication are at the top of the consulting landscape. While technology is not easy, we find the difficult part is in the teams and collaboration, which is a core way that differentiates Crafted from the competition.
Our methods of delivery, enablement, collaboration and communication are at the top of the consulting landscape.”
What’s the coolest project your team worked on recently, and what was most enjoyable about it?
One of our most successful engagements was with TalentReef here in Denver, Colorado. Not only did they benefit from each of our three disciplines, but they further benefited from our enablement and hiring practices. Our design, product and engineering teams imparted valuable new tools and tactics, while iterating on and shipping three valuable increments of software and helping TalentReef hire some of their newest product development team members.
Another thing that made this project enjoyable was the mix of greenfield application development and legacy application modernization. We were able to enjoy the best parts of building new user experiences on new tech stacks and got to solve the technical puzzle of modernizing 10 years of legacy software at the same time. It was tremendously rewarding and drove very tangible business outcomes for TalentReef.
Accelo’s cloud-based client work management platform helps professional service companies streamline their operations.
What unique element of Accelo’s service makes it stand out from its competition?
We truly care about the professional services industry. Many of us have first-hand experience working within these businesses, and some of us were even Accelo clients before joining the team. That’s how strongly we believe in the platform and how transformative it can be.
Our clients say all the time that our biggest winning edge is the care we have for them and their businesses. We care about helping them become more efficient and not miss any billable hours. We care about them not having to worry about the health of their business every quarter. We care about them continuing to run a successful business and having all the growth management tools they need at their fingertips. We aren’t just selling someone a one-trick pony that only looks good from the outside — we are building relationships, and that will ultimately win in this competitive market.
We aren’t just selling someone a one-trick pony that only looks good from the outside — we are building relationships.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
Elevating our end-to-end marketing and sales efficiency. As the company grows at an incredible rate, we need to continuously look at how we do business and manage our day-to-day connections with prospects and clients, thinking through everything from the ads we run to how we conduct our sales meetings and every touchpoint thereafter.
We want to ensure that it’s not only a seamless and consistent experience for our clients, but that we are operating as efficiently as possible. I have seen throughout my career that the key to scalability is building a solid foundation on which the company can successfully grow.
