On a balmy August day in 1893, Colorado Native Frank Wisner gazed at Cow Mountain’s snow-capped peak and imagined scoops of ice cream floating in a crisp beverage. The next day, he combined ice cream with root beer — creating the iconic root beer float.
Colorado’s inventive spirit doesn't stop there. Alongside quirky creations like Crocs, Coloradans have spearheaded notable technological breakthroughs, including advancements in 3D printing and the development of TiVo technology, thanks to the city’s robust community of over 40,000 engineers and their visionary leaders.
Among Colorado’s innovators is Contentful VP of Engineering Jeremy Goldsmith, who’s remained a stalwart in the local industry for 24 years.
Built In caught up with Goldsmith to learn his origin story, leadership approach and the exciting projects his team will tackle in the coming months.
Contentful allows users to update the content of their website, a mobile app or any other platform that displays content.
Tell us about yourself. What’s your professional background, and why were you brought on to lead this team?
I’m a startup person. I’ve spent most of my 24-year career working at a few startups as an engineer and engineering leader and appreciate the creativity, camaraderie and opportunity for impact that environment can bring. I’ve worked at both early- and later-stage companies, big and small, and I’ve learned to apply a startup mindset no matter the size or stage. That means being entrepreneurial, having a sense of urgency, seeking big impact and valuing progress over perfection.
Second, I’m a builder. I love building products that meaningfully solve customer problems. I l enjoy building a business and figuring out how to align product and technical goals with business goals to drive growth. I appreciate building high-performing teams, assembling a collection of people and helping them realize their individual and collective potential.
I joined Contentful in 2022 as the first engineering leader in North America, to establish a product development presence in the United States. We have a sizable product development team in Europe, centered in Berlin, and now we’re expanding to Denver. I’m excited to build and lead new teams and initiatives as we grow into a global organization.
How would you describe your approach to leadership, and how do you plan on building team culture?
I take a servant leadership approach, where I look for ways to help those I’m leading be empowered and successful. I try to inform, guide and coach people, and create the conditions where people feel motivated and have a high degree of ownership over their work and alignment with the organization.
I get the most satisfaction as a leader when people and teams realize their inner potential and pursue ambitious goals. When my team wins, I win. To create this culture, one must be intentional.
GOLDSMITH’S ADVICE FOR LEADING A SUCCESSFUL TEAM
- Be clear on your values. “Define your values as a leader and establish the environment you aim to create.”
- Hire great people. “Maintain high standards when hiring, take a hands-on approach to the hiring process, and ensure alignment with managers and recruiters.”
- Set clear expectations and manage actively. “Communicate clear expectations to your team, provide timely feedback on performance, and highlight model behaviors.”
- Connect strategy to daily work. “Spend time helping your team understand the overall strategy, clarify desired outcomes, and ensure team members can relate their day-to-day tasks to the broader goals.”
What project are you most excited to tackle, and what impact will it have on your company?
I’m especially excited about the new products that we’re building. Over the past year, I’ve helped lead an initiative to build and launch a new product called Contentful Studio, which we’re now introducing to our customers and the market.
Contentful Studio is the beginning of a suite of new product capabilities that we plan to build as we expand our reach from a developer-driven content management platform to address the needs of the broader digital team of developers, designers, content editors and marketers. We are introducing the idea of structured creativity, where digital team members can create, manipulate and publish digital experiences that are on-brand and aligned with their company’s defined design systems and component libraries.
Building and launching new products is the most challenging type of product development. It’s hard to get right, but I love the challenge, creativity and customer-centric thinking that’s required. When you get it right and customers are wowed, it’s so gratifying. I’m excited to continue to build and launch new products at Contentful to fuel our next stages of growth.
