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Every company has its own story of how it came together to form one perfect working machine; ours is no different. We are initially a brainchild of our two strong founders - Shruti Ghatge and Rahil Shah and came into being in 2018 with the idea of creating the world’s first IT sales acceleration platform. 

Today, we are proud that we have evolved into much more than that and we are now the enablers of the MSP channel community as we have begun a smart selling revolution for them. But this goal wouldn’t have been possible without our people who fit in like Lego blocks in our firm foundation. Zomentum’s engineering team, for example, is one such unique and a seasoned squad that has been creating ripples from the very beginning. 

Today we’re going to introduce you to some of our engineering team’s key contributors and let them paint a picture of their experience in this company.

What can you say about the culture which fuels the engineering team?

It’s open and welcoming; there is no hierarchy at all. We stick to each other, and we always lend a helping hand. Our team, in general, is youthful and vibrant, and we do not scare away from experimenting. It’s easy to talk to anyone regarding any queries or doubts one may have. We do our best to bring everybody up to speed on any work-related issues. Our work hours are flexible, and this has been a boon especially after the COVID19 situation. 

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What are some of the critical tech stack elements which make Zomentum stand out?

Some of them are SCALA on the back end, Mongo DB, and Lambda. We use serverless technology a lot which is cutting-edge.

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Did you have any opportunities to learn here, on-job?

Yes, I did. At Zomentum, people get to do what they want instead of being bound to a specific routine. We expect results-driven growth from every engineer here, and for that, we must grow as a professional. We have set aside a learning budget for our team; we take upskilling initiatives, courses on DIFFY, API regression, etc. Overall, we are curious to learn, and we have a fast-changing dynamic that needs to reinvent itself.

What is the primordial goal for the engineering team here?

Engineering is critical for Zomentum as they hold the keys to launching new models and stabilize the existing ones. We are the primary driver of product stability and robustness.

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How does the team keep their thoughts or ideas in line to work towards this goal, as mentioned above?

We divide ourselves into small groups of four or five. Every feature of Zomentum is like that of a micro startup. It’s relatively easy to move from one micro startup to the next for us. Every day we apply the same concept and begin at 11 am with a team call in which Nagesh cracks jokes at the beginning to lighten everyone. It’s a treat for early joiners in the call to hear him banter for 2-3 minutes, after which we plan, discuss progress, roadblocks, and exchange information in the next 15 minutes. 

Are there any fun activities that you indulge in as a team after days of hard work coming to fruition?

We go for team lunches or dinners, play chess and PC games together. We are planning to introduce competitions and more activities to cement team building altogether.

Do you wish to add something about the team from a CTO perspective?

It amazes me how quickly the team has been executed across departments. If we continue doing that and attract people who come with a mindset of execution first, we can succeed. 

I’d like to request the talented engineers to join us and be a part of our casual culture. We have never deployed on Fridays as we don’t want any mishaps on weekends. Some of our engineers take weekend shifts to manage tasks efficiently without any turmoil.

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For future candidates who join this hunky-dory team, what kind of expectations do you have for them?

Some criteria such as a new joiner should be agnostic of Tech stack should be curious to learn as it’s a growing company. We welcome fresh graduates with open arms while we also hire non-graduate students. However, both categories of applicants need to pass our assessment.

In your words, please describe the work culture of this company?

We are a company with an open culture where people come from diverse backgrounds. We encourage varied perspectives, ideas, and information from every person who joins us. We don’t have any strict rules to adhere to, and people are free to explore and learn anything that they want.

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How long have you been a part of the engineering team?

Since its conception and day 1 from October 2018.

What appeals to you most about Zomentum’s engineering team?

The people, I love working with the team. It’s obviously our strength here.

Did you learn something new while working with the company? If yes, then please elaborate on it.

I learned a lot about technology, personally. I started working on Scala which was new. I have built a lot of things from scratch. I’m still learning and building things along the way.

How does the engineering team progress towards the goals? Are there brainstorming sessions now that people are working from home?

We follow an agile methodology and have a weekly meeting where we discuss what we will be working on. We discuss big features and come up with solutions and build teams to achieve our objectives. We then have sprints where we track our daily progress. 

What kind of recreational activities did you involve with your fellow team members?

We just concluded a virtual chess tournament. We hang out playing online games like Mario kart and many others. Before the pandemic, we used to go out for dinners.

How do you define your team?

Young, energetic, and passionate.

Do you work on weekends when needed?

Sometimes we do; we just expect people to deliver features according to their commitments. Beyond that, it’s a personal call to do what is needed.

What’s your expectation from the newcomers who will become a part of your team?

1. Be a quick learner.
2. Bond with others.
3. Have fun.

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Please let us know the work culture of Zomentum from your perspective.

It’s a powerful team in terms of ability and bonding. We build things together, break them, and fix them, but we have fun along the way. We are young and geeky. 

Have you ever had the opportunity to collaborate with other teams in the company to work on something exciting? If yes, then please tell us about it.

1. We are working with the Product team very closely to build everything.
2. We have built conference-related websites in the past for the marketing team. 
   

When did you join the team?

I joined the team in August 2019.

Do you have any role models on the team?

There are a lot of people who inspire me. Rahil, Nagesh, and Swadhin are such role models. I always wonder how these people multitask and work this hard. Not just work, these people engage in exciting activities outside of work like traveling, cooking, reading books, music instruments, partying, etc. 

What is the ideal style of working in this engineering team?

You are trusted with your tasks here, and there is flexibility in implementing the features. The management listens to you, and your suggestions are considered.

If there is a mishap, how do you proceed towards it as a team?

When something breaks in production, people work towards fixing that instead of pointing fingers. Everyone understands mistakes happen as long as you don't make the same mistake twice.

Did you experience any heartwarming moments while working here?

One night, I got an angry text message from Rahil who asked me why I worked overtime. I was touched and appreciated his concern as he keeps ensuring that none of us is burning the midnight oil.

Did you learn anything new which you would like to share with us?

I learned to design the rest of the API contracts, design MongoDB schema, setup - AWS Lambda, Kinesis, SQS, SNS, etc. I also worked on unit testing using mocks. In terms of soft skills, I learned how to break a large business problem into small technical issues, decide ETA, and write extensible and maintainable code. 

Also, there have been times when I found a critical bug in the product and I had to go through the entire flow. There I was debugging for several hours stuck in my chair yet couldn’t find any clue as to what was causing the problem. I had to approach to Swadhin and Rahil to help me figure out the root cause, to my surprise, they bring in their fresh perspectives to the table. They approach such things in a whole different way than me, thus, making it a new learning experience most of the times.

Are there any new tech stacks that the team is exploring as of now?

We are exploring Redis, dagger, Mongo DB transactions.

What kind of recreational activities have you been involved in after you joined Zomentum?

We went to some mystery room once—some team dinners.

Creating a space to nurture talent and having some fun along the way is what makes Zomentum different from its counterparts. We are incredibly proud of what we have accomplished while building the teams here and this is just the beginning. Components like flexibility, curiosity, accountability, and togetherness fuel us even while working remotely. We invite you to be a part of this dynamic and positive journey as a fellow team Zomentum.