Curaians agree that one of the best aspects of Curai is working alongside our teammates each day. To highlight what it’s like working here, we are writing a spotlight series to showcase our colleagues and share a bit more what the day-to-day is like and what we are building.
Bridgette is our Head of Operations and our next spotlight! Her answer to our company icebreaker question (what is your favorite kind of cheese 🧀) is blue cheese!
Why did you decide to join? What keeps you here now?
I joined Curai for three reasons: 1) Curai’s mission of providing the world’s best healthcare to everyone, 2) the Curai Team, and 3) Curai’s values.
When Curai approached me to join their team, I was five months pregnant, so starting a new job seemed unfathomable. I mistakenly thought no company would take me seriously as a candidate because I was pregnant, but when I researched Curai’s mission and team, I had to learn more. I had an amazing conversation with my hiring manager, and I wanted to be fully transparent so I told him before he set-up an interview that I was five months pregnant. He enthusiastically congratulated me and said he looked forward to me interviewing. I was elated.
Having a higher purpose is a great motivator, but also having a talented, humble, collaborative, hard-working team makes work fun and productive. I picked up on that unique culture during my interview and team lunch. So I eagerly accepted the role and was six months pregnant on my first day; a position I never thought I’d find myself in which demonstrates how excited I was to join this company and this team (your ambition, work ethic, and desire to grow don’t weaken due to pregnancy haha.)
I enjoyed the company so much during my first three months (even though I only worked in the office for three days because of COVID), I came back after my maternity leave haha. Curai greatly respected my maternity leave time, and I was so grateful for that because I was trying to navigate motherhood and recovery without the childcare options I planned to have before the pandemic. And in the months since I’ve returned, I’ve been encouraged to bring my baby to our All Hands meetings and happy hours. It’s the kind of culture where there’s no dissonance between trusting people to get shit done and recognizing they’re human beings with lives outside of work.
What makes our team culture unique?
Everyone’s brilliant and hardworking, yet also humble and open to new ideas regardless of seniority and experience level. It is easy to put together a list of values; it is much harder to follow them. The Curai team and its leadership genuinely strive to embody those values. The leadership team sets the tone for any organization. Their transparency, humility, and openness to feedback trickles down throughout the organization and drives the people we hire.
What are you working on right now?
Operational scalability so we can grow quickly. I’m creating and streamlining operational processes such as provider on-boarding, provider quality management, scheduling, pay, customer support, and launching new markets.
How do you hope to grow at Curai?
In addition to learning more about machine learning (its current limitations and applications), I also hope to become a better leader and learn how to optimize and automate more operational processes.
Favorite Curai moment?
I have two!
1) Singing karaoke via Zoom during a virtual Happy Hour. I cracked up when my screen lit up with phone flash lights swaying back and forth as I sang “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion.
2) The surprise virtual baby shower my coworkers threw me. A surprise box of cookies was delivered to my door, and I was invited to a Zoom call where we did baby shower games and the team presented me with a generous Amazon gift card. I was so touched by the creativity and time they took to put this together, especially because I had only been at the company for 3 months.
OOO
Outside of the office, Bridgette can be found:
🎖 Serving in the Army Reserve. Bridgette currently teaches Military Science to ROTC cadets at Santa Clara University.
🏡 Spending quality time with her family
🏃🏻♀️ Pushing herself in HIIT workouts
🍷 Attending wine tastings
What would you say to someone thinking about joining our team?
It’s a unique combination to work on a noble mission and work with such a talented yet humble team. You will learn a lot, feel proud about the work you do, and while the work is fast paced, the team makes it fun.
Please stay tuned next month for our next Curaian spotlight! We’ll pass the baton to Bridgette to highlight a teammate. If you’re passionate about healthcare access, up for bold challenges, and curious about working alongside really great people, don’t hesitate to say hi 👋
