Phil Spiegel is a born and raised 2^nd generation San Franciscan. When you meet him, you just know he’s from “the city.” How? He never fails to represent San Francisco because he’s found at his desk dressed in local sports team swag.

The local didn’t join the RentJuice team from a job wall or a recruiter. It was perfect timing and a brief Facebook update that brought Phil to the RentJuice family in April 2011. Since then, he’s tackled various data entry-related projects both large and small.

Read more about Phil Spiegel, the RentJuice Data Entry Administrator, and also learn a tidbit about what popular RentJuice food originated in San Francisco.

Q: How did you join the RentJuice team?

My girlfriend’s ex-classmate from college wrote a Facebook update about a temporary position in San Francisco for data entry. I told my girlfriend to find him and tell him I wanted to apply.

In January, I was brought on full-time.

Q: What do your responsibilities include?

I assign data entry jobs to our data entry team. I also do quality assurance on data entry and give the team feedback.

Sometimes, I do small projects when I have extra time.

Q: What do you like about your job?

I’m actually here for the peanut butter pretzels in the kitchen. Just kidding.

I like the startup environment. I like that I have the ability to make decisions on projects on my own, unlike larger business where they tell you that you have to do it their way.

Q: What jobs have you had in the past?

I used to be a stage builder and also worked as an undercover loss prevention agent at a large retailer.

Q: What’s your favorite RentJuice memory?

When I sang to Johnny Cash with the whole company at the holiday party.

Q: Do you have any secret talents?

I once juggled a soccer ball for 9 minutes straight.

Q: What do you do on the weekend?

I take my daughter to playgrounds around the city and other places I went to as a kid.

Last Saturday, we were at Dolores Park in The Mission for four hours. They have this new playground that’s really big.

Q: What do you consider unique to San Francisco?

There are so many walks of life here. I don’t think there’s anything that’s strictly San Franciscan other than burritos.

Q: What’s so San Franciscan about burritos?

The “Mission-style” burrito* was invented in San Francisco.

*The Mission-style or San Francisco burrito is distinguished by its fillings and exterior foil wrapping. The San Francisco-style burrito, unlike burrito styles from Southern California or Mexico, includes more ingredients such as rice, beans, sour cream, guacamole, and salsa.

Interesting fact: The San Francisco-style burrito is a RentJuice favorite company lunch meal.

Dan Masquelier is a RentJuice software engineer, musician, and beard model. When he’s not busy breaking the law with the engineering team (jaywalking to lunch—those rebels!), he’s busy building amazing features for our website.

After jumping from social startup to social startup, Masquelier knew exactly what type of company he wanted to work for—something that didn’t revolve around social networking. When he found RentJuice, the product and the team were impressive. During his job search, he knew that RentJuice fit the bill.

Read about Dan Masquelier, our talented Software Engineer:

Q: How did you join the RentJuice team?
I was with two startups before this one. The first was in social learning, and the other was in social gaming. When I was looking for my next job, I wanted something that didn’t revolve around Facebook.

Then I found RentJuice.

As I was interviewing at RentJuice, I met David and Kunal. They were really impressive; I noticed that they were really smart guys and they really knew what they were talking about. After that, I knew I wanted to pick RentJuice.

Q: What do you do around here?
I do front-end development. I pretty much take ideas for our website and make it possible. Anything a customer sees on our website, I usually have a hand in it.

Q: What do you like about working at a small startup?
I like smaller companies because you don’t have to report to a boss’s boss’s boss to get something done. If there’s something wrong, I can just go over to someone to get it done.

Q: Where are you from, and what’s it like working in San Francisco?
I’m from Tracy, California.

Coming here was a little culture shock at first, but I like it because the city is so forward thinking and the food is awesome.

Q: What do you and the other engineers do at lunch?
Going to lunch is even a fun experience everyday. Once we get out of the building and hit the sidewalk, we argue for a few minutes, and sometimes split up.

We also break the law everyday when we jaywalk to get coffee.

Q: What’s your fondest RentJuice memory?
It was really fun when we went down to the Tenderloin to sing karaoke for our holiday party. My fiancé and I sang “A Whole New World” with the team.

Q: What’s one little-known fact about you?
I’ve played the violin for my whole life.

Q: What do you listen to while you work?
Classical or instrumental music.

Listing to music with words is really distracting. It’s like someone is trying to talk to you while you code.

Q: So, you’re a beard model?
Yeah, I volunteered to take a picture for “Shave Your Style” by Braun. A guy came to RentJuice to take my picture for the site.

Q: What’s your favorite Wednesday lunch?
Thai food day.

 

If Alex Leary never survived a sinking boat off the coast of South America, RentJuice may have never had a Director of Product. We’re extremely thankful he survived!

Leary has come a long way since the days of hanging out with drunken sailors. He’s gone from hopping through South American countries, to working at a travel-based startup company, to working with RentJuice. Overall, he’s brought the team a wealth of knowledge from his experiences and dedication to advancing our product.

Learn more about Alex Leary in a recent interview we had with him.

Q: What attracted you to working at RentJuice?

When I learned about the challenges in real estate and how data was collected, I called it the “evergreen amount of information.” I liked that it was a fixed target—like we know that there’s a fixed quantity of apartments—and it being a big industry.

Unlike the travel industry, where there are flights change all the time, we can invest more time collecting data and understanding the industry. This research becomes an asset to us so that we can build really smart things.

Q: What do you do around here?

The way I think about it I get to work in three important areas with really talented specialists in each area:

Understanding the market — often working with operations and sales to identify the next great feature like Online Applications or improve important tools (example: custom columns), we already have.

Product design — talking with visual designers to make sure things are easy yet powerful, but also working with partners to integrate useful tools like GBREB forms.

Technology — making stuff actually work with our engineering team by creating cool tools and solutions that work in and advance the real estate ecosystem

Q: You went from one startup to another. What’s the appeal of working at a startup company?

You spend more time doing things rather than talking about doing things.

What I like about a startup is that there are more agile teams on a connective platform.

Q: What keeps you coming in to work everyday?

Creating stuff and the excitement of seeing someone use it for the first time. Also, making things so easy that people will never want to go back to how it was before.

For example, seeing someone submit an e-application using our Online Leasing feature was awesome!

Q: What’s your favorite RentJuice memory?

It was when David opened his Christmas present from his Secret Santa last year. He got a Juggalo kit, and it was really well-executed and detailed.

The story behind it was that there was a documentary about the American Juggalo. Most people had no idea what a Juggalo was, so we watched it together.

For a while after that, when someone did something right at work, they’d get a Faygo prize for accomplishing something.

Q: What’s a little-known fact about you?

I was a travel writer right out of college. I went to Argentina and Chile.

I spent two months in the southern most tip of South America. I tried to hop a ride with the Chilean Navy to get to one of my destinations, but I got stuck on a boat with a drunken sailor. We almost sank in a boat crash and crossed 3-4 different borders. I just remember waking up the next morning at my destination and the sailor handing me my passport.

Q: What must you have while you work?

A whiteboard.

I always need to articulate on a whiteboard, especially when we’re articulating ideas. Words are too linear.

Whiteboards help outline a problem, and it also helps outline the solution.

Q: What are your hobbies outside of work?

I love spending time with my daughter and son.

That means a lot of time at the Academy of Sciences. Sometimes, we just go there to say hi to the penguins. It’s a great way to get out for a little bit.

The other day, we interviewed Julia Merritt, one of our Senior Account Executives. Nearly everyday, she brings Charlie, her Yorkshire Terrier. Charlie, affectionately known as “Char-Char,” has been on the RentJuice Sales Team for about 8 months, and is always one of the first to celebrate when one of his teammates closes a deal.

Get to know the smallest member of the RentJuice team: Charlie Merritt.

Q: Where are you from?

Originally, I was born in Sacramento. I lived in the East Bay for a while, also.

I really needed to cut my commute down, so I recently moved to San Francisco. My mom and I carpool to work together.

Q: What do you do at work?

I’m a very structured-type of dog. I like order at work. Whenever we have visitors, I’m always the first one to let the team know. Sometimes, it’s just a food delivery guy, but you can’t always be sure. I try to make sure that nothing gets past me.

Q: What’s your favorite day of the workweek?

Paws down, my favorite day is Friday, because that’s the day we have happy hour.

After a long week at work, it’s nice to take a break and celebrate what we’ve accomplished as a company during the week. It’s always nice to relax and unwind with a few snacks with my coworkers.

Q: What do you think of Summer?

I really like Summer, but we’re not always on the same page. Sometimes when I’m working on a toy, she’ll come up and take it and run off. She definitely takes advantage of my stature.

Also, whenever I look at her from my desk, it seems like she’s always goofing off with someone: asking for attention, looking for treats, or simply running from room to room. I truly believe you play at playtime, but between 9 to 5 you need to buckle down for work. I definitely have a stronger work ethic.

Q: What do you like to do outside of work?

On the weekends, mom and I like to go to open fields and parks to play a good game of fetch. It’s nice to stretch out the legs and get some fresh air on the weekends.

On other days, I hang out with my friend Spike, a Miniature Pinscher, over in the Marina.

When I first came into RentJuice for my interview, a big Golden Retriever tackled me and a few developers playing ping pong stopped to introduced themselves. I loved the fact that RentJuice had such a fun and open work environment and I couldn’t wait to be apart of the team.

After meeting Summer and the devs, I was interviewed by our CEO David. It was obvious he was a great leader who had a lot of passion and motivation- he was someone that I was excited to work hard for!

Q: How would you describe the RentJuice Sales Team?

I’ve never worked for such an ethical, hardworking sales team. I’ve been at past sales organizations where people tend to look only look out for themselves but that is not the case at RentJuice. 

Everyone gets excited when the team does well. We all work really hard towards the same goal and it feels more like family than competition.

It’s so much fun! The great thing is that agents and brokers are such social and friendly people. They have so much energy, so you can never expect a dull day.

I had a bet with one of our developers, Jon Azoff a few weeks ago. The loser had to wear an oversized cardboard cutout of our CTO, Kunal‘s face to a coffee shop.

Jon lost.

Jon walked down to Starbucks with Kunal’s cardboard cutout face strapped to his head and ordered a drink. There were a lot of awkward expressions and double takes- he’s still out for revenge.

I’m really hooked on this sushi place, Sushi Umi. The sushi comes out on a rotating boat and changes all the time, and I like that you can pick out whatever you like.

I love snowboarding, boccie ball, and dancing. I’m also learning how to play the guitar.

 

Look out for a RentJuice Insider special edition about Charlie Merritt, the RentJuice Yorkshire Terrier. 

You may recognize Jack Angers as “the guy with the chicken McNuggets” on the RentJuice Facebook page. Angers is one of RentJuice’s respected engineers, who pushes code on a daily basis.

Angers, originally from Leawood, Kansas, was looking for opportunities in the Bay Area. “It’s the best place in the world for programmers,” Angers said. So, when he was offered the job, he picked up and left Kansas to start his new life with the RentJuice team.

Read more about Angers in a recent interview we had with him:

Q: What’s your job at RentJuice?

I perform mostly data-related tasks like data imports, syndication, and working with data entry systems.

Q: What project are you most proud of?

Recently, I made a tool that helps with over 90 percent of the imports we get. It took me about 6-months to build, and it started as a side project. It’s great because it creates an easier interface for all of the tools that I use.

Q: What do you enjoy about working with your Development team?

I really like programming and it’s awesome to be around people that love programming, too. And they’re really good.

I’ve been programming since I was 13 years old, and in the two years I’ve worked here, I’ve learned more than in most of my life. To be able to watch other people push code and learn from each other is awesome.

Q: What do you like about working at a startup company?

Startups are where a lot  of  good programmers are. I knew when I started there would be a lot of work to do. I knew half my day wouldn’t consist of meetings.

Within a couple of months at RentJuice, I was pushing code live, which would be hard to come by at a larger company.

Q: How do you want this company to grow?

I want RentJuice to go wherever David and Kunal want it to go. I trust them.

Q: So, what’s up with the Chicken McNuggets?

Well, for Thanksgiving, I bought 100 Chicken McNuggets for our potluck. I’m a big McDonalds fan, because you always know exactly what you’re going to get.

With programming you learn to like consistency. When you go to buy an apple, you don’t know what you’re going to get. That inconsistency disturbs me. But with McDonalds and other fast food places, you know exactly what you’re going to get.

Q: What was your last lunch meal at McDonalds?

Number 8 – The “Southern Style Crispy Chicken Sandwich”

She is four departments rolled rolled into one. Kari Nelson, Director of Finance and Administration, is the RentJuice Human Resources, Office Manager, Administration, and Finance.

Transitioning from a position at a virtual gaming company, Nelson joined the RentJuice team in 2011, when you were able to count the amount of employees with your fingers. Today, she manages the onboarding and company events for our quickly growing team.

If you don’t see her in the RentJuice office crunching numbers in Excel, she’s shredding the mountainside on her skis. Learn about the RentJuice all-in-one Director of Finance and Administration in our recent interview with her (and find out what surprising hairstyle she once rocked).

Q: Who was the most memorable person when you started at RentJuice?

David.

David and I sat down when I was hired and had a discussion of what I wanted to do. Although I was a little intimidated because he ‘s the CEO, I could tell he was a very down-to-earth guy that I could communicate with. After talking to him about his vision and plans for RentJuice, I knew that this was something I wanted to be involved with.

Q: What challenges do you face in your daily responsibilities?

Everyday is like a crapshoot. For example, yesterday the internet went down for almost everyone and I had to try to fix it. I’m no IT professional, but sometimes I need to step into that role and try to be. If I don’t know how to solve it, then I have to delegate it to someone else. It makes me learn a lot and grow.

Q: What’s your biggest accomplishment so far?

I’m completely in charge of the finances and managing the financial forecast. I look for where our financial drivers are in our revenue streams and see what other opportunities we have. My biggest accomplishment is forecasting the company’s finances through 2015.

Q: How would you describe the RentJuice work culture?

Everyone here is really down-to-earth and we all get along really well. It creates great camaraderie and helps bridge gaps between different departments. When you have a great relationship with your coworkers, it’s easier to go over and talk to them.

Q: What’s your favorite RentJuice shenanigan?

On one new employee’s first day of work, we all agreed to dress up in corporate clothing. Everyone knows we’re really casual here. We really threw him off-guard.

Q: What do you listen to at work?

Bright Eyes. Lately, I’ve been listening to German Hip Hop, also.

Q: Do you use Pandora or Spotify?

Spotify

Q: What’s a little-known fact about you?

In the 9^th grade, I had a 9-inch Mohawk.

You know that an engineer is truly an engineer when they love to code at work and at home. That’s why Jon Azoff, our Software Architect, loves his work.

Previously hailing from the social gaming world, Azoff made the big switch from a team of hundreds to one of less than a dozen. “Quite justified”, Azoff said, for “I prefer quality over quantity!”At RentJuice he was amazed at the people he got to meet—engineers that constructed web apps that he used in his personal life, such as CollegeHumor.com.

Read about our interview with Azoff and learn about how he joined our team, how he learned everyone’s name, and his little-known talent.

Q: What’s your story of joining RentJuice?

The time was right for something new. I got a call from a previous coworker, and he told me he knew a guy that was launching an amazing startup. Trusting his opinion, I thought I’d give it a good old-fashioned college try.

I flew in from my home in L.A., to the San Jose airport. David picked me up from the airport and drove me to San Francisco. I had my first interview in David’s Prius!

The next day, I met Nick and Kunal.

I learned that they helped develop brands I was familiar with, which was a great sign for me! In the Bay Area, you meet a lot of people that built apps, but it’s rare that you meet people that build things you actually use. It’s pretty cool.

Q: What do you remember about meeting people at RentJuice?

On my first day, they took me out to dinner with the whole team. I’m horrible with names. To help me, everyone came up with a mnemonic for their name. For instance, Gregg became “3G”, since he has three G’s in his name. That’s how I learned everyone’s name.

Q: What project are you most proud of accomplishing so far?  

Currently, it’s the directory or the Facebook widgets. The reason why is because that’s a big reason why most of our customers sign up—so they can have a social connection.

It’s always an interesting and nice feeling to work on a project you think is part of your job, but it grows into something that’s useful and desired by customers.

Q: How do you like working at a startup?

I really can’t imagine not working at a startup.

There’s something about the freedom of a startup and the uncertainty that’s appealing to me. Every day is like a big question mark. It makes every day like a tiny little adventure.

Q: If you were to have a super power, what would it be?

The power to code with my thoughts.

Q: Do you have any secret talents?

I can beatbox.

Q: What are some of your hobbies outside of work?

Lock picking, playing the guitar and organized basketball and football.

Q: Do you have a favorite football team?

Yeah, the Denver Broncos.

Q: How do you feel about Peyton Manning joining the team?

Ecstatic, I just hope those vertebrae stay in tact!