When DeRon Brown interviewed for a job at Boston tech firm Localytics a little over a year ago, he didn’t try to hide the fact that he’d been working on his own app on the side. Brown also admitted he might want to leave Localytics at some point to focus on the app full-time. “They actually liked the idea of that,” Brown said, “which made me excited about working here.”
The message was that Localytics—which focuses on mobile app marketing and analytics, and was a startup itself not too long ago—wants to hire employees who are entrepreneurial and may not stick around over the long term, he said. “That means we’re hiring the right people,” Brown recalled being told.
On the face of it, the attitude is pretty counterintuitive: why would a company essentially support losing its most ambitious people?
Why would a company essentially support losing its most ambitious people?[/pullquote]
But for many tech companies in Boston and beyond, trying to discourage employees from moonlighting is an outdated approach—and also means missing out on some big benefits for the company itself, as Localytics employees told me in recent weeks.
It’s worth noting upfront that Localytics is far from unique—HubSpot, for one, is well-known in the Boston tech community for supporting the creation of a “startup mafia” among its alums. But this approach is also not totally the norm yet in tech, either. Jeff Lopes, director of mobile engineering at Localytics, recalls he began working on an app at a previous tech firm he worked for—and that company “was not as friendly to moonlighting,” he said.
But without a doubt, the emergence of a “Localytics Mafia” will be a key ingredient for growing into an anchor company in Boston, as I spoke to Localytics co-founder/CEO Raj Aggarwal about this month. Localytics has got a number of people who have started apps on the side while working for the company, “and we’ve massively encouraged that,” he said. “There are different people that are right for a company at different times and stages.”
Nights and weekends
For Brown, a senior software engineer at Localytics, work on his side app began a couple years ago while he was working at ESPN. The app is called Flockery, and aims to be an easier way for friend groups to plan hangouts and events together—such as a dinner party Saturday night that normally would be a pain to coordinate.
Brown launched the app in late August on both iOS and Android—he did the work for both versions himself—and says his day job at Localytics has come in very handy. For one, Brown has been able to use Localytics app analytics to help improve Flockery. He’s also gotten lots of pointers from colleagues. Brown said he’s planning to see how the next year goes for the app. “If it’s something that is really sticky, and gets big traction, then I’ll go for a big marketing push,” he said.
Lopes, meanwhile, put it this way: “If is successful, and that means him leaving Localytics, that’s awesome. If it’s a success story that was born and fostered at Localytics, we view that as a success for Localytics.”
‘People are rooting for the app’
Lopes has been at his own app, “subway assistant” app ProximiT, for a bit longer. Started with Localytics product manager Randy Dailey more than two years ago, the app has gotten a good deal of usage and attention for its MBTA scheduling data—which alerts users to whether or not there is a train nearby as they walk toward the station. The goal is to save T-goers from having to stand on the platform unnecessarily—and currently around 50,000 people use the app on a monthly basis, Lopes said.
Like with Flockery, ProximiT also gets to use analytics from Localytics, and overall he says there is “a lot of excitement within the company —people are rooting for the app, and advocating for it.”
Localytics gets some benefits as well. The company has often used ProximiT to demo its own product, and also gets crucial exposure to what app developers are interested in—which helps Localytics to stay current, Lopes said. “It’s important for us to know how people are consuming the things we’re building,” he said.
Exposure to a growing company
Yoni Samlan, a senior product manager at Localytics, joined the firm after running mobile engineering at Boston mobile payments tech firm LevelUp. He’s also the co-founder of a consulting company, Active Frequency, on the side. He’s not sure when he might want to launch his own project in the future, but he does like knowing that Aggarwal and the rest of the Localytics management wouldn’t try to discourage him—and are just fine with him soaking things in from Localytics along the way.
“One of the things I’m looking to get out of Localytics is a broader understanding of a business,” Samlan said, “so that when the time does come , I’ll have the right understanding of how to build something awesome.”
Photos courtesy of Localytics.
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