We talk a lot about our growth as a company. Interestingly, one of the most impactful growth factors doesn’t start with the numbers – it’s not a focus on ambitious sales, growing our client roster, or utilization goals. Not that those haven’t also played a role. But this factor is less quantifiable, at least at the outset, and is not standardized. It’s our investment in employee potential.

Fresh doesn’t keep inventory or sell products. What we do is who we are. Our team’s talent is the service we sell. Their hard-earned experience, one-of-a-kind strategy, and raw skill is more powerful than any system we could sell. We set a high bar, recruiting top tech and creative minds with enthusiasm for great ideas, strong teams, and stellar projects. Even our open office space is specifically designed to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing.

In much the same way as we approach a new UX or dev project, we seek to understand, investigate, and discover where our individual team members’ ideas, skills, and motivation will take the company. We don’t always hire by title. We take chances on creativity. We consider employee growth company growth. The better our employees are, the better Fresh is.

Recently, several of our longtime team members sat down together to discuss the opportunities they’ve had to learn and grow since joining the company. Watch our video to learn more about how their roles have evolved at Fresh.

Kurt Daniels, Project Management Lead

Kurt joined Fresh with a video production background. His previous production roles included elements of project management that helped him transition into managing design and development work at Fresh. Today, he’s an integral part of onboarding new Fresh team members, continues to serve as a resource for video projects, and is now a wizard with PM software.

On career development at Fresh, Kurt says, “As the company grows, there are opportunities to grow as employees. The pace is fast, but jumping immediately into projects helps both with onboarding, and acquiring and expanding skill sets.”

Elisha Terada, Front-End Development Lead

“Even after 6 years here, I can still see my future here, I can still grow here, there’s more opportunity I can pursue.”

Elisha majored in business development and credits one of the core Fresh values — collaboration — for inciting his technical growth. He joined Fresh in the company’s earliest days when the team fit into one room. Elisha shared an office with CEO Jeff, who has a background in consulting and design; CTO Steve, a former Amazon developer; and UX designer Nuriel, a “devsigner” with vast UI/UX experience.

He came on board as an intern, but quickly stepped into a role as a business consultant. As his curiosity about web development grew, Elisha took on HTML/CSS work and transitioned from hobbyist to developer, creating over 70 WordPress sites since. In the early days of learning about both the craft and the company, Elisha told Jeff where he was interested in growing at Fresh, and Jeff helped him navigate. As Front-End Development Lead, Elisha has a hand in leading one of Fresh’s biggest ongoing client projects, onboarding new developers, teaching team members, and facilitating knowledge sharing.

Johnny Rodriguez, Digital Interactive Lead

An entrepreneur who had run multiple design-related businesses, Johnny joined Fresh as a UI/UX designer with motion skills. Working in Fresh’s open workspace, surrounded by different disciplines–he absorbed skills from every direction. Now Digital Interaction Lead, Johnny is a project lead and SME, deeply skilled in complex eCommerce, motion design, and development projects.

“Constant learning and different opportunities” allowed Johnny to learn new technologies hands-on. Weekly developer meetings where team members present on solutions they’ve found, designer meetings as the design team grew, and project management meetings where capacity and challenges are assessed, keeps collaboration at a high point.

We’re proud of the progress we’ve made and acknowledge that many factors led Fresh to where we are today. We know success comes from supporting team members in the directions they want to grow, as project or team leads, thought leaders, innovators, strategists, mentors, subject matter experts.