Getting to Know Plaid’s Patterns: A Look in their Workspace

Plaid puts the emphasis on empowerment.

Through collaboration, Plaid allows you to unlock your problem-solving potential while aiding you with your finances.

Plaid shows it’s here to help consumers, but it may be a different story for its employees.

Who Is Plaid?

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Plaid allows you to connect your bank account with a Plaid-powered app, enabling Plaid to work with your bank to ensure a safe connection between the two. Plaid wants you to know that you’re in control. You choose what data you let Plaid see, and that accessed data is completely protected. You can also determine how long Plaid has access to this data.

Plaid is connected to apps like Brigit, Varo, and Wave. When you connect your financial data with these apps, Plaid is paid a fee, which is how they make their money. This company concentrates on problem-solving and achieving the financial goals you set.

Plaid prides itself on “diversity of thought” among its employees, boasting of employees with various backgrounds and experiences. Plaid focuses on collaboration, which helps customers feel secure and informed about how they’re using this company and what they can accomplish from it.

Supportive, Impactful, and Challenging Culture

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Through anonymous reviews on websites like Glassdoor and Team Blind, we got a glimpse of employee experiences at Plaid. A current employee noted how Plaid provides a supportive and intellectually challenging environment.

Although fast-paced and occasionally riddled with unclear expectations, this company is a place to adjust and figure out your path. Plaid made a deep impact on one former employee, who stated that

“Plaid set the standard for how I’ll measure prospective employers in the future."

This company also seems to have a healthy work environment, according to a former senior project manager. Coworkers were hard-working and consistently took initiative on projects, and this former employee enjoyed the challenges each day at the office brought.

Another employee, who currently works at Plaid, agrees that the workplace community can be described as

“smart and ambitious - yet humble, low ego, and generous with their time.”

Plaid’s office culture is “welcoming,” as it includes a lot of activities that allow employees to build solid relationships.

These activities include events like book clubs, yoga, meditation, and hackathons. There’s also a lot of cross-functional interaction, with engineers and salespeople coming into contact on a regular basis.

Another employee mentioned how bright and talented coworkers. Plaid is full of passionate and dedicated people that are set out to work with interesting problems.

“The culture encourages innovation and challenging the status quo,” said an employee.

Plaid’s values, which consist of “transparency, pragmatism, boldness, and humility,” are well embedded in the company itself.

A current employee found that these values were represented well among the community. The culture and atmosphere are also very comfortable. Internal problems are handled well, as they get discussed and solved through a healthy process, according to another current employee.

“We are changing the industry,” said one employee.

Working at Plaid seems to be impactful for many. The trust Plaid places in employees and the positive office culture provide opportunities for growth. Between humble coworkers and engaging work, Plaid’s atmosphere provides a lot of potential and support for its employees.

Work-Life Balance Is Generally Good Nowadays

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While there are some complaints, most employees report that WLB is great.

In such a fast-paced environment, many roles are demanding and high stress. Part of the demand includes being responsive after work hours, making your time a bit “job-centric,” as a current employee put it. The time commitment can be significant.

“This is not a 9-5 job,” another employee said.

Just like any company that prioritizes ambition and hard work, Plaid can be demanding, but it seems like the company has overcome a lot of its growing pains.

"One won’t be expected to put in long hours, but the output and the impact is what matters and not the input," an employee wrote on Glassdoor.

On Blind, employee reviews of work-life balance are overwhelmingly positive with some even comparing it to LinkedIn, which is widely known for its rest and vest culture.

Overall, it seems that work-life balance was an initial struggle for a lot of Plaid employees, but now that the company is well established, it seems to have improved tremendously.

What Are the Benefits Like?

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Employees seem overall happy with Plaid's benefits as they're comparable to others in the industry. One drawback is the lack of a 401k match, but that could change with an IPO.

Here's a list of the benefits you get as an employee at Plaid:

• Top tier health, vision, and dental insurance
• Unlimited PTO
• 12 weeks paid parental leave
• No 401k match
• $1,000 at-home office stipend + $50 monthly internet stipend
• $100 monthly fitness/wellness Stipend
• Commuting stipend
• Corporate discounts on activities like ski passes and massages
• Catered breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Grain of Salt

Taking both positive and negative experiences into account, it seems that Plaid has a healthy and determined work culture overall. While it is still growing, Plaid’s employees come off as satisfied by the challenges they face.