Employee Spotlight: Sam Caslowitz

April 12, 2022


Q: Describe your position at Revivn.

A: I just started a new role as a Project Manager. My first big project that I’ve been working on is standardizing our operations so it's more uniform and easier to scale. One of the biggest projects I'm working on is standardizing our facilities processes and workflows as we continue to grow and scale. So, the focus of my role is getting everything together, making sure everyone is on the same page, and driving performance and growth.

 

Q: What are some of your day-to-day responsibilities?

A: Right now, I focus half my time on writing standard operating procedures, or SOPs. The other half of my time I work on defining metrics to measure performance and creating dashboards that display these metrics in an easily digestible way so people can look at how we are performing and form actionable insight from it.

 

Q: Can you tell me about life before Revivn, and how did you ultimately hear about Revivn and apply?

A: I was doing a lot before Revivn. I was traveling a bunch. I’m very into surfing so my whole game plan was, what can I do that would give me the ability to surf and travel as much as I can. I spent a year working at a company called Spartan Race which is an outdoor racing company. I was helping set up their races, and they would send me out to all these cool places across the United States. I would work two weeks and then have two weeks off. I tried to work races that were near the coastline so I could spend my time off looking for surf. If a surf trip wasn’t possible, I’d head back home and work part time at all these different restaurants. At the time I was living in Brooklyn and all the traveling and working different jobs was really wearing me out so I started looking for something more stable and something closer to home. Eventually I came in contact with John and he reached out to me and I asked if I had time for a quick phone call. The call was very casual and easygoing. Felt less like an interview and more like a friendly conversation. Afterwards, I did some research on the company and thought it was right up my alley. I studied economics in college, with a focus on environmental economics. I was really excited about the idea of working for a company that was on both the tech side of things and the environmental side and a company that was small, where I would have a lot of opportunity to grow and to learn new things.


Q: What is the best part about working at Revivn?

A: I would say the people and the fact that we are a fast growing startup. Everyone at Revivn is very helpful, understanding and hardworking. It's a great balance of work hard, play hard. Since we are a growth startup, everything you do is really impactful so you can see the benefits from your work right away. You also have the freedom to move across teams and learn new roles. This has helped me tremendously in figuring out my career path and allowed me to learn a lot of new skills. 

 

Q: What would you say is the proudest thing you’ve accomplished at Revivn?

A: Growing our Bay Area location. When I started, there were three people, and it was really disorganized. We would always scramble to get things done. And since then, we've grown exponentially. Our team in the Bay Area has gone from a small operations crew, to a full fledged warehouse team and still growing.

 

Q: If you could switch jobs with anyone for a day, who would that be?

A: I'd probably switch with Blane or someone in software engineering - I’m really interested in learning more about programming. I also think partnerships would be interesting since that's probably the one role I know the least about and I’m not really experienced with anything customer facing. So maybe Alexis in partnerships would be another person I’d switch with - just to see what that’s like. 

 

Q: If you met someone looking for a job, why would you say they should work at Revivn?

A: I think that if you're a naturally ambitious person who pushes themself to learn new things, then you'd be a good fit here. I think those two attributes go farther than anything else. I just think that the beauty of working at any startup, especially Revivn, is that as long as you have the right attitude and you're willing to put in the work, you can be successful.

 

Q: Describe your Revivn experience in one word and why that one word.

A: I would say adventurous because it's been such a crazy experience. From starting in Brooklyn and then coming out to San Francisco and the ups and downs. I mean obviously the pandemic changed everything for everyone but for me, out of everyone I started with in the Bay Area, I'm the only one who's still here. It was just such a wild ride of people coming and going, and things changing so quickly. At the end of the day, that’s just the nature of startups. 

 

Q: What do you like to do for fun?

A: I like to do a lot of things! I think the cliche within Revivn is that I surf, which I'm definitely obsessed with, but beyond that, I have a dog. My dog’s name is Tío, like uncle in Spanish, but in Spain, it also means “Dude.” I spent some time living in Spain and that's where I got it from. He is like a white-lab-retriever-hound mix. I adopted him so I am not entirely sure what breed he is. I also love soccer. I am a diehard Liverpool fan and get up extra early to watch every game. 

 

Q: What’s something people may not know about you?

A: I don't know, I kind of am an open book, but I guess something people might not know about me… I think a lot of people at Revivn are like foodies, and I'm the exact opposite. I'm not too picky but I pretty much exclusively eat Italian food. And moving to San Francisco has been an interesting experience because there are so many food groups that I don't ever eat. Outside of Italian, I'm super lost, like I had Thai food for the first time when I moved out here. I go to these restaurants, and I'm just like I don't even know where to begin to order.