Favor's Fearless Leaders

We’re excited to introduce you to Greg Aponte, Favor’s new Vice President of Data! ??

Data is at the center of everything we do and our appetite for reporting and analysis increases each day as we continue to grow and innovate. Our data organization consists of Business Intelligence and Analytics, Data Architecture, and Data Science teams. Greg joined this talented group earlier this year and is already making a huge impact.?

In this Q&A, Greg shares a few fun facts (spoiler, he loves backgammon), what’s next for the Data team at Favor, and more about his leadership style.

I have a weakness for hats. If I see an interesting-looking hat, I can’t resist. I also LOVE playing backgammon. I first learned from one of my favorite high school teachers and I get a lot of gratification from playing competitively and studying how I can improve.

I have a few mentors, but the one who probably most affected the trajectory of my career is a woman named Dafna Sarnoff, who was the department head who first took a chance on making me a manager. She has taught me many things, but probably the most impactful has been instilling the importance of creating the best team as fast as possible, and being relentless in doing so. She was also a master of having direct conversations and being fearless in delivering constructive feedback.

The two things that have amazed me the most are the team’s camaraderie and their commitment to being best in class in everything they do. It’s been awesome to see how collaborative everyone is and how committed they are to creating a top-shelf Data organization and stack.

We’re at the tail end of a migration to a new data warehouse and reporting front end, so now it’s time to turn our attention fully toward our stakeholders and use the new tools to provide new levels of support and insight for all the departments we work with.

I prioritize finding individuals who are eager to learn, have grit, and want to grow. I’ll take these types of team members any day and want them on my team. When I look back on the people who have been the highest impact players, they have almost always been people who came into their roles with minimal experience but were grateful for the opportunity and had a beginner’s mind.?

I think the biggest difference between Favor’s values and those of other companies is the focus on the communities we serve. Every decision we make balances the interests of customers, Runners, restaurants, stores, and the broader community, which makes the mission that much more meaningful.

Dovetail Pizza. Their crust + their chili oil = chef’s kiss.