Your view behind the scenes

A dedication post to those who run the War Room in the shadows of the applause

Some of my fondest memories-and most stressed out periods- at Airbnb were being a part of the insane public launches: Act 2, OpenLA, Tomorrowland etc. to name a few. At the time, I enviously watched my peers and coworkers enjoying the launch fanfare (that Lady Gaga concert in DTLA I never saw) while my team and I anxiously spent any waking hours either testing the product or knocking out P0s until the final hour of launch - lucky for you, you get photos as proof since you're here.

At one point, I carried 6 different phones/tablets to ensure our product launch showed up perfectly on the 6 most common form factors-- a labor of love and devotion to the 100MM plus community whom only a couple would ever know of my involvement in their experience. At another point, I was on the phone arguing with a regional cell phone carrier, while testing the validity of their sim card generating WIFI for guests in Cuba on another phone, riding around in Cuba on the back of a truck - ensuring that there was potential connectivity in one of our launch markets (something only Lex Bayer could convince me to champion since I was so low on sleep at the time!).

It wasn't until later (after I learned how to deal with stress properly) that I realized my love for the War Room. These are the people in the back room, behind the curtains, between the rolling scenes, who make things happen. These are people who don't always step into the limelight, but command an outsized amount of responsibility in you being able to live out the best product experience ever. This post is to give some sunlight to those important leaders and operators who command movement in the shadows, because who else could do it?

When I left Airbnb for an amazing opportunity at Highnote top of the year, one of the things I was most excited about was the ability to be a part of launches again (but on my terms) since the future was still very much needing to be built. You might have seen that we recently launched Highnote Credit, which is the newest - probably most objectively powerful- financial product in our suite of products/services which allows us to continue empowering businesses to create innovation and financial inclusion to the masses. There's a lot to share about Credit, and hint hint there will still be more activity coming.

What you probably haven't seen is the power squad that lived in the War Room up until this launch. I'm super excited to show you who was involved, and how significant their impact was.

First off, Art Gendelman and Jatin Salla (PMP,CSM) led the Credit product launch under the tiiiiiightest of deadlines, and believe me, Art Gendelman knows quality so this launch was tough. The launch at Money2020 could not have been possible without this dynamic duo leading the charge.

Stephen Patterson and Sarah S. are the force behind the gorgeous Credit landing page, which to this day, the landing page is generating traffic not only for interested customers, but also for inspiring the design industry. Allow me to repeat myself, a fintech website is inspiring design! It could only be the Highnote Design team behind this.

Yawn L. for being the keen eye behind the Highnote Money2020 uniforms our sales and exec team wore to the conference - that's right - no detail left behind, especially since there was a lot of back and forth. Thalita Berpan for her superhuman detailed power building product behind the Credit Product launch. Neel Limaye and Lyndsay A. for being the best legal and compliance partners, helping to protect the Highnote in a very regulated industry (or basically tempering me back when I wanted to make grandiose claims ;) ).

And finally Jillian Smith for being the entire reason why you might see this post, for getting all the right industry eyes on the work of an entire team trying to make it just a bit easier in a regulated industry to move money to the right people.

Take a bow, team- you deserve it.