Behind-the-scenes with one of the fastest growing wellness startups
Spotlight on Fay
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One of the most useful stages of the interview process is when you get to speak with the hiring manager. Depending on the size of the company, this may be the founder or general manager of your department or team.
During this interview, you generally get to hear—directly from the interviewer—their pitch as to why you should join their company. Oftentimes, this is more or less a generic pitch: “come join the company, we are growing, it’s a unique opportunity, you will (probably!) like it.” But every so often—say one in five interview processes you go through—you’ll stumble upon a pitch that really, uniquely resonates with you. You will find a pitch that stands out from the rest.
That’s what happened when we met the team at Fay—but perhaps not for the reasons you would think.
First, some context: Fay is building a platform that has tens of thousands of active clients who are meeting with board-certified dietitians to improve their lives through nutrition and lifestyle change (with insurance companies covering the cost). Their investors say they are one of the fastest growing companies in the wellness space, and they have raised over $75 million so far from leading investors like Goldman Sachs and General Catalyst.
That is all exciting and impressive—yes they are hiring for every department including growth, sales, engineering, design, and partnerships—but that is not what initially caught our attention.
It was a quote from someone we spoke with on their team that more or less speaks for itself:
“The most memorable part of my interview process were the reasons not to join Fay. My intro call was with Sammy (Fay's co-founder and CEO). Instead of selling me on why I should work at Fay, he actively listed reasons why someone with my work background and experience might not be a good fit for the job. I was impressed with both Sammy’s transparency in communicating the “worst parts” of the job and his confidence that the right person wouldn’t see these as reasons not to join Fay, but reasons to join. That call set the tone for the rest of my interview process and I was sold from that moment on.”
You can read the longer “anti-pitch” for joining Fay here.
The anti-pitch above is compelling because it shows that Sammy and the team at Fay know what they are looking for in candidates. It shows that they know what’s important to them, and that they know what type of company they want to be building over the long-term.
These are just some of the reasons we were excited to go behind-the-scenes with the team at Fay. In this Next Play Spotlight, we learned what it was like to work at the company, how the team thinks about culture, and much more.
Major thanks to the Fay team for sharing interesting details with us and supporting the Next Play community!
The Fay team is refreshingly honest about what they are looking for in candidates.
They are looking for the type of person who is motivated by “world-class execution. People who get energy from doing high-quality, impactful work.”
People who are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get work done: “The best advice when starting out at Fay is that nothing is beneath you. There are people at Fay that ran entire orgs at their previous company and at Fay they are handwriting notes to influencers or tracking down important information that lives in an archaic health system. The best part is we only hire people that have a love for the game, so they don’t mind doing that and actually enjoy it ”
People who naturally work with high accountability: “No excuses, no hiding mistakes, true ownership over your own work product. Embodying this way of working takes courage and can be hard sometimes, but I feel like it's led to our success and ability to scale with a relatively small team.”
People who obsess over details: “Really lean into understanding every minute detail of executing a workflow - no detail is too small (not even knowing how many times it takes to hit tab in an insurance portal to credential a provider)! This not only ensures flawless execution, but it also helps build up expertise that will later be extremely useful when designing a more efficient process and creating a new workflow.”
People who can walk the walk (instead of just talking!): “We really care about showing, not just telling. One of the most effective ways to work at Fay — especially as a designer — is to lean into our ability to communicate ideas visually and using designs as conversation starters. Instead of spending too much time discussing hypotheticals or over-explaining, I’ve found it way more productive to just try something out. Put together a quick mock, prototype, or visual, even if it’s rough. It helps everyone align faster, gives something concrete to react to, and keeps momentum going. This mindset has saved me and my teammates a ton of time and energy, and has been greatly appreciated.”
At the same time, their honesty around what they are not looking for in teammates is very clear: “if you're someone who craves titles and slow pace, Fay is not the company for you.”
If you are looking to just show up and take the easy path, then Fay is not going to be the right environment for you.
“Others in our industry piece together technology, but we chose the harder and more rewarding path of building and owning our entire tech stack from the ground up.”
“Fay is a place where you're really pushed, but also really seen. My first month at Fay I was thrown into an extremely important project that involved a lot of detail oriented discussions, deep critical thinking, and quite a few late nights. So often throughout the process Sammy made it a point to pull me aside and just emphasize how grateful he was that I was here and how much he valued my work. “
If you are looking for a place where you can coast and lag behind, Fay is not going to be the right type of environment. Everyone at the team is clear about it—speed matters greatly. So much so that there’s a running joke that a month at Fay is like a year anywhere else.
“Working at Fay is difficult. We hold ourselves to a very high standard. Most people I have referred have not gotten past the interview stage.”
“I remember when I first joined, we were doing something that I don't even remember - it was something that didn’t really matter, like writing an email. And I came from banking, where you’re used to working on v.152 of a deck. So I wrote a draft of the email, sent it to Sammy, and said, “Let me know if you have any thoughts, and then I can take in your comments and send you another draft.” And he looked at me and was like, “What do you mean? We need to send this today. Let’s iterate on a call together and just get it out.”
This honesty you read also extends into their day-to-day communication, as they are very direct with one another. There’s a huge benefit to this - you’re able to learn a lot faster because you are receiving way more feedback than you would typically receive.
“We have an incredibly direct culture. So if you’re someone who can take constructive feedback, fail quickly, iterate quickly—you’re going to do really well here, and your career is going to grow super, super fast. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from a professional development perspective just by being in an environment where I can be direct with others and receive direct feedback in return. It’s allowed us to move a lot faster.”
“Finally, being a good communicator really matters, especially since we’re a hybrid-remote, distributed team. Sharing context openly, giving clear updates, and reaching out when you’re stuck makes everything smoother for the whole team.”
“We default to open communication, whether that’s sharing what we’re learning, giving each other feedback, or just checking in as humans since we’re remote.”
They are able to be so direct in large part because there’s trust across teams.
“There’s a lot of trust here. Everyone has real ownership and autonomy, and people show up for each other when something needs to get done. It’s normal for someone to jump in and help unblock a problem, even if it’s not technically their area.”
“Collaboration is extremely intentional - we try to protect each other’s time by avoiding unnecessary meetings, but never leave each other unsupported.”
That trust is built upon a number of factors—one of which is that much of the team has become friends:
“In my past roles, a lot of those work friendships kind of faded with time. But with Fay, if I were to get married tomorrow, I honestly think every single person here would be at the wedding. We really feel like we’re all in this together, and because of that, we’ve all become actual friends. That feels really unique to me.”
“I could have a deep conversation with anyone on the team. I remember having a conversation late at night by a fire (on a team offsite) with two people about their futures and aspirations.”
“A couple months ago I went to New York for work and I had one before the work week started. In the morning I hung out with two people from my team and in the afternoon I hung out with a different co-worker. I didn’t even think about it as seeing co-workers. I just thought about it as seeing my friends.”
The team bonds remotely as well as in-person at regular company offsites:
“There’s no forced fun, but people make the effort to stay connected. We have casual Slack channels, and sometimes people hop on calls just to catch up. It feels like everyone is here because they believe in the mission and want to build something meaningful together.”
“A lot of my favorite memories come from our company offsites — from Austin to San Francisco to Park City to Cancun, and just hanging out in New York together. Skiing in Park City is definitely at the top of my list, along with biking over the Golden Gate Bridge with the team.”
“We all take what we're doing very seriously and have a high standard across the board. But we also like to have fun while doing it. One way we do this is by using a LOT of emojis in Slack. I remember my first day being absolutely SHOCKED by how many emojis people were adding to Slack messages and threads having come from management consulting and VC. And in particular, we use a set of "bufo" emojis (bufo frogs) that are really cute and just make the environment feel lighthearted. This feeling of fun has allowed me to connect on a personal level with most of my colleagues, which I've really appreciated since work is where you spend the majority of your days, weeks, and years.”
From the beginning, the founders and leadership team have prioritized investing in the team, and encourage every team member to see the organization as actually part of the product—something to invest in and grow over time:
“The people who thrive and love the journey at Fay are those who see culture and people as our greatest asset.”
“The company prioritizes wellness for their employees as well as for their clients. We work hard and we move fast, but we also get the flexibility to do things on our own time. It's good to prioritize yourself when you need to. In the long run, it helps everybody.”
“Because the best companies are built by the best people — and at Fay, you’ll be surrounded by them.”
Why? When you ask the team Why? Why are you doing all of this hard work? Most answers reflect back onto their mission of helping people live healthier lives.
“There's not that many companies you can work at that are growing really fast and the more they grow the better it is for humanity. We are one of them.”
“Every day when you log on, you're doing something good for the world.”
If you are inspired by Fay’s mission and culture, they are hiring for every department including growth, sales, engineering, design, and partnerships.
And if you are looking for more opportunities, be sure to check out Next Play.