One year at Mantle

I’ve just passed my one‑year anniversary at Mantle. LinkedIn posted a rather lackluster anniversary message, so I decided to do something better—albeit a couple months late. As Jordan, Mantle’s CEO, jokingly noted, it’s no coincidence that since I joined, we’ve gone from zero revenue to where we are today. But in all seriousness, it’s been an action‑packed year of personal growth, impressive product development, and a company trajectory that’s unmistakably headed up and to the right. It’s also been a rewarding challenge to dismantle the habits and norms I developed at a large tech firm and embrace a “just get it out there and into customers’ hands” mentality. Every few months we hire someone new, hit another milestone, or experience fresh growing pains—all of which make each day truly exciting.

After a year, you have a clear understanding of the company’s priorities, direction, and preferred trade‑offs. This alignment empowers you to work independently—often taking an idea or new feature from concept to production without needing anyone else’s approval. As a result, we can deliver new features to customers incredibly quickly. When a customer requests assistance or new functionality, nothing stands in our way: we can respond, build the solution, and get it into their hands. It’s no wonder our customers are consistently impressed by how fast we solve their problems.

In a software role, one year of experience equips you to navigate and understand our substantial 500,000‑line codebase, making new features, bug fixes, and even entirely new products feel second nature. The best way to gain a broad understanding of any codebase is to dive in: fix bugs, ask questions about implementation details and expected behavior, and read a lot of code. Mastering your tools and embracing the team’s development practices makes it easier to deliver the right balance of product, quality, and speed.

After working together long enough, the trust you build with your teammates enables you to perform at a high level and make the right decisions and trade‑offs—knowing when to engage the team and when to run with an idea. Early on, I tended to overcommunicate to ensure I was headed in the right direction, understood priorities, and grasped how things worked. But with a proven track record, I now rarely need to overexplain; I understand what’s needed, and my colleagues trust me to do the right thing.

A candid conversation with Jordan about our one‑year milestone and the company’s growth made me realize one thing missing from this reflection: the sense of belonging I feel with the team. It no longer feels like I’m the new engineer striving to match the founders’ level. Instead, the trust we’ve built and the ability to operate at the same level truly reminds me how far I’ve come.