Why We Have a Mayor at Bloomfire

Talking about company culture at a startup can easily fall into the current zeitgeist. And no wonder, we work at a venture-backed startup in Austin. However, we feel like we work somewhere pretty special, in fact, so much so that we have an (un)official role at our company: the Mayor.

You may be wondering why we have a mayor or questioning the importance. But do you have one person at your company that you know you can go to with anything? They uphold your company culture, mission, and values and make sure the rest of the company adheres to them as well. You go on walks with them, maybe play some ping pong. Well, at Bloomfire we have this person; it’s our official Mayor, Bheeshmar Redheendran.

While Bheeshmar might be an Engineer by trade, to us, he’s so much more. The reason why Bheeshmar is our Mayor is simple…

“I am proud of our culture and our mission to help companies share knowledge, and it’s so important to me, that part of my role at Bloomfire is to protect what makes this place so special.”

And we want you to get to know our Mayor a little more. Here’s an interview we did with Bheeshmar.

Besides holding the very important title of official Mayor, what is your role at Bloomfire?

“While my official title is the vague ‘Backend Developer,’ I like to think of myself as ‘Muse’ or ‘Punster,’” Bheeshmar said.

It’s true, Bheeshmar has the best puns, and is the Bloomfire pun-master.

“I enjoy exploring the connections between things. It might be concepts in code, different meanings of words, or people with complementary ideas across organizations.” Bheeshmar continued.

“I’m an oddity for a technologist in that I am a people person. So while I spend most of my days writing the code that runs on our servers, I also spend a fair amount of time helping others to do their jobs better. For example, I help resolve customer issues with our Client Success team, keep our servers running with other members of the Engineering team, help Sales resolve billing issues, and keep up company morale by telling bad ‘dad’ jokes.”

What are some of your hobbies?

“I enjoy punning. I’m no O’Henry Pun-Off-level punner, but I do get some zingers in every once in a while that can make all the listeners groan. I also enjoy gourmet cooking and martial arts.”

What do you value most?

“I subscribe to the school of thought that ‘The best things in life aren’t things,’ but I would be very sad if you took away my Big Green Egg. You can find me grilling/smoking/searing on it any given Sunday.”

And we love when he brings some pulled pork into the office!

What is your greatest achievement?

“I am grateful for having had the opportunity to work with and mentor so many talented developers over the years. When they credit me for some part of their success, I always remember how much I learned from them as well. I hope my relationship with my kids will be as good!”

What do you enjoy most about Bloomfire?

“What attracted me the most about working at Bloomfire in the first place is that the product is about connecting people with information, and that hits all of my buttons! The problem we solve is one that every organization has, and it is very gratifying to work on solving actual problems for actual people. It has also been amazing to see how Bloomfire has transformed, both from a people and product perspective, over the past five years since I’ve been part of the team.”

What’s your favorite [dad] joke right now?

“I got my friend an elephant for their room. They said ‘Thanks!’ I said ‘Don’t mention it.’”

Learn more our culture on our about us page or see it in action on our Instagram!