Member Spotlight by Zoe Koulouris Augustinos, Partner & Co-founder
Provide us with a brief summary of your business’ services.
Upstate Interactive is a women-owned software consultancy that creates competitive advantages for our clients through blockchain and web-based software solutions. Our goal is to make software engineering simple for our clients by translating business needs into user requirements, providing a team of talented and well-trained engineers, and taking an agile and empirical approach to project management.
We specialize in enterprise web applications and smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain by combining the world’s most popular programming language, JavaScript, and Solidity, the world’s first programming language with built-in trust.
Tell us about your company’s mission and values.
Our vision is to build a new world of software that is built on trust and enables freedom. Our culture centers around our mission to deliver extraordinary results and never stop learning.
Our guiding principles include:
- Engage Community: Commitment to local communities is fundamental for personal and professional growth. We invest in the cities we live in to share success together.
- Embrace Lifestyle: Lifestyle choices are best made by individuals. We shape ourselves to accept every employee, every client, every partner in their individual way of living.
- Chase Curiosity: Insatiable curiosity leads to creative solutions. We chase our curiosity wherever it leads us because the answer is never where it’s expected.
- Propel People: Our strength is measured by the strength of our people. We create and share opportunities with our coworkers, enterprise partners, and fellow technologists.
- Conjure Magic: Any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. We conjure software products that transform the mundane into the sublime.
What are the services you use the most (or are looking forward to using) from the Columbus Chamber?
Since the pandemic narrowed down networking opportunities for all of us, I am looking forward to making use of the Chamber’s business development resources. I would like to connect with other members and learn about their projects, inspirations, and challenges. I am especially interested in learning about the community’s perception of blockchain technology and its impact on local industries.
How do you stay engaged with trends that you see in your industry?
The digital world is in a constant state of change, so being plugged into the right sources is essential to our business. We stay engaged by reading industry news and listening to industry experts through podcasts and conferences. It is also important to participate in local tech communities by connecting with other experts or sharing knowledge yourself. Community engagement is something that our company was founded on and is committed to.
We recently started our own video series called Up at Night, in partnership with NgConf. The series includes segments from a variety of experts, in addition to commentary about what we do at Upstate Interactive. We also share some of our favorite books, podcasts, and articles in our newsletter each month.
What is your company culture like?
We foster a positive learning environment by creating opportunities to develop new skills and mentor each other. You can see an example of this through our Hero Path program. We trust our people to work autonomously, which pushes everyone to grow and communicate openly. We also try to have fun while working remotely. You can read about our transition to a fully remote team and our remote holiday party on our medium blog.
What does it take to be a successful employee at your company?
A successful employee is genuinely interested and curious about software innovations, loves to keep learning, takes pride in his or her work, and communicates clearly.
What makes Columbus such a great place to do business?
I am excited about doing business in Columbus because I see its potential to grow as a tech hub. I believe Upstate Interactive has a lot to add to this growing ecosystem with our community-driven approach to breakthrough technologies like blockchain. We are excited to help traditional businesses, in sectors like banking and manufacturing, leverage these innovations to stay relevant in today’s ever-changing competitive landscapes.
Social Media
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UpstateAgency
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/upstateagency
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/upstate-interactive
Website: https://upstateinteractive.io/