My 3 Years at Finger Food ATG

As you all have probably heard by now, the company I work for, Finger Food ATG has been acquired by Unity Technologies. This is absolutely huge.

I’ve had the privilege to work at Finger Food for almost 3 years — 3 years in June to be precise. I’ve always shamelessly bragged that this is my longest tenure at a job, eclipsing my previous ‘longest’ tenure by 2 whole years. I hope this says something about this company, because it certainly does for me.

This Finger Food team has the smartest people I have ever worked with. I’ve had previous experiences where designers didn’t mesh well with developers and too much politics for an average person to stomach. Finger Food is different — we get stuff done, and done right. We will try new processes, new tools, and new methods to tackle problems that no one has ever tackled before, and that requires an open mind, and a white-belt mentality.

The Finger Food leadership is top tier. They never brush people away and try to be as transparent as they can given their positions within the company. They’re always a Slack message or a door knock away from a friendly conversation. This is something I frequently brag about to friends — we have a leadership team that will take us places. And they did exactly that.

In the summer of 2019, I was invited to take part in a top-secret presentation for Finger Food, and I had no clue about what was about to ensue. I was in a room filled with people way above my pay grade and I was punching well above my weight. Alongside Chris, our Chief Creative Officer, we were tasked to create an enticing, mind-blowing presentation to knock the socks off potential investors. It was months in the process, and it unfortunately introduced me to Red Bull (which I’m glad to announce that I haven’t had another one since). After months of presentations, deliberation, and number crunching (which I wasn’t a part of, thankfully), Ryan, our CEO, announced to the internal staff via Zoom (thanks COVID-19) that Finger Food had been acquired by Unity. I swear, I could almost feel the tears rolling down Ryan’s face, and I’m 100% that he was not the only one being emotional on that call.

Leaders create leaders. Through working with Ryan and Chris during this process, I learned quite a few things about them personally. A lot of people don’t know this, but I remember this quote vividly from Ryan at one of the meetings:

I’m not here to get rich. For me, as a successful entrepreneur I want others around me to be wealthy. There’s no point if I was in it for myself, and I won’t allow that.

There are many people out there that talk the talk, but don’t necessarily walk the walk. They can say one thing, but mean the other. Ryan is the exact opposite. Even though he self-admits that he has no filter, every word that falls out of Ryan’s mouth is worth its weight in gold (well, most of them).

During a celebratory team-wide Zoom announcement, Ryan was picking on various people to toast and express their thoughts about the merger. People recalled their first times stepping foot into the company, their first interviews, and weird conversations and interactions with Ryan, and champagne was consumed in parallel. Ryan eventually called on my name and I was to give an impromptu mini speech on a video call with 220 people. My fists clenched, but I went off — I had nothing prepared, but it was fine because everything I said was exactly how I felt. I flashed back to my first time walking into the Holodeck at Finger Food, and how I was dazzled by Chris’ whiteboarding magic and instantly sold on the Design, Develop, Deliver mantra. I then pivoted to my anecdotes of closely working with the leaders in the company during this process. It was effortless for me to say the following in front of 220 people, because I was simply stating the truth:

We are so lucky to have a leadership team that truly cares for the team, and it’s something we should never take for granted, and from the bottom of my heart, and from the bottom of everyone else’ hearts, thank you.

Internally, we’ve heard this about 50 times: it’s been a wild ride. 2020 has been tough for everyone around the world, but for Finger Food, we’re riding the waves and prevailing during these insane times. We’re bringing a gigantic toolbox of talented people, a wealth of experience, and a strong desire to make the world a better world to be in.

Needless to say, I’m excited. I’m excited for the 220 people that are joining from Finger Food, I’m excited for the 3,700 people that is now Unity, and I’m excited about changing the world.