Lenny Rachitsky

“Lenny Rachitsky is one of the most innovative and fascinating professionals with whom I have the privilege to work alongside, and provide HR guidance. His ability to identify, harness, and unleash the next industry game changer is nothing short of brilliant.”

“Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant! Need I say more? He's an incredibly hard worker, universally liked by his co-workers and respected throughout the industry. He also knows how to balance technology and marketing savvy which is unusual I've found. I consider myself lucky to have had the chance to work with Lenny and hope I get another chance someday.”

“I worked with Lenny for just under a year while at Webmetrics. By the time I joined, he had worked his way from intern, through lead developer, to head of research, all by the age of 27. Lenny is a highly accomplished developer, with great coding skills, backed by an extensive knowledge of the available technology, and an ability to be highly creative. I have never had a technical discussion with Lenny without him providing valuable new insights and alternative options with a good sense of the merits of each course of action. Lenny always brings a calm, confidence and cool headedness to any discussion, helping to bring out the creativeness of others, and creating discussions that are focussed and analytical in a way that creates confidence from all those involved and promotes great decision making. In addition to his natural aptitudes, Lenny was amongst the hardest working people I’ve known. While much of what he achieved appeared effortless, his ability to continuously innovate and implement new ideas was a result of long hours, diligence and focus. Even when not ‘working’ Lenny was almost always engaged in work related activities in one form or another either thinking about problems or new opportunities, reading around the subject, evangelizing to new audiences or learning new skills. It was always a great pleasure to work with Lenny, and I would unhesitatingly work with–or for–Lenny again.”

“Lenny has super powers. He makes the right decisions. He uses data and doesn't get stuck in the mucky muck. He is organized and gets things done. He codes one handed but produces twice as much. He already knows business but is constantly educating himself. He has fun.”

“Lenny is an outstanding example of a highly accomplished technical leader and an outstanding human being. I had the pleasure of working with him as my peer in R & D for new products and concept prototyping at Neustar. He is a quick and intelligent idea generator and gets technical results quickly. He is also very good at pointing out the risks of an architecture which helps teams avoid problems later in a project. He is also a fun and creative person that would be an asset to any team.”

“I had the pleasure of working with Lenny Rachitsky at Neustar. In my opinion, he is the epitome of the phrase "thinking outside the box." As a marketing professional, working with Lenny was wonderful as he always had his pulse on the latest and greatest in technology and social media. His ideas led to the development of a number of innovative marketing programs. In addition, he could not only envision new tools, but also implement them technically with his engineering skills. He was certainly an asset to Neustar as he would be to any forward-thinking organization.”

“Lenny is a very motivated and diligent worker. For the five years we've worked together I've known him to always be innovating and learning. He somehow manages to accomplish more in one day then most people will accomplish in a week! I highly recommend Lenny for any role that requires thought leadership and timely execution.”

“I worked closely alongside Lenny for more than 5 years at Webmetrics as the Manager of Network Operations. Lenny was the head of Engineering and managed a core team of very focused and dedicated Engineers (this was no accident either as he was involved with hiring them all). Simply put Lenny is amazing. If it takes an average person an hour to do a task, Lenny can do it in 10 minutes. His focus and dedication are unparalleled with anyone I have worked with in my career. Software instability in the middle of the night? Lenny is up and out of bed and with no complaining working to get to the root cause of the issue, then back to sleep and into work the next day. In Seth Godin's words, Lenny is truly a "Linchpin". "Done and done!" was a common mantra he often used in his e-mails, and this really sums up Lenny's philosophy of getting things done. He gets things done like no one else. He is measured with his words and makes every word count when he speaks. He has an incredible ability to quickly get to the core issue that is preventing something from moving forward without a lot of fuss and drama. I can't even begin to count the number of key projects Lenny was involved with during his time at Webmetrics. Essentially, he's had a hand in every major Webmetrics service ever released through 2009. I've also seen him more recently expand out of his comfort zone from Engineering and architecture and into public speaking via webinars and a talk at Velocity 2010. He constantly seeks out new information and new ideas and is always trying out new things to better himself. He is an incredible Engineer and an incredible human being and I feel honored to have had the opportunity to work alongside him at Webmetrics and Neustar.”

“I reported to Lenny over the course of about 4 years. Lenny is probably the most motivated person I know. We started working together in a small startup and during that time, Lenny's drive for results led to much professional growth on the engineering team including my own. I learned a lot while working for Lenny and I can say with certainty that Lenny thrives in a small start up team. He truly cares for people that work with him and will do what he can to improve his team as well helping them achieve their professional goals.”

“It was my pleasure to work under Lenny for over four years. His passion for the web and internet technologies was contagious. As a manager, he always led by example. You could always go to him with questions and he worked with you until the problem was solved. His skills as a manager were obvious to the entire company as he organized not only the engineering department, but often helped out where needed in other parts of the company to make sure that work was accomplished. He juggled the various responsibilities of being the manager of engineering at a relatively small company with ease. Lenny always thought about the growth and well being of his employees and personally I know that I would not be where I am today professionally without his guidance. He was both personal and professional at the same time, inspiring you to be your best, while never seeming overbearing or controlling. Highly recommended.”

“I have reported directly to Lenny for almost 2 years and have been impressed with his diverse skills. He has in-depth technical knowledge, analytical ability, leadership skills, high energy level and can turn things around quickly. Lenny is an intelligent "self-starter". He was an asset to the Engineering Team and I believe he will continue to be so for whichever organization he joins in the future.”

“Lenny is equal parts high-level strategist and low-level code slinger with off-the-charts ambition. It was a pleasure working for him.”

“Lenny is an engineering manager who has the ability to drive projects from as high a level as a product's alignment with the company mission to as low a level as implementation details and code efficiencies. His grasp of the web industry allows him to make informed decisions on strategy and the direction of products, while his depth of knowledge of technologies allows him to guide his engineers on how to build user-friendly products and write efficient and manageable code. Lenny is a manager for whom all young engineers and seasoned veterans alike would love to work as he encourages them to grow and work to their strengths. He incorporates the knowledge of the veterans while encouraging us younger engineers to learn from our more experienced counterparts. He gives us the freedom to try new ideas and technologies to improve all aspects of our job from the development process to the work environment. When things don't go well, he does not dwell on who's to blame but instead focuses on what we can learn so we don't make the same mistake twice. At the risk of undermining my own organizational ability, I will say that Lenny makes everyone's job easier as he is extremely organized; he would provide reminders and next steps not only to keep his employees focused and all projects on track, but also to get the proper approvals from his superiors to keep all priorities aligned. During my time at Webmetrics/NeuStar, I saw Lenny more as a friend than my boss because he genuinely cares for his employees on a personal level. He makes sure to recognize a job well done, tries his best to incorporate fun into work, and is very considerate of our requests for personal time. I hope that in my future software engineering positions, I will have managers as competent and caring as Lenny was, and when time comes for me to be an engineering manager, I hope to meet the standard that Lenny has set. And that is a very tall order.”

“Lenny was one of the best engineering managers I've had the pleasure to work with. He has three of the best straights in a manager: smart, gets things done, and open to feedback. Can't recommend him strongly enough.”