We passionately believe in the power of technology and innovation to make a positive impact on people’s lives and communities — but we also know that too often, accessibility and the needs of disabled people can be overlooked when tech is being developed.

We’re leading the way in a brand new industry, so we acknowledge we may not get everything right on the first attempt. But at Starship, accessibility — and genuine two way engagement about accessibility needs — is embedded in what we do, and we’re dedicated to building on top of each of our learnings along the way.

Over a number of years we’ve invested time and resource into improving our technology with accessibility in mind, for example building autonomous recognition of mobility devices and wheelchairs into robot behaviour.

We understand why it’s important that our robots can be heard as they travel along the pavements and that our grocery compartment is at a height the majority of wheelchair users can reach (and that items are bagged for ease of handling). We worked with a leading sight loss charity to make sure guide dogs and our robots can happily share a path. And we’ve built feedback from disabled customers, residents and charities into our engineering and design processes so that with every trip and every conversation we get better at what we do.

But there’s more to do.

That’s why today, on Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we are proudly launching the Starship Accessibility Advisory Panel.

We’re delighted to welcome representatives from the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB), the University of Leeds and health and welfare charity Leonard Cheshire to our panel to help bring essential lived and professional experience to conversations across the organisation.

This is the start not the end point, and we’re keen to make sure we have experience, representation and perspectives from different backgrounds and from people with different disabilities and abilities. Based on the current panel membership, we’d be especially keen to hear more directly from people in our operating areas who use a mobility device or wheelchair and/or are neurodiverse. Please get in touch with publicaffairs@starship.co

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Dr. Gladys West

One of the most notable Black female innovators in technology who revolutionized the way we interact with the world, both humans and robots, is Dr. Gladys West. Her work changed the landscape of mapping technology and helped invent the Global Positioning System, more commonly known as GPS. In her published paper titled “Data Processing System Specifications for the Geosat Satellite Radar Altimeter” (1986), she documented the calculations for making position identification with high accuracy using data collected from satellites. Just like how you and I may use our GPS on our phone or computer, our robots are able to use this same technology to collect information on where to correctly deliver each order. So when you see the little robot on its journey to deliver a hot meal or when it shows up at the exact location you entered every time, you know who to thank for that.

Dr. Mark Dean

Computer scientist and engineer, Dr. Mark Dean, worked with a team of people as a chief engineer for IBM in the early 1980s that would go on to create the first IBM PC, develop the color monitor and lead the team that developed the first gigahertz processor. This chip, built just on the verge of the new century, would allow for higher processing rates at faster speeds within PCs. But how does that affect us or the robots? Have you ever tried to look something up or load a page and it feels like it is taking forever? How about when you are trying to order a coffee before your class early in the morning because you’re in a rush and the app freezes? A phone/computer’s processor clock speed determines how quickly the central processing unit (CPU) can retrieve and interpret instructions. This helps your device complete more tasks by getting them done faster. Just like our phones and computers, our ever adapting robots can complete more deliveries by getting each order in your hands faster. So every street they cross or corner they turn, wouldn’t be possible without the invention of gigahertz processors and its contributions to our ever evolving development to get them to where they are now.

Garrett Morgan

Our robots navigate their way through 140,000 crossings every day but not a single one would have been possible without Garrett Morgan and his creation of the three position traffic signal. Morgan was not only a successful businessman and inventor, but also one of the first BIPoC to own a car in the city of Cleveland during the early 1900s when all modes of transportation could be seen on the streets at once. Horse drawn wagons, bicycles and street cars all meet on the same roads creating chaos and, inevitably, many accidents that Morgan witnessed. With the invention of the three position traffic signal, he was able to eradicate a major issue that we take for granted today, transportation safety. And now our robots are able to cross any street and deliver your food safely to your door.

Roy Clay Sr.

In the history of technology and changing the reality that we live in today, you don’t get nicknamed the Godfather of Silicon Valley for nothing. Roy Clay Sr. was an early adopter and leader at the beginning of the technology industry with code writing and working on computing languages long before Python and Javascript was even a thought. Without Clay, we would live in a world where computers took up entire rooms and crashed frequently. But with his brilliant ability to develop software, Clay and his team brought one of the first computers to market that not only reduced the size of the computer but also improved its reliability in 1966. From there was an industry boom where it found a home in northern California (aka Silicon Valley, and the home base for Starship). As the CEO of Rod-L Electronics, one of the first start-up companies in Silicon Valley, not only did Roy Clay Sr. provide each individual with a powerful and important tool but he also enshrined himself as a leading figure in the world of tech startups that many companies, including Starship, look to as an inspiration.

Clarence “Skip” Ellis

Here at Starship, one of our guiding values is “We work as one team,” and without Clarence Ellis, this would not be possible as we have 500+ employees across five countries working in vastly different time zones. As a pioneer of the field of operational transformation, our teams are able to function in collaborative systems built on the foundation of Ellis’ design that is now found in virtually every work space through computer applications including Apache Wave and Google Doc. We are able to work effectively with people from different corners of the world and bring the idea of food delivery robots to life while continuing to innovate these spaces thanks to Clarence.

These are just five examples of Black innovators, pioneers, and leaders throughout history who have had a profound impact on AI, robotics, and technology. Despite facing unimaginable challenges, their perseverance and contributions have paved the way for the development of new technologies that have improved our lives in more ways than we can even imagine and mostly take for granted. Impacting almost every industry known to date, all the way to the invention of food delivery robots, their innovations have, fundamentally, changed the world and continue to inspire new generations of innovators today. These leaders have been, and continue to be, essential to the advancement of technology and so many other necessary contributions to furthering the advancement of society. It is important as we come to the end of Black History Month, we continue to recognize their achievements and to encourage diversity and inclusivity in the field of technology.

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Black History Month is a time to reflect on the contributions and achievements of Black individuals throughout history but it is also a time to remember the struggles and challenges they have faced and continue to face. Just as those who have had to overcome obstacles and continue to push forward, we too, must learn from our experiences and use them to be better.

Starship strives everyday to bring our core values to life. These are our values guiding each of us and they don’t stop at the work we do within this company but extend further to the people we work with, the people we reach, and the impact we seek to create far beyond. Each journey, whether it be personal or professional, is an opportunity to learn and improve.

Let’s first affirm that yes, even now in 2023, diversity in tech is a concern. The Kapor Center’s 2022 State of Tech Diversity report found that, “Between 2014 and 2021, the industry produced only a 1% increase in Black representation within technical roles in large tech companies.” The goal is to reach a point where it is universally acknowledged that a workplace that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive benefits everyone. Such work environments provide a space for a variety of perspectives, foster creativity, boost problem-solving skills, and drive innovation. As a company, we’re diligently advocating towards diversifying our leadership team (representation matters) and expanding upon our DEI commitments. As the late activist and literary icon, Maya Angelou, said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

By working as a team and allowing data to guide the way here at Starship, we can achieve more together than we ever could alone. As we reflect on the countless barriers and obstacles that BIPOC individuals have overcome, we are inspired by this resilience and determination to conquer adversity while climbing over every curb knowing that we too, can push through these challenges. Our Black colleagues, friends and families’ dedication serves as a reminder that with perseverance, we can always deliver on our goals and aspirations.

In the spirit of progress and innovation, we want to use this time to be reminded of the purpose of Black History Month through our conscious recognition of the leaders in history that brought us to where we are today. Later this month, Starship will be sharing highlights of Black contributors in the AI and robotics space, shedding light on the outstanding work our BIPOC pioneers have accomplished. Without their outstanding contributions, AI and robotics wouldn’t be where it is today.

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First, let’s take a step back and look at the rules of the road. These have existed for decades, and something any road-going vehicle has to follow — including autonomous cars. Amongst other things, they have to stay in lane, indicate before turning and keep an appropriate braking distance. Pavements on the other hand are a different environment, so understanding the surroundings and identifying/anticipating pedestrian behaviour is much more difficult — as a pedestrian, let alone a robot!

Over the past 8 years, Starship has been working to solve this challenge with the robots, learning how to behave on the pavement, becoming a good pavement user and an accepted part of the community.

And robots don’t just roam anywhere. Before we launch a new Starship food delivery location, the pavements will be ‘mapped’ in advance, ensuring robots stay within designated areas and know which routes they can — and can’t — take.

The robots then use a combination of cameras, sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning to travel around these routes — and, importantly, to navigate around any people, animals or obstacles.

You can find out more about this here:

How will the robot react?

If you meet a Starship robot on the pavement, the robot will identify that there’s someone in front of it and act accordingly.

Depending how far away you are from the robot, it will then either slow down and change course to navigate around you, or come to a stop as quickly and safely as possible. On narrow pavements, where there may not be an easy way for two parties to pass easily, the robot will reverse and move out of the way.

How did the robot cross the road?

Road crossings are the most complex for robots. This is a time when fast-moving vehicles can approach from different directions. Humans (most of the time) have an amazing ability to judge when it’s safe to cross by analysing hundreds, if not thousands, of data points automatically — and sub-consciously. For example, how fast a car is driving, whether there’s time to cross, etc. A robot has to make similar decisions, but without the hundreds of thousands of years of evolution humans have had. It’s an incredibly difficult engineering task!

So if you’re a pedestrian who’s crossing the road and you see a robot waiting, don’t worry — it’s just assessing the situation and working out when it’s safe to cross. There’s no need to give it special treatment — please continue to cross as normal. The robot might even start crossing with you!

However, if you’re passing a traffic light controlled/pelican crossing and a robot is waiting, it would really appreciate it if you could press the button to change the lights; and it might even say “thank you” from the robot for doing so! Looking ahead, this could soon be a thing of the past — in some areas, our robots are now communicating with traffic light systems, so a button doesn’t even need to be pressed — speeding up your deliveries even more!

There’s a robot stuck, what should I do?

Sometimes, a robot might just wait somewhere, stationary. This isn’t uncommon for a short time — it’s likely just thinking, or having a quick power-nap between deliveries…but don’t tell Mission Control that!

Of course, there might be times when a robot does get into a little difficulty. Whilst the technology is constantly learning and improving, we know they can occasionally fall off the kerb, or get stuck in a tight space. If you’re able to, the robots always appreciate a helping hand! You can also contact our customer services team either via our app, or the website chat functionality to let them know.

We hope you enjoy seeing the robots out and about. Don’t forget to give them a wave!

Team Starship x

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People order songs, add to their basket along with milk and bread, like a regular grocery item. After that, the items are collected and loaded into a Starship robot. When the robot arrives at the customer and the customer opens the lid, the robot starts playing the selected song. What a lovely and entertaining surprise! But it has not always been like that.

Dancing first, then singing

Seven months ago, all our robots said was “Good afternoon!” or “Bon appetit!” and no one could even imagine robots playing more than 100 000 songs throughout the next half a year!

Starship’s Senior Backend Developer, Misha Stepanov recalls that when he joined the company in Spring 2021, robots could only dance. “For that, we were supported by a choreographer who helped us to put several robots to move around in sync. They danced beautifully and it was fun to watch,” comments Misha and admits that this inspired him to also come up and create something new and unique himself.

For that, Misha started testing his ideas with Anti Veeranna, Starship’s Senior Product Design Technologist who has worked in the company from near the very beginning. Thanks to that, Anti knows everything and everyone, has a hand in many endeavors and was happy to bounce around all crazy ideas.

Covid pandemic gave a kick to a creative impulse

In the COVID pandemic, people were already getting used to self-isolation and working or studying from home. At the same time, this new situation had also increased stress levels, since many often felt rather lonely.

On the positive side, we received feedback that Starship robots and deliveries tend to cheer people up during these difficult times. The idea was catchy and inspiring — if something like that can brighten up someone’s day a bit, then it is worth the effort and time to think about how to boost it more. That resulted in Misha and Anti focusing solely on bringing robot interaction to another level.

It all began from birthdays

They wondered whether it would be possible to get a Starship robot to play “Happy Birthday”, when it’s the customer’s birthday for example. “We knew that if we could pull this off and make it happen, then any other scenario would not be difficult either. Therefore, we focused on its implementation,” Misha explained.

Therefore, the first idea was to redevelop Starship’s current mobile application, so that together with ordering a grocery basket, one could also choose a song as a separate add-on. However, creating this solution seemed like it would take a bit too many development hours, long releases, another team’s input and coordination between different departments.

Anti then suggested that what if a song could be added into the basket as a regular product, meaning that no interface development is needed, including no additional programming or a long coordination process. Sounded perfect and a lot easier!

Making it happen!

It seemed that the only development effort needed was:

• To add an additional item (songs) to the menu, and;
• To remove a song after the order is placed in order not to pass it to the restaurant, as the song cannot be cooked, and;
• When the customer opens up a robot’s lid, the system should check if any song was ordered and if yes, then it should be played.

By the way, it has to be brought out that Starship robots already knew how to play mp3 files, since they were able to say “Good afternoon!”, “Have a nice day!” and “Bon appetit!”. Therefore, from the technical point of view, it was not difficult to get robots to sing.

Misha and Anti understood that if their idea was technically as feasible as it was, then their next goal was to also convince others that this is exactly what Starship needed.

They were lucky to find the right people from the marketing department who were delighted and fascinated by the idea. For marketing, adding a song to Starship deliveries would also add a new unique selling proposition to the service.

Therefore, the marketing team took over the entire organizational side of the process, meaning that they bought songs from song owners, had a discussion with the menu department, introduced new virtual goods to our system, covered all agreements with partners and provided full marketing support.

The first three purchased songs that Starship robots were able to play, were:

Everything else went according to plan: PR, marketing messaging, layout for the first clients, deploying the first city (Milton Keynes), then the first country (England), and then came the global rollout.

“Seeing this finally happen was amazing and a delight to witness for both of us,” Misha commented.

Today, customers can choose between 3–5 songs, which change frequently, depending on time and location. Our service is constantly evolving.

Let’s wrap up!

Hence, to make a robot sing, you just need one cool idea, two colleagues to brainstorm at lunch, a couple of days for development … and then the whole company to support it.

The result was warmly welcomed by everyone — the team, the company, and most importantly — our Starship customers! 100 000+ orders only confirms that.

Well done, Misha and Anti!

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After spending more than a decade working in a big corporation within maritime logistics, Timo Lehto decided to join Starship and help us make low cost, convenient and sustainable delivery available to all. As our Product Manager in Helsinki, Timo is driving the software development of autonomous equipment fleets and related products and solutions.

In winter, he gladly steers north to the mountains for some downhill skiing, a common interest of all members of the Lehto family, as well as the sauna, open fireplace and evening board games.

What’s the best part about your job?

“It’s the part where I need to look ahead. To identify what we need to do in this very moment, or a year or two from now, to reach our long-term goal. I’m intrigued by the constant adaption where we provide a human element to a system where the role of the human changes. As the system evolves we start to expect different things. That exploration of the unknown is very exciting.”

Tell us about the culture at Starship. How is it different from other companies?

“For me, it’s quite unique in the way that we all share the same goal: there’s no extra politics or debate. I have never worked in a company before where it is so clear where we are going. And everybody tries to do their best to get us there.”

Of the projects you’ve been involved in so far, which do you consider the most important?

“I’m very interested in Situational Awareness. We are setting up remote locations, and we need to provide an efficient way to know what is going on with our robots and operations, everywhere and always. We need to be able to take action if something is going wrong. It’s an ongoing and fun challenge.”

_ _

Do you think there is life on other planets?

Life probably exists on other planets, maybe even at this exact time. Although intelligence is harder and more unlikely to find. There’s been life on Earth for a few billion years, and it is only in the last 100 years that we have been able to communicate beyond this planet. So, the risk is that civilisations will miss each other in time.

_ _ _

Tell us something about the Helsinki team!

“Like most teams at Starship, the Helsinki team is international. My teammates are from all over the world, and there are very few of us who can actually speak Finnish. For me, it was new to be part of such an international team, and now after being here for 2.5 years, I can say that it’s incredibly valuable to have multiple cultures represented. Our very different backgrounds provide fresh perspectives and a wider angle to solve problems. Oh yeah, and we meet for breakfast every Wednesday. That’s fun!”

Speaking of the Helsinki team, we are actually looking to expand our fleet, creating a new cross-functional team with software engineers, product designers, data analysts and product managers. Be part of Timo’s team and join our extraordinary journey here.

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Should Kaari’s story inspire you or if you feel an interest towards working at Starship, then make sure to check our careers page as we have currently globally more than 120 open positions available.

Happy belated International Women’s Day, Kaari! Please tell us a bit about your career journey.

To be honest, I have never really planned any of my career. I didn’t plan to become a software engineer, it kind of just happened to me. I came to Starship as a bored PhD student, looking for a larger team and for something more fast paced. I do get a lot of energy from other people around me and I like if there are others to lean on.

Whoa, so how exactly did you end up in your position?

I ended up in my position by saying to others that I would like to code more. Seems a cool thing to do. And then others did their best to help me achieve that. It’s easy to help others when they know what they want.

Your story of how to maintain confidence and follow your gut feeling is so inspiring! At your current role in Starship, what is your everyday life like?

I am very involved in deciding what is the most impactful thing to do in our field in order to achieve the goals of Starship. So a chuck of my time goes to data investigations. The other part is implementing all the ideas. I work with managing which robot does what at what time. It’s an endless optimizing exercise. And it’s basically impossible to say what would be the truly correct thing to do. I like operating in this uncertain space.

I especially love lengthy discussions with others about how to solve problems. You shoot out ideas and at the same time try to think why the solution fails.

In general, how would you describe Starship’s culture? Or what do you like here the most? Has anything surprised you?

I’d say that Starship has been a very caring and considerate environment. What I like most is that I know that my managers sincerely care about my wellbeing. That I am not just a human resource that needs to be managed, but I know I can trust my colleagues so that I can open up about all kinds of issues and I can expect understanding.

I think Starship aspires to a very healthy work life balance. As one of our engineering managers recently said, there are much more important things than work.

Finally, can you share with us any career tips or pro tips you may have for women wanting to work or develop in the tech sphere?

I think the essential thing is to learn that everyone else is just as clueless as you are. I think literally everyone feels the imposter syndrome when they start out.

It’s quite typical for young boys to start developing their interest in tech early on, because their friends are into similar things and society as a whole encourages them, which is great. When you start out as an adult it may feel that others just have so much more knowledge, but they have learned techy things for so much longer. I think early on it seemed to me that I can’t catch up, but now I know that you absolutely can. Don’t mix up experience with inherent ability!

Another thing that I would recommend is to take on tasks that you have no idea how to solve. And when you get stuck, ask for help, it won’t make you look stupid. It is great if you find someone sympathetic from whom you are not afraid to ask the dumbest questions. They usually aren’t dumb, even if it seems that it’s obvious to everyone but you.

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Should Karoliina’s story inspire you or if you feel an interest towards working at Starship, then make sure to check our careers page as we have currently globally more than 120 open positions available.

Happy Women’s Day, Karoliina! Please tell us a little about your career journey so far.

During the last year of my Bachelor studies in IT and Biology, I was taking a robotics class. The course happened to run at the same time as the world’s largest robotics competition, Robotex, which was taking place in Tallinn. Accompanying an enthusiastic robotics fan, my friend, I joined as a volunteer to be a judge in the competition. My world was forever changed from that day on.

Meanwhile, I joined the Robotics Club of the Tallinn University of Technology to build a robot of my own. Moreover, I started teaching robotics to children in Tallinn Secondary School of Science. And when all the other stars also aligned, I joined the coolest kids on the block, Starship Technologies.

Being still a student, I joined the company as a robot operator and with much enthusiasm, started my job as a robot technician already less than a year later. Currently I am the Service Team Lead in Tallinn/Helsinki.

Today, I am as much in love with robots as when I first stepped through the doors of Starship in 2018. Since that day, the growth and discovery journey in the tech world and at Starship has been astounding and I have loved every moment of it.

Whoa, you and robots really go hand in hand already from the very beginning. What does your regular day in your current role look like?

In addition to my robots in Tallinn, where Starship’s development office is situated, being a technician has also taken me to the UK, Washington, California and Wisconsin, meaning that I contribute globally by giving my helping hand wherever our robot friends need that. Recently, my dedication was rewarded as I was offered a new exciting position as a team leader in Estonia and in Finland.

My day-to-day job at Starship is very versatile. In the mornings, our team usually has a to-do list review meeting. Our highest priority is to keep our fleet of robots healthy. Being a robot technician is very much like being a doctor. You have a certain number of patients whose names and issues you know by heart. They come in with complaints or for monthly health check ups and it is our job to provide them with the best care. We keep detailed documentation on each robot and a strict eye on all the upgrades and fixes that are needed.

Besides the robot repairs, I also work daily with building electronics testers, testing, diagnosing and repairing our printed circuit boards (PCB). One of the things I fell in love with as a newbie tech enthusiast were PCBs. The capability of a little but powerful electronic board just opened up a whole new world for me, electrons moving through a miniature city to fulfill a program’s task still seems like magic to me.

Moreover, I get to work with the brightest minds in the field at Starship, and it is an absolute honor.

We love your insights! Can you also please enlighten us on Starship culture?

Starship’s culture is like no other. I get up each day excited to go to work, and I often don’t even realize when it’s time to go home at night. People at Starship come together to share a common passion, and I can’t get enough of it! The company has grown (and continues to do so!) fast and furious, yet able to maintain the feeling of family amongst the new and old team members.

We love it! Finally, do you have any advice for women who would also like to enter the tech field or join the world of robots?

Growing up with an older brother and always hanging amongst his friends, taught me early that more important than your gender is how you present yourself. Meaning, that I have never felt as an outsider in the often male dominated tech field, as more important than your gender is the passion and love you bring to the table and to your team each day.

At Starship, employees are valued based on their abilities and passion towards robots, whatever their gender is. I have always felt appreciated and cared for by each team member.

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Joakim has a broad role where developing, planning, and discussing mobile solutions with various stakeholders is part of everyday life. His work focuses on the app that Starship’s customers download and use to order their food and drinks. He describes it as similar to other e-commerce platforms but with one significant difference — robots do the deliveries instead of humans.

In his spare time he leads an active life and likes to have a lot of things going on. For example, he is training for a marathon and puts time and effort into that. Photography is another passion. Joakim loves to spend his days in the woods portraying birds. Preferably at odd angles.

What motivates and inspires you at Starship?

“The fact that we want to revolutionise the whole world — not just a local market — is inspiring. For example, we are well established in markets such as the UK and the US. Because many people live there, we can make a big difference with our services.

But I’m also motivated by doing what no one has done before. We’re the first and largest company to automate home deliveries. It means we face challenges no one has ever seen before. It is a whole different ball game than copying other people’s proven solutions.”

What is the most unexpected thing about your job?

“Even though Starship is a fairly large company, many teams are small with a broad responsibility and a lot of self-leadership. It means it’s advantageous if you’re a bit of an entrepreneur. It’s probably a key to fit in.”

How is the culture at Starship unique?

“While other companies call themselves international, we are for real. There are no geographical limitations at all. We hire the smartest and most passionate people we can find, regardless of nationality. My team, for example, includes employees from Columbia, Iran, India, Australia, and Denmark. What we have in common is not heritage or background, but our drive to revolutionise the world.”

What do you believe is the secret to a successful career?

“Personally, I think you need clear goals in life and maybe high ambitions. It is often said that if you are ever the smartest person in the room, you should probably change rooms quite quickly. I think so, anyway; I want to hang out with people who are smarter than me.”

What do you think will be the future of robot development, transport solutions, and AI?

“If you look back at industrialisation at the end of the 19th century, I think we are seeing a similar shift now — towards an automated society. Some jobs will disappear, and new ones will be created. That especially applies to transport solutions, and it is easy to see the benefits, both environmentally and developmentally. I am driven to lead society in the right direction.”

Describe your job as if I were from another planet.

“I will assume you are an individual in the same way humans are. Well, most likely, you also need certain objects. And most likely, geographical conditions can be found on your planet as well. Then it may be that these objects you need are found at different physical places than where you are. I would say I make a system that shows where the objects are and then brings them to you.”

Will Starship make deliveries in the Metaverse?

“We are so close to the physical dimension at Starship that it’s hard to imagine, but perhaps if you look at it from a different perspective. There are probably things people want in the virtual world that need to be delivered and paid for with virtual currency. We may have a future there as well. Who knows?”

Would you like to join our extraordinary journey? Great, we’re always on the lookout for unusually talented people. Find your next career here.

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In our product team we have multiple product groups that focus on key pillars of the business such as consumer experience or autonomous systems. Each team is empowered with competencies and skills needed to bring product to life from idea to customer acceptance and business impact: product management, product design, data science and engineering.

Team’s function better when there are clear roles and responsibilities established across the team, and when each role is filled by a person highly skilled in that role. This is a basic concept of teamwork, where the collective group can accomplish more than if each person works individually. Work has to be divided up to allow for this, and so allocating the work to people with the skills to perform the work is more efficient than assigning it randomly, or to people who don’t have the necessary skills.

When we hire for product teams, in addition to necessary skills, we look for culture add and values fit. Every new person that joins us adds something or compliments our culture. It makes the team unique and one of a kind. If you’re thinking about jumping the ship (pun intended!) and joining the Starship product team here are a few things you may want to know about our ways of working.

Extreme ownership & trust

As a team, and everyone individually, we take full responsibility for our work and the things that have happened. This means that everyone takes action to get the necessary information to do their job and we proactively try to solve any given problems. We don’t wait for someone to hand us everything but instead we ask, we seek, and we find. And yes, sometimes we fail. In such situations we don’t blame others for the failure but instead we own it. As one of our company values states: “we learn with each journey”.

Professional maturity

Professional maturity is the ability to respect diversified cultural backgrounds and experiences in a workplace. In our team we have 12 different nationalities from 4 continents and we work in distributed teams between Helsinki, Tallinn and London. We respect one another and accept that we are different — that’s what makes us special. Having so many different cultures in one team sometimes causes situations where our opinions collide. We approach these situations as a source of true team value, and with a non-judgmental and compassionate attitude.

Fit for purpose

Being a bunch of experienced people that are really good at what they do means that we want to do our job really well. We want to put out the best possible experience for our customers and partners. We want to create products that are as good as they can possibly be — make them perfect.

The problem with perfectionism, however, is that it slows us down and it can make the team miss opportunities to bring value in a new way. If we release things only when they’re perfect we won’t learn quickly enough how to make things better. Therefore, we try not to let perfect get into a way of better. Thus, we aspire for perfection but don’t let that hinder us from releasing great things.

Disagree & commit

We believe that a good idea can come from anyone. And we want the best ideas to flourish — regardless of where they originated. This means being open to constructively working with people with diverse skills and perspectives, and keeping our decision-making inclusive and rigorous.

Once we have exhausted the options a decision is made. We embrace the concept of constructive debate and querying, but once a decision is made we all rally around the chosen path. We embody the principle of disagree & commit.

Believing in making a difference

A lot of us joined Starship because we thought it would be cool to work with robots. And it really is. The common value that we all share though, is that we truly believe that we can make a difference. We believe that we can make a positive impact of solving the last-mile problem by developing the delivery service of tomorrow, today. We all want Starship to succeed and make the last-mile the greenest mile.

Play your part in our team succeeding

Building the delivery service of tomorrow is not an easy task. The challenges we work on are complex and multifaceted. Working at the intersection of physical and digital products and systems adds to this complexity. As a product team we aim to take our extraordinary technical achievements and turn them into a service that people simply cannot live without. We aim to delight our customers with the ultimate on-demand services, and to inspire our merchants with a peerless local sales channels. In parallel we work to empower our operations teams to drive efficiency with quality and deliver everyday magic with our self-driving robots.

Do these challenges sound up your alley? Great, we’re on a lookout for unusually talented people. Find your next career here.

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