BlaBlaTech @ Warsaw

Initial meetup and presentation upon the inception of BlaBlaCar's engineering hub in Warsaw.

1. BlaBlaCar BlaBlaTech @ Warsaw 28 May 2015
2. Summary 1. Who we are? 2. BlaBlaCar? 3. BlaBlaTech? 4. Technologies & Projects?
3. Who we are?
4. Christian Jennewein @cestcri https://github.com/cestcri • @ BlaBlaCar since January 2013 as Tech Manager • Scaling the team & organisation, Agile coach on a daily basis • I won the Polish Ultimate Frisbee Championships in 2009 with GMF
5. Dominika Gierczynska • @ BlaBlaCar since September 2014 as a Tech Talent Scout • Helping to find the best IT talents in France & Poland • I was a semi-professional Basketball player
6. Bartłomiej Bąk @brtkbak • @ BlaBlaCar since June 2014. Now in Marketing Team • Spread BlaBlaLove in Poland • Already travelled in 5 countries with BlaBlaCar
7. Patrycja Goras @patrycjagoras • @ BlaBlaCar since March 2014 in Admin Team • coordinating finance and HR in Poland • Testing the product in real life - avid ride-sharer on Warsaw - Kielce route
8. Benjamin De Bernardi @_GeneSoR https://github.com/genesor • @ BlaBlaCar since October 2014 as Developer • Fixing & improving stuff on a daily basis • Developing new features with TeamGreen • I’m the youngest employee of BlaBlaCar + competitive paintball player
9. Erwann Robin @diwann • @ BlaBlaCar since November 2013 as 1st dedicated Mobile Developer • Smooth migration of the old webapps to new native apps • iOS Developer in TeamOrange on a daily basis • I’m a trampoline teacher
10. Michał Pawelec @Michal_Pawelec_ • In BlaBlaTeam since Oct 2012 • Country Manager for Poland • happy to make PL team working in best conditions • I was on highest peak of Poland and at the seaside on the same day!
11. Nicolas Tricot @sholine42 https://github.com/sholine • @ BlaBlaCar since March 2014 as Tech Manager • Scaling the team & organisation • Agile coach on a daily basis for TeamRed and TeamOrange • Arrived the day after BlaBlaBreak 2014…
12. Piotr Zarówny @pzpl https://github.com/pzpl • Previously Scrum Master & Software Engineer at GG • @ BlaBlaCar since May 2015 as Tech Manager • Building & leading the new tech team in Warsaw • Been on BlaBlaBreak before arrival…
13. BlaBlaCar
16. A Fast Growing Community
17. ...in 19 countries
18. 54% join to save money Join for the SAVINGS 80% “more affordable” Stay for the SHARING 5x cite social motivations Repeat Passengers versus First Timers: 5.5x cite ecological motivations Love for the FREEDOM 54% feel more mobile 25% closer to loved ones
20. The BlaBlaCar mission • Vision ◦ Build the biggest global social transportation network • Mission ◦ Spread ridesharing all over the word ◦ Educate the markets & adapt the product
21. Poland • launched in October 2012 with 3 persons team • now > 1 million Polish members • no. 1 ridesharing service in Poland - and growing!
22. PL Team - from 3 to 12
23. BlaBlaTech BlaBlaTech.com Follow us on Twitter @BlaBlaCarTech
24. BlaBlaTech People
25. Warsaw Bucharest Paris People
26. BlaBlaTech today ?
27. Miami Singapore 2x Paris Servers
28. BlaBlaTech missions + Experts...
30. Website
31. Monetize
32. Mobile Apps
33. Backoffice
34. Tech committee Refactoring / Optimisations
37. System & Network Architecture
38. Be available 24/7
40. Business Intelligence Collect, model & share
41. BlaBlaTech Organisation
42. Agile boards
43. Daily Standups
44. Ceremonies
45. Constant website updates
46. Friday demo
47. Culture
48. BlaBlaTalk
49. Values
50. BlaBlaTech Culture
51. Thursday “Pot Tech”
53. BlaBlaTech Warsaw
55. Why?
56. Why?
57. Why? • One single Tech hub in Paris • good but few talents • heavy competition • hard to scale while recruiting only the best
58. What? • New full-BlaBlaCar backend development team • build to last, build to grow • autonomous, ownership • adding (cultural) diversity
59. Where? • Warsaw! • existing BlaBlaCar hub • strong dev culture • good talents • less competition
60. How? • Learn ◦ TeamYellow ◦ SmartRecruiters, Criteo, Facebook, ... • Act ◦ Find local hands-on Tech Manager ◦ Enter the community ◦ Find 3-4 developers in the next months • Scale ◦ Double the team in 2015 ◦ Keep on doubling... WE ARE HERE
61. Challenges • Distance impacts efficiency • Intensify onboarding sessions • Always respect the 3 golden rules 1. Overcommunicate 2. Overcommunicate 3. Overcommunicate
62. Technologies
63. Our stack
64. Internet Load Balancer WEB servers (PHP / Symfony 2) Master Slaves Master Slaves Databases MemCached / Reddis Elastic Search C D N Rabbit MQ Monitoring
65. • configure local dev environment • get to know whole platform & all technologies • do code review • push code to production on first week • try to memorize all the names :) Tech onboarding in Paris
66. Projects
67. Product projects 1/2 • Two-ways rating • 1-click payment • Google Sign-in • Voucher program • ID verification via third party services
68. Product projects 2/2 • Referral program • Assistance program in case of issues • Build a CRM tool on top of our member base • Further improve moderation tools • Enhance business driver & fraud detection • Additional trip insurance
69. Tech projects 1/2 • Cassandra for distributed datastores • Gateway project for decoupling the application • Migration to PHP7 and Symfony3 • Virtual seats project
70. Tech projects 2/2 • Docker for dev and preprod environment • Optimise visited trips page (archiving) • Timezones, UTC, multi-currency • Provide lighter mobile apps for emerging markets
71. BACKEND DEVELOPERS IN PARIS/FRANCE WARSAW/POLAND
73. Follow us for a drink! :-D
75. Follow us @BlaBlaCarTech Thanks!