Getting to know Persefoni: Meet TJ Garza

1. And you may ask yourself, "Well... how did I get here?" (Tell us your journey?)

I didn’t start my career out with a lot of direction, but as I worked, I was able to find a combination of what I was good at and what I enjoyed. I started as a revenue analyst and built small excel tools to help do my work. Then I moved a step back in the data chain and built tools and reports for others. Eventually, I became a Data Engineer at a Fortune 500 company. I had job stability in a very unpredictable economy and was not looking to take a risk and move to a tech startup. That is, until I talked with Kim Stroh and Jason Offerman, two of Persefoni’s founders. The level of maturity they brought to the table, along with their vision for the company, made the proposition of joining a tech startup a lot less risky. Combine that with the opportunity to build something new and maybe do a little good along the way pushed me over the edge, and I started with Persefoni early in 2021.

2. And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile. (What do you do at Persefoni?)

I am a Data Architect in our Data Engineering team. Our team oversees all of our data, where it lives, and how it moves. If you enter data into a form or see a chart, that is our team working in the background alongside our very talented counterparts on the front-end teams who make everything easy on the eyes. As one of Persefoni’s team of Data Architects, I get to work end-to-end with our data—so one day I may be optimizing a query and the next prototyping a new feature.

3. And you may ask yourself, "Where does that highway go to?" (What are your hopes for your time at Persefoni?)

I’ve got two answers for this one. The first is selfish—I work with a great team of super talented people and I am going to learn everything I can from them (and try to return the favor). The second is a little higher-minded. We know climate change is happening, but it is hard to see the factors that are contributing to it in real numbers. We want to change that. The work we do here makes it easy to measure a company’s carbon footprint, and once that is measured, steps can be taken to reduce it. By saying easy, I mean easy for the end-user; on our “dev side”, it has taken a lot of work and research to get to this point.

4. And you may say to yourself, "My God! What have I done?" (Why is Persefoni a great home for you?)

It is rare to be able to build something new, which is what I get to do here at Persefoni. And it isn’t just building something new; it’s building something new with a purpose. And not only that, it is with a great team of people that are all in it together. TLDR: I’m working with good people on a good thing.

5. And you may find yourself in another part of the world... (Tell us about your life/hobbies away from work?)

I was born and raised in and around the suburbs of Phoenix, AZ. My desire for a cooler climate and more adventure brought me to Los Angeles, CA, where I currently reside with my wife, Amy, and two rambunctious cats, Eleanor and Rigby. I love exploring the amazing restaurants that LA has to offer and will try anything once. Amy and I love the beach and live about 30 minutes away, so we go as often as we can. I’m learning to surf, and while I haven’t quite got the hang of it yet, it is fun and exciting. I also like board games and play weekly with friends. We play online these days, which has given me a chance to keep up with friends that have moved all over the country.