The elements of an Alkamist
The elements of an AlkamistMy Dallas Story
Name: Sybil Mulokwa
What made you say “Yes” to Alkami?
When I was interviewing here, the most interesting thing about it was that it was a whole a new industry for me. Before I got here, the discipline of user research didn’t exist. Now, we’ve got a team on it. Another reason is the culture. Smart people work in the building, and the amount of information they can remember and recall to get the job done always amazes me. We’ve got great clients too. Everything across the board was a check yes for me coming to Alkami.
What can you find at Alkami that you can’t find anywhere else?
First, an awesome founder of a company. Second, the culture and the complexity of the space. If you’re someone that likes to solve problems and look at things with different perspectives, angles and points of views, you can find that here. I like to challenge myself and stretch my thinking at Alkami. There’s such a mix of awesome people and solving tricky problems, and we solve it in different, interesting ways. You’re not gonna find that everywhere.
What are the benefits of Alkami being in the Dallas Region?
I’ve lived here for several years, but I’ve lived all over – Illinois, D.C., and Atlanta. The people here are amazing. I live in Flower Mound, but when I look at what’s here and what’s 30 minutes away, I can go to a great art or cultural event, and it’s not that bad of a commute. Compared to D.C., everything is very accessible and parking here is not an issue – it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but in D.C. it was $25/day for parking to go to work. I appreciate the wide open space that I’m used to now.
What does Alkami do to give back to the community?
We’ve got several programs. We’ve got one working with kids called Bold Idea where we have some kids come in and developers and engineers will teach these kids, which is amazing to see. We participate in the Feed the City program, which isn’t just a 2-3 person thing but a team of 10-15 employees that also bring their families to help making sandwiches or lunch bags for people in need. They do amazing work.
What is the company culture like at Alkami?
It’s a fast environment, but a fun environment – a work hard, play hard kind of place. We’re smart and bold. We make big investments and we value partnerships with our clients, and that’s embodied in the deals we make and customers that we have. There are people who are really savvy and always thinking about what the future looks like, so the company is the same way. We’re not going to be the same company today that we’ll be in two years. When I started almost two years ago, we were all sitting cramped on one floor and now we’re the biggest tenant in the building, and we’re still expanding. We’re constantly building and growing and excelling and thinking about our culture compounds. There’s so many things we value in each employee. We even have a culture ambassador – which shows how important it is to the company and that we believe a strong culture leads to success.
If you could describe Alkami in one word, what would it be?
I’d say innovative – in the way we approach our problems, in the problems we choose to solve, and the way we pull things together and pull them apart. If you look up the word “alchemy,” it’s about taking these elements and turning it into something magnificent, and that’s exactly what we do. We take the talent, the people. the culture, the technology, and mix it up together to end up with a gold standard in digital banking.