If you come to Clear Street knowing what you want to do, you’re encouraged to go for it and execute without fear of failure. You’ll be personally responsible and motivated, but you’re not alone. You’re given all the tools and resources to create your own journey, and you will have advocates along the way that will help propel you to where you want to go.

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Victoria (Tori) Harinxma-Jenkins joined Clear Street four years ago as an executive assistant. Now, as a Senior Marketing Associate, Tori manages the firm’s events, media, promotions, and more. As one of our first employees, she’s helped make Clear Street what it is today. On Tori’s fourth anniversary, we asked her about her career progression and lessons learned along the way.

How long have you worked at Clear Street and what was your first role here?

I started at Clear Street in February 2019 as the executive assistant to our CEO, Chris Pento. When I joined, there were only 20 employees, three of whom were the co-founders.

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I learned quickly that when you work at a startup, everyone wears multiple hats, and I was no exception. Now, even though we’ve grown to almost 400 employees, we still keep the entrepreneurial spirit from those early days.

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Back then, we weren’t even a year old, and there were a lot of essential processes that hadn’t yet been put into place. One of the areas I took a vested interest in was the employee experience. I knew that in order for us to grow and scale, our company culture needed to be built out along with our internal communications and onboarding. Some of the first initiatives I took ownership of were town halls, company events, onboarding packets, internal newsletters, and blog posts.

How did your role change over time?

When Covid-19 hit, I took on the Office Manager position full time, on top of my assistant duties and Culture Coordinator work. I had to figure out how to move our employee experience to a remote environment, which was a challenge for companies everywhere. We sent care packages, distributed new swag, and hosted town halls, lunch-and-learns, 1–1 videos, and monthly social events — all virtually. It was a huge change and a great learning experience. As my responsibilities expanded to a broader range of communications, I began handling projects that encompassed all of communications, not just internal. This is how I eventually transferred onto the communications team full-time in 2022.

What’s an impactful project you’ve worked on at Clear Street?

The Series B funding round in May 2022 was my first large communications project. I hadn’t really worked on a full-scope communications plan until that point. It was a very involved project that took months of coordinating with the executive team, investors, external consultants, and the media to make sure the news was announced accurately and in the right publications.

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Along with the Series B announcement, we were refreshing the entire company website, our messaging, and our marketing materials. I was involved in the rebrand and helped ensure we executed the launch in parallel with the funding news. It took almost three months of planning, but I learned a lot and really enjoyed seeing the whole process from start to finish.

What has the growth of Clear Street been like for you professionally?

I’ve seen the company grow so much, and I’ve grown along with it. In Clear Street’s first few years, we weren’t marketing publicly yet. Instead, we relied on word-of-mouth and personal invitations. We didn’t really announce Clear Street’s product offering until October 2021, and within less than a year we had overwhelming client demand. It’s been exciting to write some of our first product announcements and funding news, and to develop my skill set alongside the brand.

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Clear Street is still a young company today, and our brand is ever-evolving. We try to take a look at the brand holistically every two to three months to make sure we’re still aligned with our mission as we grow and expand into new asset classes and geographies.

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I’ve been able to naturally evolve at Clear Street. They knew from the start that I was interested in marketing and communications, and helped carve a clear path to the position I’m in now. I’ve had great advocates who helped get me to where I am today — it always felt like leadership and senior colleagues had a vested interest in my success.

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At Clear Street, our top priority is our people. We are continuously investing in a culture that promotes collaboration. We help each other through challenges, and celebrate each other’s successes. Learn more about careers at Clear Street here.