Mavian is celebrating her 2 year anniversary at Stride—here’s a bit about her journey as Stride’s Senior Partner Success Manager.

Mavian, you’re a Senior Partner Success Manager here at Stride—tell us a bit about what you do.

At a high-level, I’m responsible for deepening the Stride partnerships amongst our workforce partners like Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, and about 60 others! I look for ways to be a voice for Stride to our partners and represent them within Stride.

I get to spend a lot of my time talking to partners to understand their current pain points and what they’re focusing on to find opportunities that will ultimately provide for a better experience for them, Stride, and, most importantly, the independent workers we both aim to help.

Where are you from originally?

I’m from Maryland! I spent my youngest years in Baltimore County and my teen years about 40 minutes north of Baltimore in a small town called Bel Air.

And although they might share the same name, Bel Air, MD is very different to Bel Air, CA. If anyone recalls The Simple Life with Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, they did an episode that featured my town’s mall.

What were you doing before you joined Stride?

I’ve always worked within marketing and partnerships at various startups across different industries like ecommerce, software, and influencer marketing, to name a few.

Why did you choose to work at Stride?

Within my career, I found it important to find a workplace and job that I believe in. If you believe in the company and its product, it will make your job more fun and easier.  

I believe in Stride and its mission—and even more so, the people behind it. The people that work at Stride are of a different breed and caliber. These are amongst the brightest, kind-hearted, and funniest people I’ve ever had the chance to work with. 

What’s the most rewarding part about working at Stride?

It’s knowing that Stride is helping a growing industry of independent workers have better parity to traditional workplaces.

We hear many stories from our members that traditional employment wasn’t for them. Some of our members become stressed in social settings, have to take care of their families during a typical 9-5, have disabilities, or want to be their own boss. 

People shouldn’t have to depend on traditional employment if that doesn’t suit them. Stride helps those people understand where to start as an independent worker. And we continue to guide each member through things like health insurance and taxes so that they can save as much of their earnings as possible.

What’s your favorite memory at Stride (so far)?

We recently had an offsite that brought Striders together in California. Since the pandemic struck in March of 2020, it was the first time I saw many Striders in over 15 months or for the very first time.

In general, this offsite is a top memory but, my favorite part was listening to my co-worker, Dexter, share some background on her life and how she ended up at Stride. It was so moving-- there was not a dry eye in the room. She touches on it in her Strider Spotlight!

What are some of your hobbies and interests?

Yoga and tidying up. It’s okay to judge me for saying ‘tidying up.’ I’ve literally carved out 30 minutes each night to tidy up my closet this week.

What opportunities are you most excited for within the next year at Stride? 

The world of gig and freelance work is growing rapidly. For the past eight years, Stride has been lucky enough to partner with such important companies in this space. I look forward to working with these partners to make independent work a much easier option than traditional employment.

What’s a fun fact about yourself that the team would be surprised to know?

At night, I’m one of those people that run to my room as soon as I turn off the last light in the house because of a fear that there might be something in the dark.

Favorite movie of all time? 

A Walk to Remember—(Spoiler) I thought it was the coolest thing when Mandy Moore stood on both sides of the Virginia/North Carolina state line so that she could be in “two places at once.”

Want to work with Mavian to help everyone get their own affordable benefits? We’re hiring!