7/5/2007

Mint Team Spotlight – Jason Putorti

Name:

Jason M. Putorti

Title:

Lead Designer

Education & Experience:

University of Pittsburgh ‘02 – BS in Computer Science and Mathematics. I started my MFA at Parsons, but left to help launch a college guidebook company. Later I started a creative agency, and a few software ventures before deciding it was time for California Love.

Tell us about yourself.

I’ve packed a lot of life experiences and lessons learned into my 24 years so far- both personal and professional. People describe me as ambitious, competitive, and genuine.

Tell us something interesting about yourself.

After Mint I want to move to Italy for a while, and then either try acting in Los Angeles, start another company, or both.

Best financial tip?

Put your finances on auto-pilot: set up auto-pay on all your bills, the fewer little things you have to worry about, the better. More importantly, use Mint.com when it launches: it will show you where your money goes every month so you can make informed decisions, and how to save more of it without changing your daily spending habits.

Worst financial move?

Launching a company with an investor without doing some serious due diligence, yeah… that’s a big one boys and girls. I’m still paying for that one.

Funnier was when I dove into day trading stocks without knowing anything about technical analysis or timing. My friend wrote a ticker symbol I’d never seen on a post-it and said, “let’s get into this – it’s been going up like crazy all day.” I lost almost $1,000. The stock exchange can be like Vegas minus the tawdry decor if you’re not careful.

How do you handle your finances?

I try to spend less than I make and grow my net worth every month. I keep a close eye on my balances by utilizing online banking features most days, but I don’t specifically budget.

What’s the funniest/craziest thing you’ve seen while working at Mint?

One employee wallpapered his cube with bubble wrap, and pops it when he gets stuck on a problem. He also puts chipotle pepper sauce on everything he eats- it started a trend.

Why are you working at Mint?

I’ve wanted to work in the web software field in Silicon Valley for several years, and Mint was by far the best “Web 2.0″ idea I was exposed to, and met all of my criteria in evaluating a business: most importantly a potentially wide consumer audience, and it is a product that I’d use and be passionate about building and improving on every day.

What do you do at Mint?

I handle the product design – basically, everything visual – I create the look and feel of the product and manage the brand image of the company from the logotype to the web site.

Favorite part about working here?

What gets me excited about working at Mint is that tens of thousands of people, hopefully, will see and interact with a product that I’ve designed and worked on- I suppose I like an audience.

I also have a lot in common with everyone that works here, and I believe Mint has a very friendly work environment – everyone is sociable, and the employees are a close-knit group of people.

What don’t you like about working here?

Designers (at least me), really like natural light and lofty modern spaces. The recreation of the sets from Office Space in here is very faithful, except we have fewer windows.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Professional soccer player.

What profession would you absolutely not like to participate in?

A really stringent corporate job that doesn’t allow me to be creative, or most importantly have my ideas listened to- which is probably why I’ve always either been my own boss or been in a startup.

What do you do after work?

Play soccer, go swimming, hit the beach and play some volleyball; I love going to the beach as I’ve been landlocked my whole life.

Do you have a website or a blog?

Novaurora.com is the agency I started in Pittsburgh, and I always like people to contact me on Linkedin.