# maxima-qa.md
Sep 11th, 2026(I originally wrote this for a Maxima social media post but it was shortened)
## what's your favorite memory from your time at maxima?
Very early on, we pulled an all nighter at Jack's house to get the product from good to amazing before a customer demo. The night before, everyone was super nervous but excited. I remember we did a late night snack run at 99 ranch to fuel up.
## what made you want to stay at maxima after your internship, especially as our very first intern?
I stayed because I was learning a lot from the people around me, and the problems we were solving were (and still is) pushing me to become a better engineer.
Initially, I didn't expect accounting to be a particularly interesting field. But I was wrong. One of my earlier projects was our reconciliation engine, where we had to match groups of bank payments to separate expenses in a company's records. Different combinations could add up to the same amount. (And it's not as simple as just grouping by memos and transaction dates!) Our job was to figure out which transactions actually belonged together. Accounting is full of complex problems like these with zero tolerance for mistakes.
I've learned a lot from the engineering team. They bring deep technical knowledge from years of solving complex problems. Jack, for example, helped build Bolt's payments and fraud detection systems. Their experience helps us judge what's worth working on and provides us the technical skills to move quickly. Both are hard to develop, but I've started to develop them myself. To me, that's very valuable.
The team also cares deeply about the customer experience. We often watch recordings of customers using the product to spot where they get stuck and fix those frustrations before they have to ask. I find it satisfying to build with people who care that much about getting it right instead of just getting it done.
## what were you doing before maxima, and how did you end up here?
I was doing a CS / BBA double degree at UWaterloo. After a year I dropped out of business to focus on CS. I actually initially met Jack on the r/uwaterloo subreddit (story for another time) and ended up working with Jack and Ak at their previous company (before Maxima). When they started Maxima, Jack reached out and I joined shortly after!