I wish I had some sort of magic formula for being able to build engineering teams cost effectively, but I don't.

Particularly at Hop Skip Drive, the biggest thing is trust.

You have to know that you can trust this person, not just because it helps you work more effectively together,

but because our particular product and the service that we offer involves driving kids everywhere they need to go.

The relationships that I've built with people on the engineering team and product teams and people across the company and things that they've taught me,

I think those are the things that are priceless.

My name is Sophie Lee, and I'm the CTO of Hop Skip Drive.

This is Code Story, a podcast bringing you interviews with tech visionaries who share in the critical moments what it takes to change in industry and build and lead a team that has your back.

I'm your host, Noah Labhart, and today how Sophie Lee built the platform that delivers your child to their destination as safe as possible.

All this and more on Cote Story.

Sophie Lee was born in China, but grew up in a lot of countries and places.

She grew up in Australia, lived all over Texas, and went to Harvard for undergrad, studying

economics. She is an avid bike racer, mainly on the road, and a triathlete.

The combination of living in different places, school, and racing, led her into the tech world.

In fact, she moved to San Francisco to race, though she had taught herself to program post-co

and had an idea brewing in her head on how to become a better engineer in San Fran.

Sophie has been working on her current product for six and a half years, starting in a different company formerly known as Shuttle.

The product was built originally to map out a trip from point A to point B and have a driver give a protected ride to a child.

Four years ago, her current company acquired the product, at which point she joined a CTO to lead the technology and information security team.

This is the creation story of Hop Skip Drive.

So Hop Skip Drive is a safety-focused and tech-enabled transportation solution built just for kids.

So what this means is that we help schools, government agencies, families simplify their logistics and save them a lot of time.

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