Mike Saris is Tendo’s resident trick rollerblader, IPA aficionado, and unflappable Engineering Manager who’s passionate about building technology that makes healthcare seamless and accessible for patients and health systems alike.
When he’s not mentoring our engineering team or laying the groundwork for Tendo’s platform and applications, you might catch Mike spending time with his family or waxing poetic about his passion for Philly sports—especially the Eagles (Go Birds!).
To learn more about Mike, check out our Employee Spotlight!
What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
Either that I’m the oldest of four boys, or that movies and TV shows can make me cry fairly easily. Anything that plays on the deep relationships and caring between loved ones really gets me.
What’s your favorite way to unwind after a long day?
Drinking a hazy IPA while talking to good friends and/or taking in some breathtaking landscape.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
First, I wanted to be a monkey. Then I wanted to be a SportsCenter anchor. After that, I wanted to be a professional baseball player, but I knew the chances of that happening were very small. So I focused on figuring out how to use my gift for math. Once I found computer science, I knew software engineering was the profession for me.
What’s your favorite part about your job?
It’s almost impossible to name just one! I love the sincere feeling that I am helping people, both my Tendo colleagues and the patients, caregivers, and health system employees who will use what we build. I also love the opportunities to get into a good flow. I love flow.
Why did you decide to join Tendo?
I’ve been looking for a company like Tendo for years. I’ve desperately wanted to revolutionize how software works for patients, caregivers, and health system employees, and I believe the group of people we have here at Tendo has a very high likelihood of making that happen.
What do Tendo’s values mean to you?
I didn’t codify or write Tendo’s values of Impact, Openness, and Speed, but it feels like I did!
Impact means making everyone’s life better — starting with the people I manage, the people who use our software, and my own. Openness means transparency with my colleagues and our customers/users, and always keeping an open mind. Speed means having a responsible and sustainable sense of urgency.
If someone you know was thinking about applying to Tendo, what would you tell them?
Do it! We’re on to something very special here. If you believe everyone involved in healthcare — patients like yourself, caregivers like your friends and family, and all the healthcare system employees that take care of us — if you think all of them deserve a better experience, we’re going to make that happen here.
And if you’re a Software Engineer, I have not heard of a healthcare software company with a tech stack that is even close to as modern and cool as ours. If you have passion, skill, and commitment, you will absolutely love it here.
What’s your favorite part of being on Tendo’s engineering team?
I really like the tech stack and architecture choices we’ve made so far — Go, React, Kafka/event streaming, neo4j/graph databases, AWS/Cloud Native architecture. A good chunk of it is new to me, but it’s amazing how quickly all of it has felt so, so right. Our Engineering team is running with all of it extremely well. We have some truly amazing Engineers here, and it is the people I work with that are my favorite part of Tendo. I also don’t mind how there’s no legacy software we have to worry about keeping alive.
If you could snap your fingers and become an expert at something, what would it be?
At work, I’d love to magically become an expert at handling millions of requests per second. At home, I’m working to become an expert at leading and raising a resilient and joyful family that knows how to help each other through tough times.
What’s the first concert you ever went to?
It may have been Crash Test Dummies (who were opening for Elvis Costello). But the best story is when I saw the Rolling Stones. My mom and dad took my brother and me when I was 12 and he was 10. I’ll never forget my mom’s reaction to being in the same building as Mick Jagger, or that my brother fell asleep.
What’s the top destination on your must-visit list?
This is tough! I love, love, LOVE to travel. I frequently want to go back to New Zealand, Hawaii, Japan, Scotland, and Ireland. But of the places I haven’t been to yet, I think a safari in Africa, or Patagonia are tops.
The Zombie apocalypse is coming. Who are the three people you want on your team?
Chuck Norris, Brian Dawkins (arguably the greatest Philadelphia Eagle of all time), and my brother Danny. He’s a 6’4″ 275+ lb doctor and it would be nice to have someone I know really well on the team.
Help us build seamless, connected healthcare experiences at Tendo.
Mike Saris is awesome to work with and we’re so lucky to have him at Tendo. He’s been instrumental in getting our technology framework up and running and we can’t imagine Tendo without him!
We’re currently looking for engineers to join the team and help us get Tendo’s platform and applications up and running. If you’re interested in building software that will help drive the digital transformation of healthcare, apply for one of our engineering roles!
