Ian Sid

What is your mission at Formulary? Why did you join Formulary?

I was drawn to the opportunity to transform the financial services industry with artificial intelligence.

It’s rare to work this closely with accountants: building software for them and improving how they work day to day. All my friends are engineers, but none of them are doing what we’re doing, which is designing solutions in partnership with users and clients on a daily basis.

Our ambition at Formulary is bold. Fund administration has been broken for a very long time, and we’re here to transform it with technology. In many ways, what we’re doing is unprecedented.

What first got you into engineering?

Since childhood, I’ve been very analytical and drawn to technology. I’ve always liked solving problems, tinkering and thinking critically. For example, when I had a computer that didn’t quite work, I figured out how to use Linux and set it up myself. I enjoyed math, and I loved talking to people who were doing engineering.

At Berkeley, I was originally a math major. After taking a data science class, I switched to data science, and since my friends were computer science majors, I also took more programming-heavy classes. I was still doing a lot of math, such as theoretical probability courses. Being in that STEM-oriented environment shaped who I am today.

AI is reshaping how software gets built and how financial operations run. Where do you see engineering going?

With AI, we can ship at incredible speed. I can solve problems much faster than before, which means I have to be more intentional about which problems I solve, and how and why I solve them.

You can hand problems to AI and it can fix them quickly. That means engineers like me, who are early in our careers, have to think like managers: delegating, tracking and reviewing work.

Understanding engineering tradeoffs is more important than ever, and AI has raised the stakes on making the right decisions from the outset.

Formulary talks about “bionic accounting,” which pairs human expertise with AI. How does this vision translate to your day to day and how you build at Formulary?

Accountants using AI is a new concept. You have to build software that’s intuitive enough for someone to pick up and use without much guidance or training. Good UX/UI has always mattered, but for us it’s mission-critical.

For example, I once shipped a feature, but one of our accountants didn’t understand how to fit it into a particular workflow. As I build, I have to keep in mind how accountants will experience what I make.

What is different about being an engineer here vs. other startups where you’ve worked?

We’ve made AI an integral part of our development process.

Exceptional developer experience is a first-class priority at Formulary. We’ve built flows and tools for this. Whenever an engineer has a manual process, we automate it so the whole team gets faster.

We meet weekly to figure out how to make things better for all engineers.

How would you describe our culture?

Transparent, as advertised. People aren’t afraid to speak up and say what’s on their mind. Feedback is a big part of the culture here, and it goes both ways. Regardless of seniority, everyone is treated the same and has a seat at the table to share ideas and thoughts about product, business, everything. That means a lot to me.

It’s also very fun. I stay engaged because I enjoy the work so much. The people are fun to be around even when we’re not talking about engineering, and I can connect with them on a personal level.

If someone is thinking about joining Formulary, what do you want them to know?

Be ready to accept constructive feedback. The people who thrive here take it and run with it. Keep an open mind, be willing to listen and work on yourself.

What excites you most about the future of Formulary and the industry?

Fund administration has never had a clear winner or a standard of excellence. It’s inspiring to be the ones setting the bar for the industry.