In our HouseCanary Employee Spotlight blog series, we highlight some of our exceptional Canaries that make HouseCanary such a great place to be.

In this edition of the HouseCanary Employee Spotlight, we have a double feature! Meet Chris Stroud, Co-Founder + Chief of Research, and Mike Poindexter, VP of Product Engineering.

We caught up with both Chris and Mike to get to know a little more about them.

What is your role at HouseCanary?

Chris: Chief of Research.
Mike: I lead our product engineering team, so my typical day involves meeting/talking with a number of people to help understand where we are, where we should be, and the technology we’re developing.

What aspect of your job do you enjoy the most?

Chris: The flexibility to explore, develop, and test cutting-edge research.
Mike: I get to work with an amazing team of super smart people to build cutting-edge products.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Chris: Building out the most advanced analytic platform for valuing residential real estate.
Mike: Learning something new, building something cool, spending time with my wife and daughter.

What are your biggest professional challenges?

Chris: Among many choices, deciding what research topics to prioritize and pursue.
Mike: Keeping up with the rapidly evolving world of technology, understanding business goals and mapping them to what’s achievable with technology.

Describe your role in 3 words.

Chris: Theory. Test. Scale.

What’s your favorite movie?

Chris: Patton.
Mike: The Princess Bride. It’s just such a fun, entertaining, silly movie.

What’s the last book you read?

Chris: The service manual for a Honda CBR100RR.
Mike: The Stone Sky. Generally, I like Sci-Fi/Fantasy books.

Do you have any websites you frequent?

Chris: YouTube is the source for most of my entertainment media.
Mike: Hacker News and Reddit.

What’s your favorite food?

Chris: Texas bone-in ribeye steak.
Mike: I’m originally from Texas, so whenever I go home to visit my family, I pig out on BBQ and Tex-Mex.

Do you have any hobbies? What do you like to do in your spare time?

Chris: Working on and riding Supersport motorcycles.
Mike: I’ve got a two-year old daughter, so most of my spare time involves playing with her or spending time with my wife. I love skiing in the winter as well.

What music would we hear playing through your headphones at work (if any)?

Chris: Most likely would be trance, although it could be anything.
Mike: Something electronic that helps me focus.

If you could choose a superpower, what would it be?

Chris: The ability to fly.
Mike: I’d love to be able to teleport myself. I love to visit new places — it would be awesome to just teleport to the Alps for a quick day of skiing, or Hawaii just to watch the sunset from the beach.

Interested in working at HouseCanary? Check out our Careers page to see our current openings.