Rachel Wittlin: Keeping up with Technology

Everyone makes plans, but life doesn't usually follow that path. We plan to go to college, to get a degree, and to land our dream job. Somewhere along the way, we tend to find what we didn't even know we were looking for.

As a graduate from the University of California Los Angeles, Rachel Wittlin planned to make a career in client services. Along the way, she found an interest in technology and startup companies. "I had an interest in startups, as I feel they provide many opportunities for young people to take on multiple roles and learn different aspects of a business," Rachel said, showing even as a young woman out of college her tenacity and initiative that would take her far, were already well-formed.

Through AngelList, a website dedicated to startup companies, Rachel found Caplinked. CapLinked is a secure document sharing and management platform that is completely plug-in free.

They offer customizable permissions, digital rights management, watermarking, and an activity tracker that allows their clients to have a full audit trail of everything that takes place in their workspace. They specialize in virtual data rooms and document sharing which offers control and security to the clients every step of the way.

Hired as the customer success manager and point of contact post sales, Rachel worked closely with account management and troubleshooting. Three years after working at Caplinked, Rachel became the director of operations.

She feels that startups are an opportunity to wear many hats, to learn, and to grow with a company in a less restrictive environment. Her early years at CapLinked gave her the opportunity to learn and grow as a professional in the way she was seeking. Rachel said, "Being in the startup world is exciting, to be in one part and then wear a lot of hats and end up somewhere you never expected."

Women advance in professional settings and find themselves in positions of management and leadership. Sometimes, women in these positions find themselves scrutinized more or having a lack of support from peers or their team. As a woman in a leadership position, Rachel uses practices she believes help to make her an effective leader.

Rachel urges open communication between her and her team. She feels it is important, as a leader, that people know you value their opinion and insight, and that a team voice is heard. A leader is not someone to just tell them what to do and when to do it.

With the path Rachel has taken, and the advances she has made, one might wonder what is next. "It would be migrating a little more toward product. The role that I have now has been a constantly evolving role for me and the company," Rachel said.

As the company has grown, Rachel's role has grown as well, giving her continuous opportunity to learn new tasks and acquire new abilities. Rachel sees herself managing the product side of the business more in the future while offering more help and knowledge to the clients.

Technology is innovative; markets and users are constantly changing. Technology needs to be just as adaptive. Rachel makes herself as adaptive as the technology she works with. "Tech is everywhere, and everybody is exposed to it. It's a cool industry to be in for sure," Rachel said. The world has come to rely on technology for everything, and we need people like Rachel making sure that everything is running smoothly.

Rachel Wittlin is the director of customer success and operations at CapLinked. She loves troubleshooting and has a growing interest in product management.

Brooke Wall is an editorial intern for WITI and is a senior at Sam Houston State University. She is an honors student majoring in English. When she isn't writing or studying, she spends her time helping a group of indie authors edit their work for publishing.

Opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of WITI.