Jess is currently our Senior Director of Product, but she has held many many roles - below she discusses her journey to Beyond, her experience, and what she loves most about being part of our dynamic company.
What brought you to Beyond?
I first joined Beyond in 2018 when we were still a small company of about 20 people. I had a connection here, and from the start, I was struck by how smart, friendly, driven, and interesting everyone was. At the time, I was looking to break into the tech industry after working in non-profits. Beyond felt different from many other SaaS companies because our impact on end users is tangible, and I could see and understand the difference we were making.
How long have you been at Beyond, and what has been your career path?
I’ve been at Beyond for 7 years and have held 7 different roles. Technically, I started as a Customer Success Manager, and at the time there was just one other person in the role. It also included customer support, so I was wearing a lot of hats. As we built out the CSM function, I found myself drawn to other areas like marketing, billing, and support—places where structure and process could make a big impact. I started picking up projects that needed some extra care, and over time, that evolved into me taking on the Head of Support role. Since then, I’ve also helped to stand up our EMEA Customer Experience team, our India Host team & now I’m currently our Senior Director of Product.
Tell me about your current role. What is it that you do now?
I’m currently the Senior Director of Product, a role I started in January 2025. It’s been a great shift for me, since most of my previous roles were in go-to-market, and now I’m fully in product development. I work closely with our VP of Product and the Product Managers to build, plan, and execute on the product vision. It’s been fun to share my GTM perspective with the team and at the same time gain a much deeper understanding of the process and reality of bringing a product to life. A big part of my role is balancing the need to ship quickly with ensuring everything remains stable, which keeps things both fun and challenging.
What are some things that have changed about Beyond since 2018?
So much has changed since I joined. One of the biggest shifts has been in diversity. We’ve made a deliberate effort to bring more women into the company and improve our overall DEI balance. We’ve also expanded globally, building out teams in Barcelona and India. I helped set up the Barcelona office and even had the chance to visit Bangalore to meet our India team in person, which was incredible. Our functions have also grown! When I started, I was writing our social media posts and a lot of our blog articles myself, so it’s been great to see that we have a full marketing team in place and a full finance team in place with people who are far better at those things than I am.
What has stayed the same since you joined Beyond?
A few things have stayed constant since I joined. Our San Francisco office space, which we’ve had since 2018, is still home base and we love it. We even recently hosted a happy hour with all the other tenants. More importantly, our core commitment to customers hasn’t changed. We’ve always tried to be customer-centric in our decisions, and I appreciate how our percentage-based pricing model means we are in a partnership with our customers. And at the heart of it all, we’ve remained a people-first company that is truly committed to perks like unlimited PTO, recognizing that we’re people before employees, and encouraging everyone to bring their full selves to work.
What is your favorite part about working at Beyond?
That’s easy, the people. I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s true. The people I work with at Beyond, and our customers, are real, genuine people. I get to solve complex problems with smart, funny, and dedicated teammates, and that means a lot to me. It’s a big part of what’s kept me here all this time. I also learn something new every day, and I honestly wouldn’t want to do this work with any other group of people.
What are you most excited about for the future of Beyond?
I’m excited to keep growing and learning on the product side of the business, honing my skills and helping take our product to new heights. My hope is to make it even more powerful while also making it easy for our customers to use on the go.
Celebrating Jess’s Impact
Though we didn’t ask Jess directly, we couldn’t close without highlighting just how impactful she’s been in shaping Beyond. In fact, her ability to turn ideas into reality inspired us to create the Jess Kelso Impact Award in 2022! Since that year, when Jess won her award, we’ve also awarded Vincent Mechele (2023), Aaron Navarro (2024) and Clair Ablanalp (2025).
Our Going Beyond series aims to pull back the curtain and show what it’s really like to work at Beyond. Our five core values provide structure for our company decisions, interactions, and work: We Care, We Go Beyond, We Are On The Same Team, We Inspire Trust and We Ship It. If these values resonate with you, then you belong at Beyond too! Check out our careers page for more information and to see open positions: https://www.beyondpricing.com/about/careers
