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Randy Meech

Director of Engineering - Maps at Snap Inc.

Randy Meech is the Director of Engineering for Maps at Snap Inc. He has held this position since October 2020.7 In November 2023, Meech was promoted to Senior Director of Engineering, taking on additional responsibilities for Bitmoji, Camera, Creative Tools, and Lens Experience.7

Previous Roles and Experience::

  • StreetCred Labs: Prior to joining Snap, Meech was the CEO and co-founder of StreetCred Labs, a platform for accessible, decentralized place data. Snap acquired StreetCred Labs in 2020.456
  • Mapzen: Meech also served as the CEO of Mapzen, an open, mobile-focused mapping platform supported by Samsung Research America.34 Mapzen built open-source tools for map display, search, and navigation. Its software and data projects are now part of the Linux Foundation.5
  • MapQuest: After an early local and mapping startup he founded was acquired by AOL in 2009, Meech led the engineering team at MapQuest, concentrating on mobile expansion, open data, and software.4
  • Google: Meech began his career at Google.4
  • Additional roles: Shelter Island Mapping Company, Brewster Inc, AOL, Patch, Serafund, and Molecular.12

Education::

  • MTS, Harvard University2
  • BA, Fitchburg State University2

Meech has been a prominent figure in the open mapping community, emphasizing collaboration between businesses and communities to create superior maps.

Highlights

Sep 1 · linkedin

Lots of talented people affected yesterday at Snap, including some from our high-performing maps team. Thanks to all who've reached out to offer help and support. If you're hiring, do yourself a favor and look up these folks. I can also help make connections.

As someone who has been on each side of this difficult process multiple times, I wanted to share my story in case it's helpful.

I started in tech in 2000 at a web development company that rode the highs of the dot-com bubble, and then did multiple layoffs. I survived several, and it was so hard to say goodbye to friends and colleagues. If you're in this position now, take care of yourself and know that survivor's guilt is real. Take time to process and talk to others about it.

I was also laid off twice: first in 2002 by the same web development company when they closed their NYC office. I was broke, just moved to NYC, and had a lot of student loans and credit card debt. It was scary. But in retrospect, this was the best thing that ever happened to me because it freed me up to go to Google in July of 2002, which changed my life forever and was a highlight of my career. Incidentally, Google was a weird, chaotic little place at the time - my parents had never heard of it. Don't be afraid to try companies that you're interested in but are new or unproven.

Back in 2018, I was also laid off when Samsung shuttered Mapzen, where I was CEO. Our whole team of ~45 was impacted, and we all banded together to help everybody find new roles. This was a very difficult process for me, which I wrote about here and still refer to sometimes: https://lnkd.in/dK2bEDGv (I'll leave the link preview because I like the visual metaphor of budding lilacs in spring).

But after losing Mapzen, Diana Shkolnikov and I went on to found StreetCred, acquired by Snap in 2020 - another major career highlight. Founding a startup is a risky move, and one I frankly wasn't ready for until later in my career, but if you have an idea you want to pursue, think about this option too.

Overall, if you're impacted in a situation like this, know that hope isn't lost, and you might be looking back years later, realizing that one door closing opened a much better, life-changing door for you instead. And you have lots of people ready and willing to help, including me - reach out if I can help with anything.

Related Questions

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Randy Meech
Randy Meech, photo 1
Randy Meech, photo 2
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Location

Brooklyn, New York, United States