Dime of the Month: Sivan Salem

Sivan is Cents’ Senior Director of Product Ops. She started out managing CS and Biz Ops, kept moving closer to the product and the process, and somewhere along the way became the number one source of truth for how everything actually works. She owns product education, leads the customer and internal webinars, and runs the day to day of engineering and product, which means she knows every edge case, every workaround, and exactly where anything sits in development. She’s also a cultural anchor here, meeting problems with execution instead of excuses, always with a smile.

There’s a bit of Mary Poppins in her: whatever you need, she already has it, and she produces it at the exact moment you realize you needed it. She has your back before you’ve thought to ask, and most of what she does happens quietly, out of view, holding things together in ways you only notice when you try to imagine Cents without her. Outside of work she’s much the same, open arms for a new hobby, a new experience, or a new friend, hosting dinners and pulling people together wherever in the world she happens to be, usually with her pup Brooklyn along for the ride.

What makes Cents different from other places you’ve worked?

It's an easy answer: this is my favorite place I've ever worked.

Cents is genuinely unlike anywhere I've worked before, both in terms of culture and how fast things move. What stands out most to me is that everyone here is working toward the same goal, and you can feel that. Good people who are genuinely motivated and want to win together. And our team itself is just incredible.

What gets you out of bed every morning?

So many things! I'm a natural morning person, so my mornings are pretty sacred to me. It usually starts with some kind of movement, like a long walk with my dog, Brooklyn, my run club, a gym session, or pilates. Getting that in early sets the tone for everything else.

And then there's my coffee ritual, which I take very seriously. I invested in an espresso machine when I moved into my apartment earlier this year and recently discovered my love for vanilla flavored beans, which has been an absolute game changer. By the time I've had my coffee I feel like I can take on anything.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Stop trying to figure out the destination and just follow what genuinely interests you. When I was younger I wanted someone to hand me a roadmap; I remember wanting to take aptitude tests just to get some kind of answer about what I should be doing because I felt so lost.

I would tell my younger self to explore the things that actually excited her and trust that the skills and opportunities would reveal themselves along the way. I loved fine dining and the restaurant world, and while I didn't end up there directly, I did land in an adjacent space — wine PR — which then led me to New York, and eventually, in a roundabout way, to Cents. My career since then has really taken shape pretty naturally, leaning into my strengths as I discovered them rather than trying to force a plan.

The outcome takes care of itself when you pay attention to how things feel along the way. That sounds cliche, I know, but I really believe it now in a way I didn't when I was younger.

What is your secret to making progress each day?

Honestly, there's no secret! It's just DOING the thing. I'm inherently motivated and growth-oriented, so for me it comes down to knowing what actually has to get done each day and not letting anything get in the way of those non-negotiables. I keep a short list of must-dos and treat them sacredly.

Tell us one thing people don’t know about you.

I love photography and polaroids, and at most of my close friends' weddings, I've unofficially taken on the role of amateur photographer, capturing everything from the first look to the first dance. The couple always gets a little stack of polaroids to keep forever, which I love. The hired photographers either love me for it or hate me for it, and honestly both reactions are fair.

What Guiding Principles of Cents do you feel like you identify with?

Great Responsibility resonates with me deeply. I think about the weight of what we're actually doing here at Cents a lot. Our customers are mostly small business owners whose livelihoods are genuinely impacted by Cents, and that's not something I take lightly. Every decision, every feature, every process has a real person on the other end of it, and I try to hold that in everything I do. Our customers are what makes Cents go round, and I feel a real duty to protect that and make sure they can succeed.

Motto or personal mantra/Words to live by?

“Discomfort breeds growth.” I actually had this on a post-it, literally. When I joined Cents after leaving Houzz in 2021, I was stepping out of a role where I felt completely comfortable. Leadership knew me, relied on me, I had real responsibility and knew exactly what I was doing. Cents was the opposite of that at first: a brand new team, a role I had to define from scratch, ownership that spanned everything and nothing all at once.

There was a moment early on where I genuinely wondered if I'd made a mistake. So I wrote "discomfort breeds growth" on a post-it and stuck it on my computer as a daily reminder that what I was feeling wasn't a sign to turn back — it was a sign I was exactly where I needed to be.

I'm SO glad I waited it out. Joining Cents was obviously the best decision I've ever made!

You can see the post-it I wrote and had front & center on my computer – this was during the pandemic when I worked out of my bedroom!