As part of our new series, the First 100, Mashable is introducing readers to the first 100 employees from 100 different successful startups and small businesses.
Last week, we heard from employees 11 through 20, and this week, we'll take a peek inside the journeys of employees 21 through 30.
Though their companies range from major digital media brands to website hosting platforms, employees 21 through 30 share similar lessons about going above and beyond one's job description and being adaptable as startups grow and evolve.
"If you want something, you work your ass off to show everyone else that you deserve it," says Carrot Creative's 21st hire, Kathryn Farwell.
Farwell, like many of those who sit in the First 100, joined her startup in its infancy and withstood the early shocks of uncertainty on her way to a management position. But before she got there, she learned a few vital lessons that all employees — whether they work for a major corporation or a brand new startup — should heed.
Read on to meet employees 21 through 30, and click here to see the stories of employees 1 through 20 in the First 100.

Image: Kathryn Falwell
On busting your butt...When I first joined, in addition to quality assurance, I handled community management for the Carrot brand. I worked on every project and covered every event for Carrot. If you want something, you work your ass off to show everyone else that you deserve it. It really makes you push yourself to figure out what it is you want from your job. Opportunities are everywhere at Carrot; it's really a matter of how comfortable you are with taking them when you spot them. I knew I always wanted to make the shift to Producer; QA was never the end goal for me. But, the position gave me that technical background I lacked and exposed me to the challenges of creating something from brief to launch. After almost two years of QA, an opportunity to manage one of our biggest accounts opened up, and I immediately grabbed it. I am now a producer at Carrot.
Doing more than just your job...When I first started, everyone was doing his/her job, plus more. Account managers were also project managers and strategists. Upper management screened phone calls to the office. Doing just 'your job' has never been enough at Carrot. It's what you do beyond 'your job' that has the biggest impact sometimes. That part of Carrot hasn't changed with growth.
Thriving after an acquisition...Carrot's done a great job maintaining the company's integrity, despite the quick growth. 'Acquisition' can be a really scary word for an employee, but we're lucky because this has only brought us bigger, better opportunities. From a culture perspective, it's almost as if everyone's committed to the Carrot culture more than ever — to make sure it retains its identity.
Today, Carrot Creative has 57 employees. It was acquired by VICE in 2013.

Alison Feldmann, Etsy
Image: Alison Feldmann
Craigslist sourcing... When I started, we were still at a point in time where my first task as an employee was to source my own desk on Craigslist, rent a van to drive it back to the office and be prepared to supply my own laptop. I remember one of my first projects was to acquire a bus that we could convert to run on vegetable oil and use to tour the country, evangelizing about Etsy (that never happened, sadly).
From intern to editor-in-chief...It definitely didn't happen overnight. When I started, we were still trying to figure out what editorial at Etsy would even look like, as we were pretty early adopters in that space; it was 2007 and not a lot of brands were investing in content. Once we had a strategy in place, I was really given the freedom to experiment with different types of stories and community engagement. I feel very lucky to have worked with so many talented colleagues from different backgrounds, and I was able to get my feet wet in all aspects of the creative experience, from social media to email marketing, to traditional journalism and merchandising. Our strategy for editorial is still evolving, and it's a very exciting time for brand storytelling.
Adapting to growth I definitely don't know everyone in the kitchen anymore and I no longer screen-print T-shirts in my downtime. Where we once each wore 10 hats, we're now able to have an entire team just for marketing or HR, which makes it a lot easier for everyone to focus on their own role. It definitely seems crazy that there are now so many people, departments and offices, but the coworkers are still cool and nice, even if the faces have changed. It's a roller coaster every day, but I wouldn't change it.
Today, Etsy has 500 employees.

Image: Ben Bates
User to employee... I was actually a RunKeeper user before I was even looking for a new job. When I found out RunKeeper was local to Boston, I started keeping track of what they were doing. When what seemed like the right opportunity came up, I jumped at it. Although I was a bit nervous going from such large companies to a startup, RunKeeper seemed to be in the sweet spot I was looking for — small enough to have an opportunity to make a big impact, but large and established enough to feel less risky.
On creating your own department...I had been working in QA for six years before I joined RunKeeper, but they had never had a QA department. I was tasked in not only building out the role, but showing the team why they even needed a dedicated QA function. In the almost two years since I have joined, I have gone from the sole QA engineer to the head of a department with four people on multiple teams and two additional hires in upcoming months.
'Night of Awesome'...RunKeeper has a talented group of people who are all passionate about helping the world be more active. The company has done a great job so far of hiring people who truly believe in what we are doing and are committed to the RunKeeper vision. We also have a group of people who genuinely enjoy being together, whether it is during work or outside of it, at things like game night, and our monthly company-wide 'Night of Awesome.'
Today, RunKeeper has 40 employees.

Camilla Buttery, YPlan
Image: Camilla Buttery
The road to YPlan... I worked on the Corporate Strategy team at Microsoft. It was great, but there were definitely longer lead times on projects and challenges coordinating with everyone. YPlan is a completely different ball game. Every day we make big decisions and implement changes to drive the business forward. If that breaks something, we fix it. It sounds obvious but it's very entrepreneurial -– everyone drives new ideas and improvements for the business.
On evolution at YPlan... When I joined, we were in a small office near King's Cross that we shared with another company. Soon after, we closed a $12 million Series A round, which allowed the company to turbo-charge growth. We've more than tripled our audience, securing 500,000 downloads globally. The team has grown to over 50 people –- more than double when I started. We've moved into our own offices in Farringdon. We're expanding rapidly in the U.S. We launched in New York in September and will be in San Francisco soon, with more cities to come. Yet with all that change, the core culture is the same as the day I joined. I think testament to the massive emphasis on hiring the right people –- not just super high caliber, but the right fit.
Company culture... Everyone has a real sense of ownership over what they do and is constantly thinking of new ways to make big changes. At the same time, it's collaborative and there are no silos. Ideas are welcome from anyone on anything –- in fact, it's actively encouraged. Things are changing all the time, things happen. We don't sit and stew on things. If we have an idea, we test it out.
Today, YPlan has 50 employees.

Image: Katherine Barna
Selling dad on startups...Once I was offered the job, there wasn't a moment of doubt when it came to joining Tumblr, but I do recall having to explain to my dad why I was leaving a large, established company (Hearst) to join this fairly tiny startup. It took exactly one round of drinks for him to get it, and I guess looking back, that means my first 'pitch' for Tumblr was a success.
Old media meets new media...Prior to a short stint at Hearst, I was working in Communications at Newsweek doing public relations for the magazine and its journalists when Tumblr first hit my radar in a significant way. At the magazine, we began using Tumblr as a way to both reach a new audience (beyond the people you would expect to show interest in a 70+ years old magazine) and to let our hair down a little bit. The response from the Tumblr community toward our brand was incredible, and I knew there was something interesting happening in this space, and I had to start a Tumblr for myself. As I began using Tumblr more at work and for myself (and got to know the team behind the product), I absolutely fell in love with the whole ethos of the company and wanted to work there if I ever had the opportunity to do so.
Keeping the culture... When I first joined Tumblr, one of the most striking moments came from realizing that everyone who worked here was genuinely friends with one another outside of the office as well — not something you find at every company. That camaraderie exists today, but now that we're over 200 people, it can be difficult to keep up with all the new hires. Obviously being acquired by Yahoo was an incredible moment for the company, but with the evolution of Tumblr, the one thing that's remained true is our focus on our community of creators. They are at the heart of Tumblr.
Today, Tumblr has 220 employees. It was acquired by Yahoo in 2013.

In the video above, Kelsey Cox explains what it's like to be hire #26.
Joining an 'under-the-radar' company... I wasn't really nervous about joining a small company, but I was a bit wary when I first interviewed because the company then was based out of an attic and an apartment-turned-office, so it looked a little too under-the-radar to be designing and creating the work that they had been creating.
Reinventing the PR pitch... We realized the traditional PR pitch was a bit dead and outdated. We decided to connect more with journalists and publishers to see what they really wanted to write about before we created that content and connected and liaised between brands. We don't just pitch something after it's complete.
Today, Column Five has 50 employees.

Seeing value in an idea... I've always been in digital ad sales, and before LockerDome, I worked on the agency/brand sales team at PulsePoint, an ad technology company. When I was considering coming on as the first ad sales employee at LockerDome, I saw value in what the company was doing for publishers and influencers, so I was just really excited about bringing that offering to brands once the new 3.0 platform launched. Social media has always been a huge interest of mine, so working in that space was certainly something I looked forward to with this job.
Early apprehension... The idea of being the first media sales employee at LockerDome, not to mention the only employee in NYC, is intimidating no matter what point you're at in your career. We're based in St. Louis and I had never experienced working outside of HQ in my previous roles. I had plenty of friends and family recommend other paths that would have certainly been less challenging, but this type of opportunity with LockerDome doesn't come around very often. All things considered, this was a no-brainer for me.
From sports to brands... When I started, we were still working off the LockerDome 2.0 platform — selling only standard display units through networks — and our team was predominantly focused on our publishers' experience. Also, our partnerships were almost entirely within the sports vertical. We knew the product the team was building would change all of that. Not only does the new platform feature in-feed, native ads for our brand partners, but it's built to support all verticals and interests. The sports partnerships will always be strong, but it's been exciting to have discussions outside of that vertical, too.
Today, LockerDome has 30 employees.

On moving to a digital startup... I didn't have reservations about the size of the company, but I did have reservations about moving from a print publication to a digital startup. At that time, media outlets were folding daily, and I had no sense of Tasting Table's longevity. But I believed in what the company was doing, and I thought I would give it a shot.
Calling Ms. Battilana... The bulk of our staff, editorial and otherwise, are based in New York City at our SoHo headquarters, though we have city editors in Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco — all of whom I collaborate and communicate with daily. It's easy these days to work with people all over the country, and it's great to share ideas from coast to coast, to see trends spread from east to west (or, often, from west to east). I am queen of the conference call.
Building Tasting Table inside and out... When I first started, I had to explain Tasting Table to almost every person I spoke with — there was no name recognition, and that was something we had to build. We also built a spectacular test kitchen and dining room and moved into bigger offices, allowing us to develop and test recipes in-house, invite chefs to cook special dinners and host special events. We brought Tasting Table to life, in other words, which is especially important for a digital company.
Today, Tasting Table has 42 employees.

Powen Shiah, Jimdo
The one-man band... I started as a one-man show at Jimdo, doing a little of everything for the U.S. market — community management, press, business development, localization and marketing, to name a few. When Jimdo made the decision to open an office and to set up a team in San Francisco, that was a huge opportunity and turning point for me. I moved to San Francisco with Christian Springub (one of Jimdo's co-founders). We set up the U.S. subsidiary and built a team for marketing and customer support here. My role has shifted to focus more on the big picture and and coordinating what we're doing in the U.S. with Jimdo's global strategy.
Language barriers... In the early days, as the only native English speaker at the company, I helped on many projects where we wanted to ensure we were getting the messaging and presentation right. It was an awesome way to learn about the different projects underway at Jimdo, from partnership deals in Germany to developer talks at conferences. I love working with the team in Germany, it's an extremely diverse crew, since our teams for almost all other languages (besides Chinese and Japan) are based out of Hamburg. I had lived in Germany for a year during high school and a year in college, so I was pretty familiar and comfortable with German cultural differences.
You can't plan for everything... Working at a startup was not on my radar during college. I thought I would end up in academia, community organizing/advocacy or at a non-profit. But Jimdo came along and gave me a way to combine my interests in the web and Germany/intercultural work. Now I can't imagine any other path that would have given me as much room to explore and grow.
Today, Jimdo has 180 employees.

Image: Amy Bohutinsky
Finding Zillow... Back in 2005, I was living in San Francisco and I had a great life, a new boyfriend, and zero intentions of ever leaving the city. I got a call from current Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff, who I had worked closely with at Hotwire for several years (he was a co-founder). Spencer had just joined Rich Barton (founder and former CEO of Expedia) and Lloyd Frink (former Expedia SVP) in a top secret new venture tackling the residential real estate space, and he wanted to know if I was interested. At that point, Zillow was just an idea, without a name or a product. While the idea sounded exciting, I told him there was no way I was moving to Seattle. But I decided to fly up and have a chat anyway. Within a few hours, I was so inspired by their ambitions and the opportunity that I said yes on the spot and called my boyfriend from the airport to tell him I was moving away. Fast-forward nine years and it's the best decision I've ever made –- one based on following my gut and the energy and ambitions of the founders. Also, my boyfriend later followed me to Seattle and we're now married with a couple of kids, and we love living in Seattle.
Witnessing internal growth... I have had the amazing opportunity to build a brand, a function and a team from scratch. I'm most proud of the team that I've built, and how they've grown over the years. For example, our first intern in marketing came for a summer after her junior year in college and later joined us after graduation. Today, she's a senior marketing manager, has been promoted multiple times and is becoming an amazing leader and strategist. I love that I've been able to be a part of this.
Constant evolution... The opportunity keeps getting bigger. In addition to real estate, Zillow now has marketplaces in rentals, mortgages and home improvement. More than two-thirds of our usage is now on mobile, with those users viewing 400 million homes each month — something we never could have imagined when we started the company in 2005, pre-smartphone. We've really just dipped our toes into the opportunities ahead of us, and it's incredibly fun to come into work every day and be a part of the energy pouring into what's next.
Today, Zillow has 900 employees.
Were you one of the #First100? Tell us about your experience in the comments.