By the time the API-powered recommendation platform company Even Financial announced this month that JPMorgan Chase executive Nadine Murray joined the team as senior vice president of strategy, it merely capped off a year of big moves for the New York City-based fintech.

Even provides the infrastructure for financial institutions to connect its consumers with personalized digital products. The company says its platform can lower the cost of acquisition, improve monetization, monitor compliance and deliver transparency at scale.

Phillip Rosen, CEO and co-founder of Even, told Bank Innovation that his company over the last year went from generating tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in revenue to $1.25 million to $1.5 million a month. There are now more than a million user transactions a month across Even’s network, he added.

More revenue has translated into a growing workforce.

“It’s been a large expansion for us, but we’re still a small company,” Rosen said. “We went from around a dozen to 50 or 60 employees in the last eight months. That’s very rapid growth for us, but I think we’re actually at a point where we really have the core team we want to work with.”

He said Even will probably “let it gel” for a few months before “likely” embarking on another “doubling or tripling” of staff in the second or third quarter of next year.

As Even plots its path forward, Murray’s role will be to work with Even’s partners, drive strategic planning for the company’s value proposition and spearhead expansion into new consumer financial product verticals.

“She has great experience running acquisition for large banks, who are also our clients, so she understands their thinking, how they operate and what their pain points are,” Rosen said.

Murray served as vice president at Chase, leading digital marketing and acquisition programs for the consumer bank. Previously, she had worked on strategy and digital marketing at Citibank and American Express.

Rosen said Murray’s background just seemed to fit in with what Even is trying to accomplish.

“You can build an entire company around customer acquisition, or credit cards, or mortgages, or loans, individually, but we’re going to be launching all of those on our API,” Rosen said. “So we really need a strong, consistent leadership team that can do so methodically and work through those categories to get the viable end product.”

Murray’s hiring was the latest in a string of additions to Even’s leadership team in recent months. Weifang Zhu, vice president of strategic growth, and former assistant vice president for investment banking at Barclays Capital, joined the company in October. Bethany Patterson, vice president of partner solutions, and former senior director of partner operations for North America at Index Exchange, joined in September.

It’s also worth noting that in October, on the heels of a funding round that raised about $18.8 million, Even announced it would acquire credit card recommendation engine Birch Finance for an undisclosed sum. Birch CEO Alex Cohen was immediately appointed the senior director of credit card marketplace at Even. Birch’s LinkedIn page indicates it’s been acquired by Even.

But how does a fast-growing startup like Even attract and retain quality tech talent?

Even and countless other startups are up against big tech players like Amazon and Google, which both announced plans this year to expand operations in New York City, as well as incumbent big banks eager to gain ground on their challengers. As Bank Innovation reported in September, Chase, in particular, is on a roll with its digital hiring. At the time, the bank had more than 2,000 open tech positions.

“We’re a New York City fintech startup,” Rosen said. “New York City has a tremendous pool of tech talent, but it’s very competitive to get them to join.”

He said Even focuses on reeling in engineers who have computer science degrees, but they don’t necessarily have to have 10 years of experience.

“We really like looking to regional technical schools as well as potentially hiring out of some of the banks who have maybe a more traditional culture than we do, in order to bring the best tech talent in-house,” he said. “We retain them by creating an environment that they can enjoy, but also by giving them the opportunity to work on something that’s really innovative and has tremendous potential to grow.”

Rosen said the company has had 100% retention since December of 2017.

“Nobody’s quit, and that’s because it’s a great environment, but it’s also really exciting,” he said.