Former company founder turned software developer. Recent graduate from Makers Academy, with a diverse background of 5 years in the corporate sector (analytics & product management) & 6 years with a start-up (co-founder). I moved into coding because I want to work around intelligent people, enjoy being able to see the results of my work, and get to constantly learn new things in a cutting-edge industry.
Read here about why I code, and here's the story of my start-up journey.
-
I believe life should be kept interesting, and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone is a great way to do that, doing a variety of things.
-
Companies are really nothing more than the people that work for them. So treat them well, understand them and how they work. Maintain a good culture, offer interesting work, and the chance to grow.
-
I love (indeed, thrive on) being thrown in at the deep end.
-
Effective leadership is leading from the front, and emotionally intelligent team-working is the best, for both people and task.
- Languages & Frameworks: JavaScript, Ruby, HTML, CSS, React, Vue.js, Node.js, ExpressJS, Sinatra, Python, Rails, TypeScript, WebSocket
- Databases: MS SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MongoDB
- Testing: Jest, Cypress, RSpec
- Mobile: React Native
-
Clarity - I'm good at communicating things clearly, and with no nonsense. I first developed this skill giving presentations on natural catastrophes, where it is easy to try and impress with science, but understanding what the audience actually needs to hear is important for keeping their attention. I further honed this with business leadership (often squeezed for time), where giving unambiguous & clear instructions was really important to avoid errors that could multiply down the line, and my clarity was amply demonstrated when managing Trello tickets and organising workload during team coding projects. I'm not afraid to speak up when needed.
-
Inquisitive - I am a fast reader, learner, and love gaining knowledge. I've just enjoyed watching/reading a crash course on computer science to understand how it all works under the hood. At work this has always been a useful trait, whether it's speedily taking in documentation on the latest weather science, comprehending legal contracts at Grain, or at Makers, where this skill proved invaluable to getting team projects up and running quickly, particularly when required to use new frameworks.
-
Working well under pressure - Pitching and negotiating, whilst simultaneously keeping the day-to-day functions of my company running, made for a high-pressure environment. This would often bring out the most productive side of me, focussed on efficiency. During the Makers program, we set ourselves ambitious goals to maximise the course experience, which required working well under pressure as deadlines approached to keep the projects structured. I have good stamina for keeping going, whilst remaining thorough. However, I am also self-aware enough to know when something is too much for me or those around me, and to raise that.
-
Quick on the uptake, and thinking ahead - Working out what's needed, doing the right amount of work, and with the right tools. This overarching view was a key skill required at my start-up, where we had limited resources and time, and a plethora of competing tools we could use. Starting with analysing the full life cycle of a project, for example when choosing a type of manufacturing process to produce a new product, was crucial to success, and new things needed to be learnt quickly and their impact assessed. I have found these skills to be highly applicable when working on coding projects, especially at planning/inception stages and during retros.
| Project | Description | Technologies |
|---|---|---|
| Beer Time for the Craft Beer Channel | Project at mid-stages A companion app to allow Craft Beer Channel subscribers to see a map of where to drink good beer, access the latest video and podcast content feeds, and hear about news and events from the company. Coming to the app store in June 2023. | React Native, React, MongoDB, Node, Express |
| Configurator for Grain | Code not publicly available, but see it in action here A 3D furniture customisation and visualisation tool for Grain’s website, allowing live customisation and purchasing. | Playcanvas, CAD, WebGL, Blender, Javascript, React, Wordpress |
| Train Mood Map | Project at mid-stages A map based visualisation website to understand and predict general train lateness in your selected area. | PostgreSQL, Node, Express, React, Train data API |
| Light Cycle | A beautiful, cross-platform 2D retro game, based on the classic film Tron. 2 players are able to play live via server on web or mobile app, or single player against the computer in offline mode. | Node.js, Websocket, React, React-Native, Jest, CSS |
| Bank Tech Test | A classic coding mini-project used to show off great processes; Test-Driven Development, Object Oriented Programming, good commits and documentation | Node.js, Jest |
| 10-Pin Bowling Challenge | A coding challenge from early in my Makers career. Create the simplest way of scoring a 10-pin bowling game, which belies a surprising complexity. | Node.js, Jest + Ruby, RSpec |
| Acebook | A facebook clone team project using the MERN stack and token authentication | MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js, Cypress |
Design, build, and deploy a mobile app called Beer Time, for small media brand The Craft Beer Channel. See my selected projects for more details.
Design and sustainable furniture brand, creating products for the circular economy using novel, tech-enabled on-demand manufacturing. - grain.co.uk *
-
Co-founded with a friend in 2016. Leadership of operations, technology, product & research. I built and nurtured a culture of supportive teamwork & empathy, to empower us as a people-first business.
-
Over 6 years, from self-funded with a £50k start-up loan, grew to £1 million+ annual revenue, raised £1.1million in venture capital at £5 million valuation, and built the team to 15 full-time employees. Launched and ran E-commerce brand with a return on advertising spend of >4:1 (very strong in this space).
-
Attended the highly competitive accelerator program Founders Factoryin 2020, working with some seriously seasoned professional advisors, and commencing our investment journey.
-
Built a 3D product configurator/visualiser for our website using React/Redux, Playcanvas, and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) + Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) software allowing live customisation by users. We applied a strong customer focus to UX/UI design.
-
Worked closely with manufacturers to increase efficiency using bespoked CAD & management software, reducing our costs by >15%, which they have since adopted across all clients.
-
Proud to have been a design-led company, with a brilliant team following strong, research-based internal processes. Sadly, we didn’t survive the cost of living crisis - * please note that digital assets were sold off and don’t fully represent the original 2016-2022 mission.
California headquartered catastrophe modelling software firm, providing damage assessments from natural catastrophes via licensable software to reinsurance companies, the finance sector, and governments.
-
Product management team for natural hazard models. Ensured model releases were cutting edge, robust, and market-accepted. Defined requirements, communicated appropriately with model scientists & developers, and undertook validation & client acceptance testing involving huge attention to detail.
-
Ran European model testing, creating new software processes using SQL & VBA to automate model update testing/reporting, cutting 66% from teams’ workload and removing human errors.
-
Following promotion, sole responsibility for the companies’ global probabilistic terrorism model. >95% acceptance of model updates during my tenure was down to working closely with clients and clarity of communications, including authoring usable documentation and giving international conference presentations to audiences > 50.
-
Cross-team and multi-national project leadership with developers in California and New Delhi, and clients in Zurich, gave me serious insight into managing different perspectives.
-
4 month highly selective full-time course for career changers to become software developers.
-
Included 6 weeks of Agile team working projects, embodying extreme programming (XP) values, pair programming, full git workflow, and code reviews requiring high attention to detail.
-
Strong emphasis on empathetic team-work, using test-driven-development (TDD) and debugging processes in Ruby and JavaScript, to write error-proof code.
-
Projects included; full-stack web application, e.g using MERN (Mongo-Express-React-Node), Object Oriented Programming with SOLID principles, Model-View-Controller (MVC) patterns, cloud deployment, external API’s, unit and integration testing, and creating high-quality, readable, documented code.
-
Self-led learning with a growth mindset has given me the ability to quickly and effectively take on new frameworks & languages, and tackle pre-existing, complex codebases.
- Flood and storm surge modelling, meteorology, seismology, statistics
- Climate modelling, palaeo-climatology, GIS software for geospatial analysis, geopolitics, demographics
- 🚲 All things cycling (particularly riding up large mountains).
- 🧘 Big fan of yoga and meditation.
- 🏃 Episodic runner, currently training for my 2nd half marathon.
- 📚 Voracious reader (just finished Bad Blood by John Carreyrour & Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, both truly excellent reads).
- 🎶 Highly trained but occasional cellist.
- 🌄 Hiking and anything that gets me into the outdoors brings me joy.