What’s a typical day for you at LOOKB4?
As Head of Technology, I oversee the development of the LOOKB4 app. I’m responsible for the product roadmap and ensuring the team is aligned on what we’re building right now and why. Everything I do involves looking to the horizon to make sure that we have the right foundational pieces in place for where we plan on going.
A typical day can involve: testing new features, liaising with the dev team, application design, research, development, advising the team on technology or feature ideas, copywriting, and a host of other things. In typical startup fashion, sometimes it’s “all hands on deck” and I find myself doing something completely different!
Describe your career journey to this point.
I’ve been working in tech since I was in high school when I took freelance work for everything from installing printers to legacy migrations. I spent years in development and data before getting heavily involved in e-commerce backends. Eventually, I made the move to retail and hospitality data, as well as enterprise application management, but I could always hear development calling me back.
My journey through the technology and e-commerce landscape has meant I’ve worked with a lot of nooks and crannies that are often overlooked. I have a holistic perspective on where we are and where we’re going, which I hope will make a big difference to LOOKB4’s growth.
Favourite purchase and/or biggest purchase regret?
My very favourite purchase is my genuine 1993 Sega Astro City 2 arcade cabinet with a Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact CPS-3 arcade board. Unfortunately, it also started out as my biggest purchase regret.
I wish I had known more about arcade cabinets at the time I bought it. I paid too much for it, especially considering its condition. There were a lot of things wrong with it, but I turned my lemon into lemonade and made a hobby out of it. Now it is a one-of-kind modified arcade cab that lets me play my favourite classics with a lot of modern conveniences.
While I love it, there are still some things about it I can’t fix. This could easily have been avoided if I knew more at the time.
How did you come to be a part of the LOOKB4 team and what inspired you to join?
From the moment I first heard about LOOKB4 I was enthralled. After only a brief explanation, I think I may have frightened one of the founders with the number of technical questions they woke up to the next day. I have for a long time felt there was something missing in the market. Something more transparent that gives back to users. I think that LOOKB4 is that something.
The thing I was most drawn to is easily the passion that the founders have for what users are going to get out of LOOKB4. Working in a team that wants to move away from traditional solutions and just providing a service, towards improving the experience of e-commerce for millions of shoppers worldwide while sticking to our shopper-first values including independence from brands, is something I’m really excited to be a part of.
What is your superpower?
I can see around corners. Literally. OK, not really. My strengths are in anticipation and preparedness. It’s one thing to look forward and plan for the path you’ve chosen, but it’s another thing entirely to be able to imagine and plan for the obstacles and detours that lie on that path. We’ve been able to move quickly on new paths and ideas without hesitation because the framework we’ve built is already there to support it.
What products are you most looking forward to booking an Advocate call about?
Right now, at this very moment, it would be a coffee machine. That might be because I’ve only had one so far today! I might feel differently this afternoon.
There are lots of things that my wife and I are excited to start looking at. For a start, we‘ve decided there is definitely going to be a recreational kayak in our future.
And the Jetsons fan deep inside really wants a vacuum robot, but the Terminator fan in me has a lot of questions!
What’s your big vision for LOOKB4?
I can clearly see LOOKB4 supporting users and businesses across retail, commercial, wholesale, and service delivery with a variety of tools and platforms. I can’t wait to see it come to life!
Follow us for more ‘Meet the team’ stories and updates: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn
