Co-founder of Brainhub, Matt describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur”. Throughout his career, Matt has developed several startups in Germany, wearing many hats- from a marketer to an IT Engineer and customer support specialist. As a host of the Better Tech Leadership podcast, Matt talks about growing successful businesses and the challenges of being a startup founder and investor.
Thomas Dodson has a strong track record of delivering quality products on time, driving technical strategy, and building high-performing teams while demonstrating proficiency in a range of technologies and a passion for mentoring the next generation of engineering managers.
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In this episode, Matt and Alex Akimov discuss Alex's experiences in fintech, exploring the dynamics of working in startups versus large organizations, with insights from his time at Adyen and Monite. They delve into topics such as strategic scaling, maintaining company culture, API management, and the impact of different work cultures, like the Dutch and US approaches, on innovation. The conversation also covers challenges like GDPR, managing international teams, and the evolving role of a CTO, with references to influential books on leadership and decision-making.
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In this podcast episode, Matt interviews Yariv Hasar, discussing how his military background has shaped his work ethic, management style, and approach to daily planning. Yariv emphasizes the importance of adaptability, effective communication, and teamwork, drawing parallels between military strategies and business operations. He also advocates for continuous learning and role adaptation within teams to enhance efficiency and resilience, sharing insights from his tech leadership experience and recommending resources for leadership development.
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In the 100th episode of the podcast, Matt and James Trunk explore the transition from agile methodologies to Basecamp’s Shape Up framework in product development, emphasizing the 5%, 30% feedback rule for enhanced collaboration and psychological safety. They highlight the importance of job stories, retrospective reviews, and the “stabilize” phase in managing technical debt, especially within regulated industries like banking. The discussion also contrasts Fintech’s regulatory demands with startup practices, while reflecting on maintaining company culture and the value of open-source community engagement.
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In this episode, Matt and Luke Rotta explore the Fintech industry’s regulatory challenges and their impact on adopting modern software practices like DevOps, highlighting Luke’s success in implementing automation to enhance safety and efficiency. Luke also shares his experience in transforming a traditional support team into a site reliability engineering (SRE) team, emphasizing strategies like clear mission establishment, skill evaluation, and strong communication. The discussion further touches on leveraging AI tools to reduce administrative tasks and improve knowledge acquisition.
