With tech experience across 3 continents, Andy knows what it takes to achieve start-up success.
Drawing on tech know-how across three continents, Limepay's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is leading the company to new heights.
After switching his focus in school from marketing to information technology, Andy realised his talent for all things tech.
His first trip to Australia was with Africa-based iTouch, who won the bid to provide SMS messaging services during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Before moving to Sydney, Andy created an impressive technology portfolio from Cape Town to London. Among his achievements is his time at multi-billion-dollar gaming companies in the UK like Betfair Games and Gamesys where he specialised in high-volume transaction systems.
At Betfair, Andy was part of the architecture team in charge of core critical systems and money movement systems. He was also heavily involved with the partner development group that looked after the API.
After landing in Australia, Andy started with Aussie Home Loans, which gave him a deeper understanding of the Australian financial market.
"Tech is an exciting space to be in and Australia has advanced in the last 10 years. Australian start-ups are starting to go crazy in this space," Andy says.
A variety of industries and job roles, from coding to consulting to CTO of Simple Machines, has led Andy to embrace the CTO role at Limepay with a keen understanding of tech architecture.
Andy’s Limepay journey started with a text message from Limepay's co-founder Tim Dwyer.
"I'm not sure how he got my details, but he heard about me and wanted to meet for coffee," Andy remembers.
Recruiting Andy was part of Limepay's conscious decision to hire very capable senior-level engineers. Each member of the senior team has experience solving big technical problems for various organisations and industries. Their collective knowledge puts Limepay's technology in the best position to change the digital payment landscape.
"When you get the foundation right, everything else will be good."
Limepay's foundation includes modern technologies that are cloud-first and event-based with expert integrations. When other organisations are retrofitting their product to suit, Limepay takes a smarter approach and reaps the benefits of getting the core technical aspects first.
"We've taken our time to get the underlying core technology platform right."
As the CTO of a start-up, Andy is juggling a collection of 10 different hats. He brings 20 years of coding experience and has coded sections of the Limepay platform. He believes to be an effective leader, you need to know how to perform the task you're asking your team to do.
"I don't believe you can run a technology team if you don't cut code yourself." Tech is complex, and leadership needs to understand the intricacies to lead well.
Limepay's culture values a strong tech team, and it's important that the tech team is represented at all levels. It's not uncommon for the tech team to report to the CFO in some companies, but this is why many start-ups fail, according to Andy.
Over his career, Andy has seen the line between tech and business fade. Where tech and business were divided, the two are becoming synonymous.
"You'll often hear people talk about the business and tech. Today, tech is the business. There shouldn't be a division."
As Limepay moves from start-up to scale-up, Andy will spend more time managing the team and the future direction of the business, like introducing a grad program to expand their tech team.
"Cultural fit is by far the most important thing to me. We can teach people tech but we can't teach culture."
Whilst the tech team is diverse, they'd like to see more female engineers, which will be a goal of the grad program.
Supporting Andy’s mantra, respect, tolerance and inclusion is a focus on collaboration and communication. He’s determined to erase dividing lines between groups and remove the stereotype that tech teams are introverted and isolated.
"The more time we spend making sure everyone in the team gets to know everyone else in the other team, the more likely the whole team works well together."
Members of Limepay’s tech team are across the entire business and included in cross-functional team meetings. When everyone understands the goals and direction, everyone moves forward together.
The speed at which tech is moving is phenomenal. It's hard to predict which technologies will be game-changers but what Andy does know is, "if you're not investing in tech, you're going to be in trouble".
Data is driving a lot of what's happening these days. People are investing in data and utilising it to tailor business services.
As technology accelerates, transactions happen faster. Payments today clear in seconds where they once took days. Soon, buying a house may only take a day, not months.
"The tech industry has shown in the past 10-20 years that we have to be adaptable and forward-looking."
Limepay is ready to lead the way, and Andy is excited about what's to come.
"Limepay has a phenomenal team, awesome culture and great people. We're always on the look out for new talent and our future is exceptionally bright."
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