Today Sam is CTO and Co-Founder at Residently, where they are building a global platform that empowers renters to thrive in their homes. If you've ever rented, you know it's a problem that needs solving.

Most of his career has been spent in startups, where Sam has been part of two successes.

Previously, Sam was Head of Engineering at Shutl. He led a major replatforming, the launch in the US and was part of the team that sold the business to eBay in 2013.

Before that, Sam was developer #1 for On The Beach Travel (built 2005, sold 2007), now a major UK travel agent, with IPO in 2015.

The conversation flows through many topics and Sam shares his unique and honest perspective on things.

If you a CEO of a product company, a Founder of a company, a person simply looking to better understand product and engineering there is something in this conversation for you.

Tech Vision:

• To you, what is technology?
• What do you think we are doing well in the world right now with technology?
• What innovation excites?
• For a start-up founder who is not a technical minded leader - what would your advice be? Where would you focus?
• What are the tech pitfalls you can make as a starting entrepreneur ?
• Starting from scratch - what would your first hire be?
• As a CTO what do you feel your purpose is a leader?
• Tell us about the highest technical project failure you experienced?

Creating tech:

• What is best practice engineering?

Building teams:

• How do you design your engineering teams?
• How do you set them up for success?
• How do you organise your teams to focus on tackling improvement (tech debt), BAU and innovation?
• How do you keep the innovation mindset in the team?
• What does it take to attract and retain tech talents?

Mind of tomorrow:

• For someone thinking about choosing tech as their career, what would you advise?
• If you had the power through the use of technology to solve one of the world's problems/opportunities what would it be and why??

References:

• Pioneers, Town planners & Settlers: https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Pioneers_settlers_town_planners
• Pioneers, Town planners & Settlers: https://agilebusinessmanifesto.com/agilebusiness/a-structure-for-continuous-innovation-pioneers-settlers-town-planners/