Welcome Alex!
From this Monday, Alex joined us as Senior Software Engineer. He has an extensive background working for companies big and small. We asked him to tell you a little bit about himself:
What excites you about working for Legado?
I’ve always seen the potential of the ever-evolving Microsoft stack for providing business solutions. It been my dream for a long time to be involved in the creation of a complete solution for a specific business need and build a successful business around it. This will be my third time of working for a small early stage start-up with big plans, the first being over a decade ago in a small consultancy building solutions for big financial companies. More recently I was a founding partner in an ambitious start-up with plans to automate the geological analysis process in the oil industry. Sadly that business did not succeed, primarily due to the changing economic climate for that industry.
With Legado I can see that there is a real scope for success, partly because of the people involved and partly because of the commercial traction that’s already been achieved. I’m excited to become a part of the team and look forward to being part of the scaling up journey!
What will be the biggest challenges?
Security is the most important – we are asking people to entrust us with their confidential data, and we need to ensure that it is kept safe. We are not the only player in the market for a product like this, so we also need to ensure that our product remains the best. As in any small company, there will be challenges around having too much work to do and not enough people to do it, and to ensure we prioritise appropriately. As we grow and add new members to the team, there will be challenges around scaling up and making sure everyone is engaged effectively.
What will you be working on?
In the shorter term I’ll be focusing on corporate integrations, providing a standard way for adding documents to the vault from any partner company, and the plugin framework to facilitate that. In the longer term I’ll be looking at breaking up the product to separate out an API which can be used by a number of user interfaces, such as web and mobile, or a third party application.
What do you do to relax?
Above all, I love to travel and explore new places. That’s a bit difficult at the moment, so it’s a good time to commit to a big project! I generally enjoy being outdoors in scenic places, on foot or on a bike. I’m an enthusiastic photographer too, when I’m out and about. I try to keep fit with running and cycling, so I can enjoy undoing all that good work with fine food and drink. I do of course enjoy a good movie or a night out with friends, particularly if live music is involved.
Tell us an interesting fact about yourself
I think I qualify as an international man of mystery. I’m half Polish (on my mother’s side), and was born in Poland during the communist times. My father is British, but originally from Cape Town, South Africa. Thanks to his Foreign Office job we lived in some unusual places as I was growing up – Turkey, Pakistan, and Colombia. To complicate things further, I’m married to an American lady, from North Carolina. We’re well settled in Edinburgh though, Scotland is a great place to live.
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Welcome, Alex !