Q: This is a question we ask everyone that interviews at Fundsquire, so it seems like a good spot to start. Why Fundsquire?

IC: For a while now my interest has been in the FinTech and start-up space, and when I met with the Fundsquire team, I knew I had found a match. In our initial conversations, a couple of things specifically appealed to me – the relaxed, friendly culture and how upfront they were around their core business proposition of straightforward, frictionless, customized funding.  The rigorous recruitment process only made it clearer that Fundsquire wanted to grow a strategic team that enabled and furthered this business proposition. 

For a business into lending, I was instantly drawn to its transparency and decided that this was the change I was going to lean into this year.

Q: You’ve got a pretty interesting history, lots of travelling and a bunch of experience around the world. Tell us a little bit about your journey so far

IC: Prior to Fundsquire, I was working at the Future Fund Management Agency (FFMA), Australia’s sovereign wealth fund that is responsible for investing for the benefit of future generations of Australians. My responsibility at FFMA was to facilitate the implementation and roll-out of technology and data initiatives in order to improve investment decision-making of ~$200bn funds under management.

It was a very hands-on role, tapping into a bit of strategy, tech, and data, and a bit of product, project, and program. 

As part of my engineering work, I was fortunate to work on a number of global assignments – ranging from designing microprocessors and embedded systems for European customers, co-designing high-precision system software with customers in the US, to managing large-scale services in the semiconductor industry for customers in Asia.

The transferable elements of my work at FFMA and my management consulting and engineering experience made it an easy transition into the work I’m focused on at Fundsquire.

Q: You’ve articulated a clear vision internally about what your team’s goals are. Can you share a little about what you’re working on and where you see the tech component of our business heading?

IC: My team’s primary focus is on technology implementation, automation and generating insights from the data to inform product development and go-to-market strategy. On a given day, you are likely to find us automating discrete work-packages along the continuum of our business.

At a strategic level, we are aiming to transform our customer experience. 

Fundsquire is growing its tech capabilities as it looks towards market expansion and launches new funding products in its existing markets in Australia, Canada and the UK. Our team plays a huge role in creating a seamless technology that matches Fundsquire’s simple funding solutions, addresses each point of our customer’s journey, and supports our team and partners. 

I want to continue to build on our mission, wherein beyond the service and support we extend to our customers currently, Fundsquire is also known as the go-to business who provide what customers need when they need it.

Q: It sounds like your work interacts with almost every team across the business?

IC: Definitely. Our team is process-oriented and knows how to empower the business and we interact along the full continuum of business.  

We work closely with the Originations team to understand focus areas in their workflow and how they enable customers to find funding solutions best suited for their business needs.

Working with the Credit Review team, we explore how we can enhance technology initiatives to improve and streamline the credit review process for our customers.

Finally, we are growing our collaboration with the Marketing and Finance teams to ascertain their priorities and evaluate how technology can improve processes for them. 

Q: Any project close to your heart at Fundsquire?

IC: That would be the process review of end-to-end Fundsquire business, as it will help strengthen the foundation of the business and help understand how we can streamline these processes. Fundsquire strives to operate at incredibly high standards and this project is enabling me to identify where we can have ‘quick-wins’ for our customers and where we will need to identify ‘strategic wins’.

I’m also very focused on identifying pathways within our core CRM to improve our technology foundations.

Q: What do you see as a highlight of your job?

IC: Two aspects stand out for me. First is this incredibly empowering role where the business has presented me the opportunity to enhance its offering and trusted me to deliver it – Fundsquire’s fourth value of ‘real-time trust’ is real and I do not take it for granted.

Second is that work-life integration is key. The team and business understands the balance that every individual is seeking. You are the master of your time  – as long as you are delivering milestones as discussed, the team is free to outline their own times. Within reason of course!

Q: How do you see your role evolving? 

IC: As a scaleup, the organization is growing rapidly across solution offering, markets, and, resultantly, customer expectations. Following the same trajectory, my team will also continue to lay the technological foundations to support this steep growth. This includes finding ways to automate feasibly and pragmatically for the tech to continue to be relevant for this rapidly growing business. 

Data, machine learning and artificial intelligence will be embedded into our tech working fabric in the coming days – so watch this space!

Q: What are some key skills important for growing in this team, and Fundsquire?

IC: I would say fabulous and emerging tech stack knowledge and expertise in Salesforce, Full-Stack, AWS and APIs is key. Equally important is one’s attitude and ability to learn and grow with the team. We are always looking for individuals who have a growth mindset and are open to learning opportunities. As the team grows, so will the opportunity for those keen on solving strategic problems for the business.

Q: What do you think are some challenges in your role? 

IC: I would say finding tech and data talent that is fit-for-our-culture in the midst of a global pandemic. Other than that, we have answers to most of our other challenges.

Q: Anything you would say to potential candidates about working here?

IC: If you are ambitious and want to be a part of the thriving Fintech environment, come speak to us – you will not be disappointed. Do check out our careers page or get in touch with me via my LinkedIn directly!