As part of a regular series powered by Microsoft, BetaKit interviews prominent Canadian CTOs speaking earnestly on the biggest challenges they face in their role, as well as future technology predictions in their space.
Lendified CEO Monique Morden and VP engineering Joe Finneran know that building a startup requires wearing many hats, but the one element that the growing FinTech startup canât skimp on is technological scalability and security. However, getting to scale is about more than in-house technology and âhiring the best talentâ. Lendified takes a unique approach, focused on partnerships and investing in retention over recruitment.
Moving fast (without taking shortcuts)
âAs a small company, you canât build everything from scratch,â said Finneran. âYouâd never get anything done. We get a lot with [Microsoft] Azure without having to build it out [ourselves].â
Finneran recounted previous companies heâs worked with that try to build everything in-house, whether for pride or security reasons, noting that the large number of people necessary was cumbersome for those organizations. Summing up those experiences versus leveraging Microsoftâs Azure technology for Lendifiedâs infrastructure, Finneran said that if the company had to build out everything itself, the FinTech startup would âget to market a lot slower.â
âIf you sprint at 100 miles per hour, youâre going to burn out.â
Morden added that her experience as a serial entrepreneur gave her the âbattle scarsâ to prove out the hypothesis that high-quality technology partnerships allow a company to âkeep [multiple] plates spinningâ while also ensuring secure and scalable technology.
In Finneranâs mind, the most crucial part of scalable technology infrastructure from a mature partner is that ability to build on top of it, making growth easier. For Morden, coming from a sales background as a founder, scalable tech infrastructure means the ability to focus on what the market needs instead of rebuilding technology at every level of growth.
Talent retention over recruitment
Having a mature technology partner, though, is not a ‘get out of jail free’ card letting startups ignore the daily concerns of team and culture. For both Finneran and Morden, retention through team culture is a top priority.
Lendified operates in two high-competition talent marketsâToronto and Vancouverâwhile trying to build a global business loan platform. A mission that ambitious needs not only great talent, but for that great talent to stick around. This lesson, having been learned the hard way from past experiences, led Finneran and Morden to firmly believe that a happy team is one thatâs both more productive and retainable.
âLosing one or two people could be ten percent of [any specific] team, and they could have key skills,â Finneran explained. â[It] can be incredibly disruptive.â
For Morden, the way to keep retention high is through a culture that respects work-life boundaries.
âI donât send emails to team members over the weekend unless thereâs a huge fire,â she said. âIâve been in organizations where thatâs the case and you stress and burn people out, and it trickles [down] to your team.â
âYou canât say youâre on the clock 24/7,â added Finneran. âWe try to get the most from people out of a standard work day, which leads to happier people, and happy people are more productive. Happy people stay.â
Focusing on retention and keeping employees happy so they can deliver more is the second piece to what Finneran called the âvirtuous cycleâ of high-quality technology with fewer emergencies to deal with. A scalable technology infrastructure combined with a happy, productive team means a high-quality product. And, as Finneran put succinctly, a âhigh-quality product doesnât go wrong at 4 a.m. on a Sunday.â
Tech is a race, but itâs a marathon
Given Lendifiedâs focus on culture without compromising quality, itâs understandable that both Morden and Finneran caution tech leaders at big firms to verify if they really are up for the challenge before they join a startup.
âNot everyone can make that change,â cautioned Morden. âItâs about executing. Large companies have ideas people. But if you canât execute, it means nothing [in a startup environment].â
Execution, though, is not the only thing a would-be CTO should prepare for before joining a startup. Ultimately, said Morden, startups are about building for the long term despite all the short-term pressures.
âTech is a race, but itâs a marathon,â she said. âIf you sprint at 100 miles per hour, youâre going to burn out.â