Meet Amando: Our Outdoorsy CTO
He shares his views on PropTech, life in Norway and the character of a good CTO
Firstly, let’s help the locals to understand why a Portuguese developer, who worked in Germany, decided to live in Norway?
As someone who enjoys cold weather and unnecessarily long hikes, it just made sense to be here. I’m not a city person, and few countries are able to provide the quality of nature Norway has while being relatively close to the global marketplace within its cities.
Before we get into the industry and your beliefs as our new CTO, we want to know what keeps you going after hours?
I try my best to model my week around 3 types of activities beyond work!
Something physical to keep fit, something that forces me to create, and something that makes me smarter. Right now that’s running, roller skiing and cycling to keep fit, converting a van into a camper or playing music to create, and reading about the quality of thinking and detecting fallacies and biases to learn.
THE MEAT OF DIGITISATION IN THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY
Now that you have your first few weeks at Digital XBO behind you, what is your current view on the PropTech industry so far?
The industry is clearly fragmented, but the reason as to ‘why’ is more important!
There are so many different digital solutions and many of these offer the same services with similar functions. This means that many PropTech companies only have to charge better rates or provide a better user experience to beat the competition.
In the end property developers and contractors will constantly try to find the best solution that suits their overall project budgets. With more and more solutions coming into the market, you can be sure that flexibility to choose what you want, when you want becomes super important. Which is why I believe in the Digital XBO product — it makes this possible for property developers and contractors alike by providing a single platform through which all of your information is safely captured and all your favourite PropTech companies are accessible.
Based on your view, what challenges do you see in the PropTech industry that Digital XBO is solving?
Digital XBO makes it possible for our customers, the property developers and contractors, to achieve shorter feedback loops, which in-turn gives them happier customers and helps to save on the project costs that are affected by communication.
We’re talking about project managers, contractors, customer-oriented departments (in Norway known as Ettermarked) and the owners of homes and tenants of commercial office spaces all saving time by having easily accessible information on one platform that is modern and user-friendly. You don’t need a qualification to use Digital XBO, and that’s what is missing in so many digital solutions in our industry! Just our data insights alone would already be worth the entire fee!
THE CTO CODE
To conclude we’d like to hear more about your beliefs as a CTO. You’ve had quite the bit of experience for someone your age, which principles do you believe should come before any other in business according to a CTO in 2021?
Being kind to people. And I don’t mean this in a virtue-signalling sort of way where kindness trumps logic. Kindness can at times mean to push people harder than they think they can handle.
Okay, so let’s get a little controversial — which personal approach of yours could be considered questionable in some software development circles?
I don’t care much about the tech-stack I use.
It doesn’t matter how great you are with a hammer — if you aren’t aware of when NOT to use it, then you can easily create a lot more damage than imagined. Some would say this leads to not being an expert in any particular stack, but the “expert generalist” finds ways to do things instead of focusing on the reasons why things won’t work a certain way.
Now that everyone has been talking about their best environment during Covid, describe your ideal working state when you need to put your head down and code?
It’s not so much about the place as it is about the time.
My mind works best when it’s either very early or very late. My body, on the other hand, deals better with early days than it does with late nights.
If there’s a fire to fight I’d rather wake up at 4:30 to fight it with a fresh mind and body than to work on it very late and perhaps add more fuel to the fire by assuming that my physical state doesn’t affect my thinking.
We’re super excited to have Amando on board and we are hiring for many more positions at Digital XBO, be sure to follow our LinkedIn profile to stay up to date or reach out to us at - hello@digitalxbo.no
