In this episode of ScaleUp Sound Bytes, Sam sits down with Xharmagne Carandang, founding engineer at Lorikeet, one of Australia's hottest startups, and someone who is quietly redefining what it means to build great tech with purpose.
From working in federal government to startups barely past MVP, Xharmagne has intentionally gone from big to small, chasing learning, ownership, and impact at every step. We talk about what changes when you scale down, why engineers should care about the why behind what they build, and how Lorikeet is bringing clarity, trust, and empathy to AI in customer service.
We dive into:
💡 Moving from “feature factory” coding to mission-driven product thinking
💡 Why clear context beats company size when it comes to making an impact
💡 How Lorikeet is helping teams train AI to sound human, and when AI should just butt out
💡 Designing UX for AI when the rules don’t exist yet
💡 The drop-off of women in engineering and how visibility, community, and role models matter
💡 Why engineers should act more like collaborators and less like keyboard monkeys
💡 Her favourite framework: thinking in bets (and how to avoid betting the house)
💡 Building sustainably, with dance classes as a burnout barometer
Xharmagne brings a sharp mind and an open heart to her work, and this episode is packed with insights for anyone navigating engineering culture, ethical AI, or what it actually means to build software that helps people.
#ScaleUp #SoundBytes #WomenInTech #AI #FoundingEngineer
From Delivery Vans to Design Led SaaS: The Wild Ride of Niklas Olsson!
In this episode of ScaleUp Sound Bytes, Sam sits down with serial founder and spreadsheet disruptor, Niklas Olsson. He’s the brains behind klaro and has previously built everything from delivery startups to data platforms, with an acquisition or two along the way.
Niklas is what happens when you mix industrial design, a love of math, a dash of chaos, and five startup journeys. He’s gone from sketching Ferraris to building what he calls the “Canva for numbers” empowering non-finance folks to make big decisions without breaking a spreadsheet or their spirit.
Check out a little of what we cover:
💡 Why numerical thinking is a superpower and how klaro is making it mainstream
💡 Building startups by living the customer experience (yes, he drove the van himself)
💡 How posting a humble Google Sheet exploded into thousands of downloads and sparked a company
💡 The dangers of spreadsheet spaghetti and why templates aren’t enough
💡 What it means to build a values-led team: mindful intentions, side by side, forever a student
💡 Getting from zero to MVP using content, community and pure scrappiness
💡 Lessons from five startups with what worked, what flopped, and what he’d never do again
Whether you’re an aspiring founder, a frustrated spreadsheet warrior, or someone who’s ever wondered if maybe there's a better way to crunch numbers, this one’s for you.
Niklas is sharp, honest, and design led in everything he does and it shows.
#ScaleUp #SoundBytes #StartupWisdom #DesignLedFounder #ScaleUpRecruitment
Sam kicked off 2025 with a bang, sitting down with none other than Yaniv Bernstein. He's the co-host of The Startup Podcast, former VP of Engineering at Airtasker, ex-Google-er, and all-around startup legend.
In this episode, we dive into the mindset, mechanics, and missteps of scaling early-stage startups. Yaniv talks candidly about what drew him into the startup world after a decade at Google, how he accidentally launched a bootstrapped podcast business, and why the title "Principal Engineer" is often misunderstood, especially in startups.
Whether you're an aspiring founder, a startup engineer with ambition, or someone trying to decode the difference between a CTO and a VP of Engineering (spoiler: it's messy), this is one to get stuck into.
Here’s a taste of what we get into:
💡 What makes a great startup hire (smart, gets shit done, and thrives in chaos)
💡 Why founders should do everything themselves until they absolutely can’t
💡 Principal Engineers as multipliers, not managers
💡 Hiring too senior, too soon: the rookie mistake most founders make
💡 AI’s impact on engineering teams and why junior devs should be worried
💡 The difference between being a technical founder and a founder with technical help
💡 Knowing the rules of the game: the most underrated startup advice ever
💡 How a podcast side hustle accidentally turned into a real business
This episode is honest, unfiltered, and packed with wisdom from someone who’s seen it all – from corporate giant to zero-to-one startup and everything in between.
If you're in tech, thinking about launching a startup, or just want to understand how high-performing teams actually get built, do yourself a favour and listen in.
#ScaleUp #SoundBytes #ScaleUpRecruitment
Sam sits down with Nicholas Clancy, CTO of EngineRoom. What’s special about Nic is that Piero actually placed Nic into his first role as a software engineer into Pooled Energy about a decade ago. Fast forward a to now years and Nic has scaled his career into CTO. All of this would not of been possible if he was in a corporate environment.
Tune in a discover Nic’s personal journey, what it’s like to work in a high growth start up and the mindset of what's required to succeed.
If you are thinking of joining a start-up or leaving your cushy corporate role for an opportunity with one, you need to listen to this. Learn from someone who has navigated their way to Head of Engineering and CTO of two start-ups and is continuously challenging the status quo.
We talk about:
💡 High tolerance to risk and failure
💡 Velocity of decision making and execution
💡 Time and indecision kills start-ups
💡 Ownership and accountability
💡 High tolerance to risk + fast decisions = things going wrong.
💡 How do you react and own those mistakes when it impacts real customers?
💡 Start-ups own it, normal companies cover it up and play the PR game
💡 Changing the status quo
💡 How what you do is fundamentally different
#ScaleUp #SoundBytes
Time Stamps 00:00 Intro 01:02 Overview of Nick’s Journey so far 12:02 Angel Investing 15:33 What defines a start-up? 17:01 4 Characteristics true startups exhibit 24:17 Most important thing you need to have when joining a start-up 39:16 Do you need to mimic characteristics of a Start-Up to succeed? 45:10 What do startups want to see in Engineers? 52:35 What start-ups need to be able to offer 59:00 Most valuable tech and leadership books 1:01:26 What habits do you attribute to your success? 1:02:52 Who is the most influential person in your career and why? 1:04:07 Outro
Ben Meneses-Sosa shares a blueprint for any aspiring leaders of tech teams to ensure smooth leadership and deliverables.
Ben came into the ScaleUp Sound Bytes office to share his wisdom in the latest episode of ScaleUp Soundbytes.
Find out first hand why he is considered one of the best leaders of leaders in Sydney as he shares a play-by-play for any aspiring leaders of tech teams to follow ensuring smooth leadership and deliverables.
Some key insights:
💡 The 3 three D’s of effective team management.
💡 How not to be a blocker and debug the team.
💡 Why aligning your team with other teams (i.e. product) is critical for the success of project delivery.
💡 How to achieve balance and what the difference is between open, closed and technical decisions are.
💡 The Why, the What and the How you can delegate.
💡 How the DACI framework ensures effective communication for all decisions.
💡 How to involve the team, recruit the right people and review activities.
What we love about this chat is that even if you are stepping into a leadership role, with ZERO experience, you can use the thoughts shared in this podcast to feel confident that they’ve got a tool kit to effectively manage a team and deliver projects successfully.
If you are a current leader, stepping into a leadership position or aspire to ber a leader (team/people/delivery) then this is a must listen!
Ben's framework will give you the freedom you need to get things done. You'll be able to spend your time working on the team instead of working in the team.
#ScaleUp #SoundBytes
Dale Hurley, former CTO of CreditorWatch & COO/CDO of Avenue Bank, joined us at the ScaleUp SoundBytes studio for a chat about all things Start Up sharing his journey from corporate consulting into the start-up world.
Listen on as you get to hear what led Dale to leave an incredibly well paying & stable role into the gamble of a startup. You get to hear what made CreditorWatch the success it was and how it was able to not only disrupt but almost create a market.
Dale shares his unique view into what the journey was like from inception through to exit and I'm sure you can imagine the journey with Avenue wasn't so smooth. Tyson said, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” which is a term that gets used a lot in the Startup world.
After hearing Dale's story I genuinely feel the team not only took a few on the chin but had to pivot harder than Ali's rope a dope to keep going.
Some key insights:
💡 What it was like to take on the banks.
💡 Dealing with working in a highly regulated market.
💡 Navigating through COVID.
💡 The collapse of the Neo Banks.
💡 A failed takeover bid.
💡 The rise of the Interest rates.
This is a must-listen if you want to peep behind the curtain and hear an uncensored story of what it's like to ride the start up roller coaster.
#ScaleUp #SoundBytes
In this episode, Sam sits down with Raj Senanayake, Technology Delivery Director, at WTW (Willis Towers Watson). Follow his journey from a kid mucking around with computers to working at one of the world’s biggest global risk advisory, insurance brokerage and consulting solutions companies as their Director. Here’s a quick overview of what to expect: 💡 How he got into tech & how you can encourage others to do so. 💡 Raj's career journey from technology through to people management and into delivery. 💡 How adaptable you need to be as a leader to the different environments of corporate/startups and what techniques you can use to help you thrive. 💡Why WTW has a culture of longevity that is bucking the typical software engineering tenure trend of 2 years. 💡What keeps quality engineers engaged. It's an informative chat and a must listen to anyone who is looking to ScaleUp their career into leadership, delivering of technology projects or building a high performing tech team. #ScaleUp #soundbytes
Sam and Simran discuss the typical traits of engineering leaders. Leaders will come from 1 of 3 backgrounds (tech, people, delivery), Engineering leaders will be a blend of 1 or 2 and it's incredibly hard to be the perfect/unicorn blend of the three.
When these skill sets blend the leader adopts a particular persona that will usually guide their ability to lead, influence and delegate. If this is not done effectively by incorporating 2 skills out of the 3 and the leader only relies on their main core skillset, what results is usually pain for the team below and above.
Environment is a huge factor in determining the success of the leader, some persona's work better in different organisations than others. Personas can and often do change over time depending on the leadership role - team & technical leads may require different personas to HOE/CTO in the same organisation.
If you are looking to ScaleUp your career into leadership and into CTO level then this for you! Play along with the podcast and think what is my background and what persona will I become!
CLICK HERE to check out Simran’s full article!
#ScaleUp #SoundBytes
Start you own business? What the worst that could happen? - Monica Ly Co-Founder of EdgeRed
EdgeRed stands at the forefront of empowering businesses to make informed decisions by collaborating closely to analyse and engineer their data.
This conversation not only delves into Monica's path to entrepreneurship and the creation of a distinctively successful business, it explores her family's narrative of resilience as refugees in Australia, their entrepreneurial endeavours, and family in general.
Monica's openness and vulnerability shines through in this discussion, offering a rare glimpse into how having a grateful mindset can liberate yourself to pursue your dreams fearlessly. After all, what's the worst that could happen?
To find out more on EdgeRed check out their website at: https://www.edgered.com.au/
#ScaleUp #SoundBytes
Sam recently had a blast chatting with Roneel Muhammad, Director of Engineering at OpenTable. Acquainted for just shy of 10 years now, he is by far one of the most inspiring technology leaders in Australia.
Roneel spills the beans on how he fine tuned OpenTable's interview process in order to scale quickly and effectively.
Picture this: a team desperately wrestling with acquiring the right technical people, facing a tidal wave of candidates dropping out mid-process. Yikes!
After a deep dive into their then-extensive hiring process, Roneel and his crew started brainstorming on how they could make it better. They embarked on a mission to streamline the maze, remove bottlenecks, and implement training for his team on improving interview processes. Throw in a sprinkle of magic on the candidate experience ensured that it was a process they won’t forget.
The result? A jaw-dropping turnaround and a hiring extravaganza that would even make Reid Hoffman do a double-take (Hellooooo Blitzscaling)! All during COVID, the notorious nightmare for hiring software engineers.
The secret sauce? Cut down on the processes, be empathetic, ditch the pointless fluffy questions, make sure you have a valid tech test, and be bold in decision-making.
If you are embarking on a hiring journey, or just want to ScaleUp your team then this is a must listen! Dive into this podcast for an inside scoop on these game-changing strategies. #ScaleUp #SoundBytes
Selina Small - Engineering Manager at Fresho talks about switching careers into software development and growing into a leader. In this exciting episode of ScaleUp SoundBytes Sam sits down with Selena Small, Engineering Manager at Fresho. Follow her journey into software development, leadership, presenting & what it’s like to be a professional kick boxer juggling a career on the side. Selena flew into Sydney recently and shared the story of how she began her career in software development progressing quickly to the level and leadership role presently today. Selena attributes her success to a few mighty traits; hard work, interest in what she does, pair programming, caring and, most importantly, giving back to her community. Spending a lot of her time giving talks and presentations about pair programming & diversity through her side business "Failure Driven" giving these talks all over the world at RubyConferences and JSWorld Conference. Join the conversation through Selena’s background on how she not only got into development, but why! Selena left a career in hospitality to pursue a career into software development after a conversation with one of her regular customers while running a bar in New Zealand. Tech leaders do you want to know why pair programming is such a great method for advancing your teams capability? Aside from being a strong female leader in the tech world Selena had a strong career as a professional Maui Thai Kick boxer at the same time. Discover the parrels of the experience she had with training as a kick boxer to navigating her career from developer through to manager. It’s a great talk full of hilarity that gets uber personal at times. This episode has a bit of something for everyone but if you are looking to transition your career into software, especially female engineers looking for advice on how to succeed, it's a must listen. #ScaleUp # SoundBytes
Ken Kencevski, founder and owner of Devika, shares his story of creating a successful software consulting company, innovating new products and retaining staff & clients.
Go on the journey as Ken and Sam discuss the flight of passage that Ken went through to build Devika, a successful 7 year old software consulting company based in Wollongong. Throughout the in depth discussion you will find out more on the ups & downs of building a business in todays landscape, what inspired Ken to create Devika in the first place, the mission Devika is on and how the company has smashed some pretty big goals.
Not to give too much away you will hear the journey of Devika now offering multiple service lines, why hiring for a software development team is like recruiting a football team, and why retention is often better than acquisition.
It’s a personal, fun and informative chat valuable for anyone looking at starting their own business, hiring software developers or just love a feel good inspirational story.
#ScaleUp #SoundBytes
Welcome Antoine Sabourin, CTO and co-founder of Streem. Join us as we have an intimate discussion about the realistic life of what it was like to build Streem, a highly innovative tech start up that is successfully disrupting the media space.
Sam's been fortunate enough to support Streem throughout their growth and he discusses with Antoine the joys and pains of scaling the tech team at Streem over the years. What follows is a unique insight into what it was like to hire people for the team, how they struggled for talent in the first years and went on to build a team that is filled with talent density.
Antoines story radiates the pros and cons of life as a founder and how the team grew from 2 to 150 and how they have just recently been acquired by major player in the US.
It’s a riveting chat pulling the curtain back on what it’s like to build a technology start up along with sharing Antoines personal growth story of becoming a father. Antoine delves into the story of why they first started the business, his passion for the industry, and how they succeeded in building a disruptive product in a market heavily dominated by two other major players. Together he and his business partner created the bleeding edge product that we know as Streem.
#ScaleUp # SoundBytes
In this episode, Sam sits down with CTO Micha Wotton, over the past decade he's worked as an Engineering Manager, Head of Engineering and CTO for multiple SME’s and Start-ups in the Australian technology scene.
Micha has the expertise of being an exceptional people leader of technical teams with a passion of identifying and fostering the growth of leadership potential within his teams.
We discuss what it takes to build a high performing technical team, how you cultivate a high performing culture, what’s needed to improve talent density within the team and the identification of leaders. Spoiler alert: it’s not always your best performers!
It’s an informational listen referencing the pros and cons of topical leadership theories in the start-up world with real life examples from Micha’s experience.
If you are embarking on the journey of scaling up your team or searching for that next leader within it, you need to need to listen to this!
#ScaleUp #SoundBytes
Time Stamps
0:00 Intro
01:03 What key strategies can leaders use to scale and leadership traits?
14:45 Managing strong characters within the team
20:26 Do you need the expertise to be a strong leader?
23:54 How do you foster an environment to inspire leaders to emerge?
36:23 What is your favourite leadership book?
37:27 Most influential person in Micha’s career and why?
39:52 What habit do you contribute to your success as a tech leader?
44:24 Outro
Rozario Chivers has worn many hats throughout his career, he's spent a lot of time within enterprise organisations in particular within the finance space. Roz has developed an expertise of implementing modern technology initiatives around creating visual user interfaces with JavaScript technologies.
Throughout his career Roz has navigated the political landscape of implementing digital transformative change. Throughout this podcast we discuss what challenges come up, how to overcome them and why so many digital transformations in large enterprise companies fail after kicking off.
Roz credits design thinking methodology to the success of his digital projects, something we elaborate in depth on. We also go down a few rabbit holes around navigating your way through the politics of a large organisation and discuss something we love, the dark triad.
#ScaleUp #SoundBytes
Time Stamps
0:00 Intro
00:41 What is transformation?
2:26 How companies do digital transformation well and where are the challenges?
5:10 Unpacking scaled agile
09:04 How does leadership play in the role of transformation success or failure?
12:25 Communication, flow and discovering transformation challenges
17:20 Importance of embracing truth and honesty
21:22 The power of energy and crowdsourcing
26:38 The foundations of creating a high performing team
27:48 How The Dark Triad and Machiavellianism identifies with people in power
38:30 What role design thinking plays in transformation?
46:18 Deep dive into someone who helped you as an influential person
50:17 Habits Roz contributes to his success
52:07 Favourite leadership book of Roz
52:48 Piece of advice you would go back and give yourself
55:49 How being a dad has impacted your ability to be an effective leader
45:45 Outro
The Russians have a saying “the first pancake is always lumpy” meaning things aren’t going to be perfect the first time so don’t expect it to be. Much can be learnt from this when trying to navigate a career transition into software development. It's something Paul is incredibly passionate about and been through it himself.
Throughout this podcast you will hear from Paul, who has created his own career path leading into a technical expert level, and his experience leading teams building some of Australia’s most used mobile applications. We also look at how he has tinkered into new fields such as AI and hybrid apps.
This talk is not only about transitioning your career into software development and rising up the ranks, but will get you to think about what excites you and what gets you up in the morning. In closing we also talk about the state of mobile development, the pro’s and con’s of native app development, hybrid application development and how AI is impacts not only mobile app development but software engineering in general.
ScaleUp are always looking to speak to people who have byte sized ideas they want to share with our community. If you want to ScaleUp your team, ScaleUp your career or be a part of a future ScaleUp Sound Bytes podcast reach out to us at info@scaleuprecruitment.com.au.
#ScaleUpSoundBytes
Time Stamps
0:00 Introduction
00:59 Paul’s background
6:19 Advice for transitioning a career into Software Development
9:10 Be okay with mistakes – thanks uncle bob!
10:57 Having the right Attitude & Curiosity
15:08 What challenges do developers face when climbing the ranks?
20:08 Moving into leadership and letting go of control
23:20 Self-doubt and imposter syndrome
28:02 Native vs. Hybrid
33:59 Pro’s for Native development
36:48 How is AI impacting software development
45:45 Outro
Join us on episode two of ScaleUp SoundBytes as we interview Dr Kaushik Ram, PhD, Neuroscientist and inventor of the Precognition Method.
Kaushik has a seriously impressive resume having spent over a decade studying the optimal performance of the brain and nervous system, and how to release stress, overwhelm and anxiety in busy lives.
He spoke at the inaugural 2022 TEDx Sydney Conscious Leadership event in collaboration with LinkedIn. He has been featured in multi-award-winning documentaries and is the author of Hidden World.
We could not be more excited to have Kaushik on the show, no matter who you are or what you do, this episode is guaranteed to help you ScaleUp. 🤩
#ScaleUp #SoundBytes
Time Stamps
00:00 Introduction
00:56 How does stress impact your body and mind?
04:03 Understanding stress in yourself and specific techniques or exercises to help handle stress and anxiety in situations
12:40 What is FLOW state?
16:47 As a Software Engineer how can you Hack Flow state?
24:39 How can the use of technology help reduce stress, anxiety and help people get into a flow state?
28:17 How do the different nervous systems affect our ability to be productive, relaxed and overcome stressful situations?
33:21 Technology and monitoring or estimating your emotional state
36:17 Get in touch
Sam sits down with Dave Bolton, ex CTO of Domain, WooliesX and ING talking about how to navigate your career to become a CTO.
Stay Curious Stay Humble is a great discussion talking about Dave’s journey to becoming a CTO and specifically the level of business acumen needed to get to this level. We delve into his thoughts around needing an MBA to get there as well as what you can do to use free, readily available tools in order to develop more business knowledge. Listen as they geek out about technical products and the success Dave has had in developing them.
If you're a Developer or Engineer and want to take your career path towards becoming a CTO there’s some great nuggets in there to help you ScaleUp your career. If you're currently a senior people leader or CTO you can listen to Dave's journey and valuable insights, we would love to hear your views around the topics and the journey you took in getting to where you are.
If you're a Developer or Engineer and want to take your career path towards becoming a CTO there’s some great nuggets in there to help you ScaleUp your career. If you're currently a senior people leader or CTO you can listen to Dave's journey and valuable insights, we would love to hear your views around the topics and the journey you took in getting to where you are.
ScaleUp are always looking to speak to people who have byte sized ideas they want to share with our community. If you want to ScaleUp your team, ScaleUp your career or be a part of a future ScaleUp Sound Bytes podcast reach out to us at info@scaleuprecruitment.com.au.
#ScaleUp SoundBytes