Get to know me...

Tell us about you and your experience?

I’ve got such a mixed background, pretty much have dabbled in a lot of things, landscaping, bartending, hospitality, sales , training and development, I even tried to be a professional poker player, then at last, recruitment. It’s funny, when I graduated from uni, I wanted to get into recruitment straight away, however another opportunity came up and I pursued this, roughly 5 years later I began my recruitment career.



Who are you outside of work?

I’m dad to 2 adorable boys, they keep me busy as I can be outside of work. Next I’m a husband to a beautiful wife who keeps me grounded and shows me worlds that I didn’t know existed. I like to keep myself sane by working out daily with running or light weights/resistance bands, practicing yoga and meditation and playing golf. When I find the time in the early hours of the morning, when the swell is pumping and the winds are offshore you’ll find me carving up waves across the Sydney beaches.

What led you to start ScaleUp?

I was bored with my life in my late twenties and realised that I always wanted to run my own business but had been dossing around for a while. So, after reading rich dad poor dad and a few other books, I wrote out a plan on how to get there. Part of which was get experience in recruitment as it’s going to give me some great sales & business development experience along with other advantages. I positioned myself with tech recruitment to I could talk and network with startup founders and leaders to learn of them as well. The goal was to always run a business, after a successful 5 years working in Sydney and London, I realised it was time.

What can clients/candidates call you for?

All things Tech! But I have focused a lot in Ruby on Rails, Mobile development and JavaScript, the odd python role as well. We are developing more of a capability in the C-Suite space now which is very exciting!

How do you stay current with industry trends and developments?

I read a lot, listen to podcasts & audio books as well. I love learning about leadership and influence, I find the psychology behind a lot of these tools fascinating. I also pay attention to the business, finance and tech news out there by subscribing to various papers and newsletters. Plus, talking to people CTO’s, managers, candidates out there, asking them questions and learning from them, these are the best source of information possible, they are the heart of the market.

What do you think sets your approach to recruitment apart from others in the industry?

Piero and I set up ScaleUp because we believed we can offer the technology market a better experience in not just recruitment but also career & leadership advice. We do the little and simple things really well but also have great plans on disrupting recruitment with industry leading podcasts, events & information that’s readily available to our market. WE love the industry we serve, but believe there are so many unique challenges that we help with. That’s why we are here. That’s why we ScaleUp.

Your opinion on the market right now and how you can stand out as both a client and candidate?

It changes rapidly, one minute we were really struggling to find anyone, then next we’ve had bank collapses and industry lay offs across the ball. I don’t read crystal balls, so I don’t know what’s next. But if I were looking to stand out as a business to attract talent, is look internally at your current culture which starts from the head, have a solid but simple recruitment process that values the candidate experience (again not over the top, simple touch points with emails and feedback go a LONG way, that can be automated). If I were a candidate looking for work right now, I would really think about my next move, the market is not as hot as what it was, but you don’t want to take any role (if you can, Sydney house/mortgages at pretty F’d right now so I get it), once I’ve done this, I would think about how the company’s product works, market fit, how it makes money etc, and then put your dev hat on to get a further understanding of how you can help build/design/manage it. I would arm myself with this information before and interview and ask questions around this to gather as much information as possible.

How do you foster a positive candidate experience, even for those who don't end up getting the job?

This really isn’t hard. Call people with feedback and give it to them in a professional matter. Be empathic to others, but don’t shy away form giving good feedback. No Ghosting, ever.

Finally, we’ll end on a light note! What's the funniest thing that's ever happened to you during an interview?

I’ve had people get into a fight on their first day and recently a candidate turn up to an interview with no shirt on (and he still got the job).