The Online Resume of Matthew Spence
Looking For New Opportunities
I'm currently available for contract and full time roles
CTO & COO
Friends or Friends January 2021 - Current
Responsibilities
Establishing operations and providing all necessary technical solutions. Sourcing and/or implementing software to facilitate marking, sales, operations, and customer support, quickly and efficiently, with minimal cost.
Additionally everything and anything required getting a bootstrapped start up ecommerce store off the ground. This truly was a many hats role, and at times included stepping well out my comfort zone into areas such as marketing and sales.
Achievements
Created packaging, fulfilment and support processes that have delivered industry leading dispatch times and customer satisfaction (trustpilot.com, reviews.io). Built an ecommerce fulfilment team with specialist skills around the care and dispatch of live plants from scratch. Procured and out fitted a warehouse space optimised for the business's operations. Created and nutured leadership roles within the team, gradually transferring responsiblity to make teams self managing.
Implemented bespoke software to meet the legal requirements for the distribution of plants. Designed and built to satify statutory standards with the absolute minimum impact on warehouse operations.
Skills & Technologies
- JavaScript
- PostgresSQL
- React
- Redux
- Ruby
- Rails
- Heroku
- GIT
- Product Design
- Ship Station
- Shopify
- Slack
Lead Engineer, Reports
Groove Feb 2017 - May 2021
Responsibilities
Plan and execute architecture, and end-to-end implementation of the company's customer facing analytics and reports product. Ensuring quality of work for contributing engineers assigned to the analytics team. Liaise and coordinate with other teams, specifically system administrators, and Head of Engineering. Define and outline product requirements and vision with Head of Product.
Work under other teams as required in the fast paced and dynamic environment of a start up. Including but not limited to: integrations, search, mobile, and API. Build code and systems to enable rapid product iteration balancing the tradeoffs of functionality, quality & technical debt.
Groove is a fully remote team distributed across several timezones. This role required a high level of autonomy solving complex problems alone when other team members were simply offline. Equally it required planning and colaboration with a number of teams and individuals spread across said timezones.
Achievements
Using a mixture of an off the shelf event streaming platform (keen.io), augmented with a bespoke in house system built on Elastic Search, we were able to deliver a powerful reporting product quickly and efficiently. This hybrid approach meant our solution wasn't confined by the limitations of the 3rd party product but was still able to leverage many of its benefits.
Utilized a number of existing systems already in place to create a highly resiliant data collection endpoint that boasted 99.99% uptime.
Skills & Technologies
- JavaScript
- Docusaurus
- MySQL
- ElasticSearch
- Kafka
- React
- Redux
- Ruby
- Rails
- AWS
- GIT
- TDD
- jQuery
- Emotion
- User Experience
- Product Design
- Code Review
- Trello
- Slack
Senior Software Engineer
Holiday Extras Dec 2015 - Feb 2017
Responsibilities
Produce bug free, future proofed code, setting the standard by which others developers work. Translate the needs of the business into solutions. Working to and on the company values, the team standards and best practices.
Identify, react quickly and take ownership of any serious problems with quality. Improve the performance and development of the team. Sharing and supporting individuals by helping create team processes, following them and enforcing their use by others. Identify technical potential in others and work with them to improve.
Staying abreast of what’s going on in the industry and using this to improve skills and/or the skills of others. Working on a range of systems and constantly update any gaps in knowledge.
Work closely with the leaders of the business and external contacts. Communicate well, be supportive, flexible and take a balanced view between tech and business need. Create constructive and positive debate around solution creation. Foresee and tactfully explain the risks involved, presenting solutions where necessary.
Skills & Technologies
- JavaScript
- React
- Backbone
- Redux
- Ruby
- Rails
- AWS
- GIT
- TDD/BDD
- CoffeeScript
- jQuery
- Less/CSS
- Scrum
- Pods
- User Experience
- Product Design
- Code Review
- Jira
- Slack
- Pair Programming
CTO & Technical Cofounder
Trakio Apr 2013 - Dec 2015
Responsibilities & Achievements
Helping companies increase activation and reduce churn by understanding their users better. Executed a number of pivots searching for a repeatable and scalable business model. Each time creating hypotheses and testing them.
As the CTO I was responsible for planning, building, managing, and documenting several production services and client libraries from scratch. I implemented the provisioning of our hardware infrastructure on AWS using Chef, along with service monitoring and redundancy, having had no previous experience of SysAdmin. I recruited and managed all our technical employees and contractors, managing their on boarding, training, and providing direction and mentorship for their personal development. Utilizing online tools to collaborate remotely, often across timezones.
Working on Trakio has been the single most informative period of my life. Coming to San Francisco, interviewing for YC, taking part in the Alchemist Accelerator, experiencing nacho "cheese", the people I have met, the lessons I have learned. It has been eye opening to say the least.
Skills & Technologies
- Ruby
- Rails
- Sinatra
- Sneakers
- OAuth
- MongoDB
- WebSockets
- RabbitMQ
- Redundancy
- HAProxy
- Nginx
- Monit
- Capistrano
- Chef
- AWS
- GIT
- TDD/BDD
- JavaScript
- CoffeeScript
- D3
- Load Testing
- Highcharts
- jQuery
- Less/CSS
- Photoshop
- Application Design
- User Experience
- Product Design
- Infrastructure Design
- Technical Support
- Code Review
- Trello
- Slack
- Pair Programming
CTO & Technical Cofounder
Virally Jun 2012 - Apr 2013
Responsibilities & Achievements
I conceived and delivered a working prototype as a proof of concept inside of two weeks. I led and managed the team that then fleshed this concept into an off the shelf solution to generate and manage leads from long form content marketing. The product we built enabled customers to achieve conversion rate increases of 122-200%, and secured us a 6 month up front contract with GFK. Both myself and my cofounder sold our stakes to pursue other ideas.
While at Fruitbowl, a client came to us with a problem. We immediately saw the resell value in the solution and spun it out into its own startup: Virally, a lead generation tool for companies with downloadable content marketing. It uses social network authentication to easily and seemlessly submit users' details in return for valuable downloadable content.
My cofounder and I realised it was heading in a direction that we weren't passionate about, and had limited long term sustainablilty issues with increased public awareness around privacy and personal data. We both sold our stake in Virally to our investors to start Trakio.
Skills & Technologies
- Ruby
- Rails
- JavaScript
- jQuery
- Less/CSS
- PostgreSQL
- Heroku
- CDN
- GIT
- Social Auth
- TDD/BDD
- Product Design
- Lean Startup
- Trello
Senior Consultant & Lead Developer
Fruitbowl Media Mar 2012 - Aug 2012
Responsibilities & Achievements
I increased the size and breadth of the company's portfolio by adding more advanced web application work. I built a team capable of delivering this more complex work by recruiting an additional designer and developer, and training existing staff.
I started working with Fruitbowl Media as a freelancer in November 2011, and it wasn't long before they asked me to join them full time as lead developer, to expand their current bread and butter of static marketing sites toward larger web application projects.
I wasn't at Fruitbowl long before we decided to spin out one such project we were working on with a client into its own fledgling company.
Skills & Technologies
- PHP
- Wordpress
- HAML/HTML
- JavaScript
- jQuery
- CSS/Less
- Photoshop
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
- TDD/BDD
- GIT
- Account Management
- Project Management
- Trello
Web Developer
University of Kent - Web Development Team Nov 2007 - Mar 2012
Responsibilities & Achievements
I built and maintained several key systems including the University's password reset system, on boarding for new students and online maps. I successfully managed the implementation and launch of the University's student fee gateway by a 3rd party vendor, a service that processes tens of millions of pounds in tuition each year. I oversaw the transition of the main marketing site's web framework, a key component of the University's web presence, to this team. I led the adoption of agile processes, working to refine a scrum based process that allowed us to be an agile team within a slow and bureaucratic department. I implemented and consulted on several user experience improvements across various teams and services which contributed to a raise in our student satisfaction rating, the key performance metric for our department.
After graduating I moved from my part time roll into a full time position, and switched to a team that was responsible for many of the University's online web applications.
I am most proud of the transition the team made during the time that I worked there, and my contribution to that transition. When I started we were a poorly performing team with very little coherence, struggling to deal with the bureaucracy of the wider organization. By the time I left we had implemented continuous improvement and evolved our own flavor of agile scrum that allowed us to function most effectively given the constraints of the environment in which we operated.
Skills & Technologies
- Apache
- PHP
- Symfony
- Drupal
- MySQL
- HTML
- XML
- XSLT
- CSS
- JavaScript
- jQuery
- Photoshop
- Wireframing
- Application Design
- User Experience
- User Testing
- Load Testing
- TDD/BDD
- Agile
- Scrum
- Sharepoint
- Project Management
Web Developer/Designer
University of Kent - Departmental Web Support Team Nov 2005 - Nov 2007
Responsibilities & Achievements
I was key in translating an established print based design and branding to the web for use across a range of uses and departments. I implemented that design into a flexible PHP/CSS based template that was successfully rolled out across dozens of departments and publishers managing content on https://www.kent.ac.uk. I successfully project managed the adoption of site template upgrades for several large departments, and account managed several others. I was promoted twice during my two years in this team.
Given how long I'd been experimenting with web technologies for, my university studies did little to challenge me and so I found a part time job for the University as a designer/developer in their fledgling Departmental Web Support Team. We worked with departmental web teams to deliver their web sites under a consistent brand.
Early on I was given the opportunity to work on creating a standardized template that could be used across the large number of academic and nonacademic departments. I was the main designer and developer on the first 3 generations of this centralized template. And contributed to later versions of the framework as a senior developer as part of a larger team.
I progressed within the team, starting as a part time junior designer to working full time hours as a senior designer/developer. As a senior, I was responsible for mentoring and supervising junior staff and project managing the development of departmental web projects.
Over the years that I worked on the system we evolved it into to a PHP framework that allowed departmental editors to write HTML in Dreamweaver as they were used to. We would post process their HTML to build advanced dynamic UI elements that would not othewise be possible with dreamweaver alone.
Skills & Technologies
- Photoshop
- Dreamweaver
- Apache
- PHP
- MySQL
- HTML
- CSS
- SVN
- Application Design
- Wireframing
- Customer Support
- Account Management
- Project Management
- Training
Other Previous Roles
CTO & Technical Cofounder
Virally Jun 2012 - Apr 2013
Senior Consultant & Lead Developer
Fruitbowl Media Mar 2012 - Aug 2012
Web Developer
University of Kent - Web Development Team Nov 2007 - Mar 2012
Education
University of Kent
Multimedia Design & Technology BSc Sept 2004 - July 2007
Royal Hospital School
GCSEs & A Levels (UK High School) Sept 1997 - July 2004
A Levels
- Business
- Physics
- Maths
- Politics
GCSEs
- English Liturature
- English Language
- Maths
- Double Science
- Geography
- History
- Maths
- French
University of Kent
Multimedia Design & Technology BSc Sept 2004 - July 2007
A course that can be described as computer science with an emphasis on graphic design and web technologies. It perfectly suited my interests in both the aesthetic design, and the underlying programming of software.
Skills & Technologies
- Graphic Design
- Photography
- Computer Architecture
- C++
- Java
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- .Net
- 3D Animation
- Flash Animation
- Flash
Macromedia Flash
Nelson's Leavers Interactive Yearbook Academic Year 2003/04
An interactive Flash application presented on a DVD data disk. With farewell messages, photo galleries, videos and easter eggs. Developed and produced during my last year of high school, mostly for the love of it, but with a nice little profit at the end.
The web back then wasn't what it is now, and I was frustrated with the limited interactivity of web pages, so I turned to the only place there was to turn in 2003: Macromedia Flash!
Along with two like minded friends we finished the project on time and made ourselves some beer money for the summer. Most importantly though, I learned things that were far more valuable given my future in software engineering than anything I learnt in class.
- Flash
- ActionScript
- Photoshop
- Video Editing
I Catch the Programming Bug
Operation Flashpoint Released Summer 2001
Writing custom mission scripts for Operation Flashpoint was what first really got me into programming. I probably would have found my calling with out this game but even so I owe a lot to it for first igniting my passion for programming.
When I purchased a copy of Operation Flashpoint it was as "just another game" but when I discovered the scriptable mission editor I was hooked. I'd used PHP before but only as a templating language, this was something else entirely. I could make characters move across the virtual map engaging each other at my whim, I was hooked!
From here I started exploring more and more of the potential of PHP as a programming language. Building the foundation for a passion for making things, which is as strong today as ever.
Royal Hospital School
GCSEs & A Levels (UK High School) Sept 1997 - July 2004
My high school education lacked any formal programming education but that didn't stop me learning. I spent a lot of (my teachers will say too much) time tinkering away on my own web projects.
The Royal Hospital School, is an income assessed private boarding school with a strong naval tradition. Boarding with boys and girls from a wide range of backgrounds has given me many insights and oppotunities I simply would not have had access to at any other school.
Extra ciricular activities like the Combined Cadet Force and the Duke of Edinborough Award have provided me with the skills and resiliance to prepare and deal with most of what life has had to throw at me.
Boarding from the early age of 12 and being away from my family has meant that from an early age I have had the self decipline and independance to work well on my own. Whilst the commradery and nature of boarding have instilled a great appreciation for working as part of a team.
A Levels
- Business
- Physics
- Maths
- Politics
GCSEs
- English Literature
- English Language
- Maths
- Double Science
- Geography
- History
- Maths
- French
Thanks to my Uncle
My First HTML editor Summer 1997
HotMetal PRO first starts my love affair with computers and the web
I've been playing around with the web since my Uncle gave me a web development magazine with a free version of HotMetal PRO on the accompanying demo disc (in the days when demo discs were still a thing). This introduced me to the thrilling world of marques, frames and animated GIF buttons.
Skills & Technologies
- HTML
- CSS
- PHP
- Awesome Animated GIFs
- Including but not limited to "Under Construction" workmen