Writing software and growing a team.

From games to client work

I joined Appoets as a developer in 2016 and left as Head of Technology. The work covered ride hailing, food ordering, logistics, and marketplaces. Moving between projects meant getting used to different businesses and their ways of working.

In 2019, I co-founded Zethic. During my time there, our engineering team grew from two people to 25. We worked with businesses including Godrej Properties, AirAsia, and Kurlon.

What I did

I worked on architecture, hiring, estimates, code reviews, and delivery. I also spent time understanding what clients needed the software to do and helping the team turn that into a plan.

As the team grew, I couldn’t be involved in every decision. Part of my job became making sure people had enough context to work things out themselves.

How we worked

The projects varied, but a few things mattered across all of them:

• Choosing infrastructure that suited the product.
• Using microservices and Kubernetes when services needed to scale independently.
• Reviewing code and keeping releases manageable.
• Including security checks and monitoring in the release process.
• Being clear about scope and uncertainty when making estimates.
• Knowing who would look after the software once it was live.

We kept working on these habits as new people joined the team.

What I learned

Leading a larger team meant spending more time on code reviews and handovers, and talking through deadlines before they became problems. I had to learn how to help someone make a decision without taking the work back from them.