BenP (01:50.05)
Hi everyone and welcome to the Tech World Human Skills Podcast. Now, this episode, we're talking about making the leap from a corporate tech role to founding your own company. And our guest today spent many years in various data roles, including database development and solution architecture. And then he made a leap to co-found.
a data analytics consultancy. So, will you please welcome to the podcast, Seranga Fernando.
Suranga Fernando (02:26.535)
Thank you very much, Ben. Thanks for the great intro, and it's a pleasure to be here. Looking forward to this.
BenP (02:32.15)
Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I think it's really interesting to have a chat, you know, about people that have had a big career switch and particularly people in deep technical roles. So I wonder for all our listeners out there that don't know you, could you introduce yourself to us?
Suranga Fernando (02:51.971)
Yeah, sure. So my name is Sarenga Fernando. I guess back in the day, I started out as a mechanical engineer and a science graduate. So mechanical engineering and then computer science. I was always interested in computers. First job was as a VB6 developer, cutting code and fixing bugs with VB6 as part of a large organization, a large systems integrator, where I did project management, testing.
development eventually moved on, started getting a little bit more into that development team leadership. So really got to groups with engineering at scale, then moved into architecture, solution architecture, and then enterprise architecture. I actually had a good few years getting trained up in how to do large-scale transformations with a technology background, and then moved to Microsoft where
working for a hyperscaler in the cloud, helping customers leverage cloud technology, and then made the jump to co-found a business.
BenP (04:02.862)
Right, and how long ago? Because I guess it's a year or 18 months. How long ago did you find the company?
Suranga Fernando (04:11.939)
Yeah, so just over a year now, we've been going as Ario Blue. So, and it was just about five years at Microsoft. So it's been a, yeah, just over a year now.
BenP (04:15.305)
Okay?
BenP (04:22.218)
Right, and so Ario Blue, I was gonna say Aero Blue, I got that wrong, so it's Ario Blue, right, is the name. And so what is Ario Blue?
Suranga Fernando (04:28.198)
Yes.
Suranga Fernando (04:32.167)
So we're a data analytics consultancy. We do focus quite heavily on the Microsoft Azure platform. Two of the co-founders are from Microsoft. The other two very heavily involved in Microsoft Azure projects and large transformations. So that's where our heritage and expertise is. And we specialize in helping large organizations move rapidly towards their strategy often.
helping them leverage Microsoft technologies, helping them change their culture often as they move from traditional ways of working into developing natively for the cloud.
BenP (05:11.886)
Okay, brilliant. Well, I think it's really interesting thinking about, particularly people that have got a really tech background like yourself, then starting, I guess, to be more entrepreneurial. And I wondered if we could start off by thinking about what was it that led you to jump from sort of being in that, I guess, the corporate role, big tech at a hyperscaler, working with customers every day, exciting projects.
and quite tech focused, I guess, to co-founding a business and opening up the world of, I don't know, limited companies and tax returns and all of that kind of stuff.
Suranga Fernando (05:54.235)
I've thought about this question a lot, just in preparing for this Ben. You know when you're going to think I can end it up with I don't know? Because in reality, those five years at Microsoft were my dream job. They were my dream job. Exactly as you said, working with lots of customers, at the cutting edge of technology.
Suranga Fernando (06:18.863)
When I, if I look back over my career, there's always been a part of me that's, I want to start my own thing, I want to put my own print on an organisation, I want to take some people with me, I want to build something that we as a group of people can look at and say, that's the company we want to be. Microsoft was great actually, because I joined at a time where it was going through a cultural renaissance essentially, where...
as an organisation, Microsoft, it's not the Microsoft of 10 years ago or 15 years ago. It was a really cutting edge place to work with a lovely culture to be in with some amazing people around it. I think I took some inspiration from that really. And then coupled with I think a few stars aligning, meeting my co-founders, building that kind of thought process with them who had all had that same sort of urge to build something.
and the timing just worked.
BenP (07:19.87)
Yeah. And so interestingly, we had a quick chat before we started recording this. And I was talking about what your role is now. And you describe yourself as a co-founder. Now, quite often when techies get together with a bunch of other folks to found a company, the techies sort of go into this CTO type role and that becomes their job title.
But you specifically, you don't call yourself a CTO or a tech director, you keep with the co-found. Can you talk to me a bit about that?
Suranga Fernando (07:53.051)
So I guess personally for me, balance has always been, and I think you'll see it come out through quite a lot of different questions in this, that balance is key. So you're right, being a co-founder, we're involved in financial, commercial, sales, technology, architecture, delivery, all of the aspects.
There are definitely those of us in the co-founder group who are more specialist in some of those areas, but I think actually the balance of being able to balance those ideas across the co-founding and the management team is crucial to how we act with customers, how we aren't so laser focused on one thing, we're blinkered from the other aspects. So that's why I really like the idea of co-founder. It's not to say that we don't specialize, because we do, but it brings that balance.
BenP (08:46.058)
It is. And I think that was one of the things I found when I moved from the big corporate world to the small business world is you very much had a lane to swim in when you're in the corporate world. You had a function, a remit and there was scope for creativity, you know, but ultimately you were there to do this. Whereas when you move into the smaller business world, it's a bit of whatever needs getting done. And suddenly you need to do a bit of marketing or you need to do a bit of sales or you need to do a bit of tax, you know, or something really different.
Suranga Fernando (09:01.429)
Mm-hmm.
Suranga Fernando (09:16.363)
Yeah, I fully agree. I challenge you Ben actually to think about the people, maybe even yourself, if you think about your career, the people that stand out. I think, one of the things I find definitely is it's those folk who are happy to swim outside their lane a little bit but responsibly. So not arrogantly running into someone else's lane and telling them how to do it, but having confidence that you are good in your lane but actually you can add value outside of your lane.
BenP (09:43.76)
Yeah.
Suranga Fernando (09:44.751)
And so again, I wouldn't want to be pigeonholed as an engineer only or an architect only because I feel like with the experience I've got, I can add value. And I do look for that. So if we're talking to engineers, you've got to look for the other things outside of engineering. If you just pigeonhole someone as an engineer and you don't see that they are going to be great at persuading people or getting them involved in pre-sales conversations, then I think...
BenP (09:51.873)
Yep.
Suranga Fernando (10:12.783)
we'd limit people too easily by pigeonholing them.
BenP (10:15.346)
Yeah, no, I think you're right. It's, yeah, for me, really exciting to try different things, learn new things, but I still love doing a bit of tech. I don't think I could, I couldn't just go into baby food or something like that and go, there is still for me something really exciting about working in tech. I still quite like figuring out how things work and all of that kind of stuff.
Suranga Fernando (10:24.879)
Yeah.
Suranga Fernando (10:37.903)
Yes, absolutely. And so do I. Yeah, I'm constantly, I've got my hands dirty with any, any of the tech, whether it's Power BI and report writing or bits of Python and data science or data engineering. And then, you know, getting my pen out on a whiteboard and drawing up architecture. So yeah, I love it all.
BenP (10:56.274)
So I wonder if we could think a little bit about the reality, you know, so a day comes where you hand your noticing, right, at the company, right, you know, you've probably been doing some planning before that, I'm imagining. But what does that journey look like for you at Aria Blue? What's the reality of that sort of first few months, six months year of setting up your own data analytics consultancy? What does that actually look like?
Suranga Fernando (11:24.647)
So, I mean even pre-launch, yes as you say there's a lot of planning and so all of the co-founders for the life stages we were in we didn't really have, I mean it's going to be a risk but we didn't have that kind of, well you know, we can afford not to make money for the first year or we didn't have that so we had to do some really serious planning, make sure that the business that we were going to set up was viable commercially and it wasn't just
for enthusiastic kind of leaders trying to start something without thinking about it, just because we might be good at our individual jobs, but we needed to build a business and something that we could grow. I guess that planning stage was quite elongated for us. Lots of financial planning, lots of trying to understand what it means to run a business and how to kind of financially plan what kind of our service offerings were going to be.
and how we could scale it.
BenP (12:25.866)
So a lot of planning before, then how do you then, I guess you need some customers to go and work with. How was it that you sort of went from, right, there's zero to now actually, we've got some people that want us to come in and help deliver some value. How did you sort of get those first few customers?
Suranga Fernando (12:45.019)
So with that, we had contacts and we got a black book and we've been really fortunate with the co-founders to work with some amazing customers. And almost as you said before, we were kind of laying the groundwork, making sure there was interest in that community of contacts for if we were to do something, would they be interested? And the answer was yes. So as we transitioned from our previous jobs,
We had essentially figured out that we didn't need a fallow period where we didn't have anything. We could just jump straight into something which helped us get going, brought some money into the business, allowed us to employ our first few consultants essentially and then start growing and scaling from there.
BenP (13:26.796)
Yeah.
BenP (13:35.614)
Really. And so as that sort of scaled out, what were the bits, I guess, over that first year where you go, actually this is a bit easier than I thought it was going to be. And then what are the bits on the flip side, because it's always nice to talk about the reality, what are the bits you go, ah, well, this was actually a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.
Suranga Fernando (13:59.367)
So the easier than I thought it was going to be is going to sound arrogant, but it's not meant to be because we put so much time into it. I think we put a lot of time into overanalyzing everything we were doing, whether it was preparing our finances, whether it was talking to customers, setting up things like statements of work and contracts, and making sure that all the processes that go around purchase ordering. I'm an architect and an engineer as a background. We have to learn all of that.
get the feedback externally. So that's talking to a lot of people who have been on that journey before. One thing I would say, it's amazing how many entrepreneurs are out there, how many people who have been through what we've been through are so happy to help. They're happy to talk, talk to us. You would almost say, well, they're your competitors, but they're human beings. They've been through that journey, they will help. And getting that contact base has been unbelievable for us.
BenP (14:44.91)
Okay.
BenP (14:59.466)
So that's been good. And so what have been then that, you know, are there any hard bits that sort of stretch out and you go, actually, I thought this was gonna be easy and this bit isn't easy.
Suranga Fernando (15:09.915)
So the element of responsibility you have, when it's just you, just four co-founders, who essentially you could think, well, if we make this amount of money, we can pay ourselves. But when you start taking it on people, it's like those individuals have lives and mortgages and kids to feed and that responsibility is hard. It makes you really think about, are we doing the right things properly?
all of the time. It's essentially, it's like having a larger and larger family that you have to provide for and make sure that you're making responsible decisions, not just in the instant because it sounds good, but actually for the long term of the people that rely on their wages coming in. So that weighs heavy, but it actually keeps us very grounded and makes sure we're doing things in the right way.
BenP (16:06.594)
What I found is it makes you really think about disregarding the shiny thing. So I would say as a techie, and I think lots of people do, the new shiny thing is the new shiny thing. And that's the thing that I want to play with. And then you're looking at the new shiny thing going, now normally I would just go for that shiny thing. But does that shiny thing actually deliver when I'm thinking about...
making sure I can pay the wages of somebody else. And it really helps give some clarity, doesn't it?
Suranga Fernando (16:36.679)
It does. And thinking about the podcast content and your blog content, if you think about it, it's almost like saying as a techie, your focus is delivery or the outcome or engineering, but actually it's the human part. It's making sure that we're looking after our staff, that we're looking after ourselves. Work-life balance is hard in a startup. The hours are going in, but are we spending those hours on the right things? Are we talking to our staff? Are we making sure that as well as projects being delivered, that...
BenP (16:54.817)
Yeah.
Suranga Fernando (17:06.415)
We're building a culture that we want people to be able to talk about.
BenP (17:11.314)
Yeah, yeah, no. The other thing I found that's quite interesting is working out when you need to be patient and persistent, that you're doing the right thing and you've just got to turn the handle. Do you know what I mean? And if we're just patient and we just do this, it will come right. Like we're on the right course. Just keep going versus when you go in. This isn't working. We need to pivot. We need to course, correct. We need to change and knowing when do you need to course correct and when do you just need to exercise a bit of grit and just keep doing it.
That to me feels really hard.
Suranga Fernando (17:44.371)
It is and I mean I will say that is where the leadership team and my co-founders we bounce That's exactly where we are able to bounce ideas off each other So individually if someone's got a doubt or someone's got I think we need to pivot then you've got The calm heads around you to be able to share that with if that makes sense I can
BenP (18:04.072)
Yeah.
BenP (18:07.83)
Yeah.
Suranga Fernando (18:09.611)
from where I sit now, I can see there's a lonely side to being in that leadership or that kind of entrepreneurial role. Because the effect of your decision, if you are the only person making that decision, is hard. As leaders, we need to be able to make those choices, but it's actually really nice and comforting to be able to bounce those ideas off peers and make sure that there's at least some feedback. Now, that can...
BenP (18:21.281)
Yeah.
Suranga Fernando (18:35.351)
If it's not checked, it can lead to indecisiveness or not making decisions, but that's something to guard against too.
BenP (18:40.69)
Yeah. Now, you mentioned your leadership team there a little bit. How many co-founders did you have? And so you sort of came with that solution architecture, perhaps background, and that's sort of what you're bringing into the party. How many co-founders and what did they bring to the party? And how do you divide then your responsibilities? You set that up.
Suranga Fernando (19:04.591)
Great question. So I suppose just a really quick bit of background. So we're, as a consultancy, what we do is we go and advise customers and we often deliver solutions for them. And the four pillars that kind of started Ario Blue, there's a commercial aspect, which is hopefully obvious to everyone why we need that in a business. There's architecture and strategy, which is incredibly important to customers. So that's where my expertise comes in.
BenP (19:26.486)
All right.
Suranga Fernando (19:33.991)
Program management and delivery and that kind of really robust mechanism to ensure that you're delivering value for a customer. As the projects get hard, that's the third pillar. The fourth pillar is engineering excellence. So that really low level technological excellence that allows projects to essentially...
not only deliver the outcome, but deliver them with quality in a scalable way. So all of those four aspects, the co-founders, bring a completely separate skill set. And underlying all of those are the human skills that you often are talking about on your content.
BenP (20:10.88)
Okay.
BenP (20:18.674)
And so I guess, you know, four pillars you're going, you've got commercial architecture, PM, engineering excellence. And I guess your area of excellence would be for the architecture, is that the sort of pillar that you sort of pick up?
Suranga Fernando (20:31.307)
Yes, architecture and enterprise architecture and strategy and yes, absolutely that.
BenP (20:38.93)
And then the other co-founders, they're sort of more focusing on the commercial or the PM or the, or the, the engineering excellence side.
Suranga Fernando (20:47.463)
That's right, that's right, that's where, so commercial and sales, architecture and strategy, program management, engineering.
BenP (20:57.278)
Right. And how have you found that? So coming from that sort of architecture background, it's been a real benefit, has it, co-founding with people with those different skills so that you've got all of those covered as opposed to having you having to spread across all of those four things.
Suranga Fernando (21:12.839)
I would say, yeah, this for me comes down to diversity of thought and being able to understand that sometimes you need a commercial focus to a conversation or a topic. And if I don't think there's a human being in the world, really, who can attest to saying I am brilliant at all of those things all of the time, and my personality allows me to understand how to be good at all of those things all of the time. So I think
BenP (21:17.026)
Okay.
Suranga Fernando (21:42.351)
being able to understand our own limitations and wherever you come from. So it's very stereotypical, but if I said as an architect, I always need to understand all of these aspects of a solution, whereas actually, stereotypically, if you said someone commercial might say, we don't need to worry about that, we need to worry about the outcome. I can say, yes, I understand that, but I might not be in the right head space all of the time. I might be in an architect's head space or an engineering head space, but I do need to hear it.
and I need to respond and listen to the feedback and before we make decisions. Does that make sense?
BenP (22:19.05)
Yeah, so it's really playing and it's really worked out really nicely that you've managed to find these founders that are willing to take the risk, you get on well with and have got such a complimentary set of skills to be able to launch the company and do so well over the first year.
Suranga Fernando (22:35.575)
Yes, and you say fortunate, but we did plan it that way. You know, that was one of the things that drove us towards starting it because it was just good timing. The four of us were having that conversation. We can articulate that the skills that we bring are independent and important to the thing that we are trying to build.
BenP (22:41.249)
Yeah.
BenP (22:53.544)
Yep.
Yeah. So, so you've done that year. What would be the lessons, I guess? Yeah. If somebody was thinking, do you know what I mean? I've got an inkling that I might fancy doing this. Or, you know, the other thing, you know, heaven forbid redundancy. You know, still there's new story after new story after redundancy and redundancy. So if people either have that inkling that they want to go and do this.
Or find through circumstance they're in a position where this might be a great opportunity. What would be the sort of the lessons that you've learned over the past year that you'd pass and pay forward to these folks?
Suranga Fernando (23:38.039)
So again, I'm going to bring that balance word back in. If you've got a really good idea and you think it works technically, then you need to think about it commercially. You need to think, right, it's my idea and I know how I want to implement it. Can you explain it to someone as a kind of business leader now, if the four of us co-founders can do something really, really well, that's brilliant. We've got a four-man company.
BenP (23:41.323)
Okay.
Suranga Fernando (24:06.939)
we need to be able to scale and get that idea across to some people who haven't got the enthusiasm right now because they haven't heard about it, we need to be able to espouse that get them on board and be able to drive that vision forward with us. So I think thinking about more than just yourself and how you can get a group of people to start their organisation. So some of that thinking was crucial in our start-up.
before we launched. I guess the other lessons are, it is pretty hard, you have to think, to kind of come out of the comfort zone of your own area and think how are we going to manage finances, HR, how are we going to get payroll sorted, all of those things. Even if they don't give you energy, you have to put some time into them and make sure you've got robust processes.
BenP (25:05.082)
Yeah, yeah. So you've got getting a bit of balance if you can. So through other people that can help you, you've gone for the co-founder or mentors, I guess, if somebody's gonna start it on their own, that kind of stuff, so it's a bit of balance. This idea of just knowing that you're gonna have to do part of a variety of hats, regardless of what you're gonna do, whether they give you energy or not.
there's certain government legislations, certain things you need to do to run a business that you must do regardless. Anything else springing up as lessons over the past year?
Suranga Fernando (25:40.639)
I'm going to put it under the word diligence, I suppose, which is when you think something's easy, just make sure you've done a bit of research, that you've looked up exactly as you say those government websites, the corporate websites, say is there anything else here that I need to pick on or pick at to make sure that we're doing this in the right way. So that diligence and having a team, whether that's
co-founders or being kind of mature enough to say, I don't have that skill set, so I need to bring that into the business somehow. I think asking for help as being one of the things that it's been quite hard to learn because often through your career, as you become better and better at some things, that's where you get pigeonholed into doing and you're doing more of the things and then to have the confidence to go, oh, there's an area here that I don't know anything about.
BenP (26:16.116)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Suranga Fernando (26:38.737)
I need to go and find some help. I think that's being crucial for us.
BenP (26:40.358)
Yeah. And I think also that's reinforced by, you know, often the word in tech, you know, is SME, isn't it? Subject Matter Expert. And Subject Matter Expert sometimes bringles with it the baggage of I need to know the answer. And so people are paid to know the answer. But actually, you therefore need to be able to get in a mindset where you can say, but I don't know, but I can find the answer and I'm prepared to ask for help to get to that answer.
Suranga Fernando (26:53.647)
Yes.
Suranga Fernando (27:05.303)
Yeah, as a leader, co-founder, as a consultant, even as a consultant, when we are approaching customers, they do expect you to know the answer. But almost the human skills part, which kind of hopefully resonates is, I think, you know, as a human being, you do respond to people who have empathy, who say, I see the challenge in front of us.
And we've got some experience which allows us to solve that problem, but we don't know all the intricacies. But here's our track record. So, and this is how we are going to fill the skills gap, help the customer go forward. All of that comes into it, yes.
BenP (27:47.434)
Now, you start to talk there about skills gap. And if we start to then look forward to you guys scaling out, and I believe you're in a position where you start to think about scaling out, hiring more people, that kind of stuff. I wondered if we could talk about that. And that's wonderful to hear, particularly when you're just sick of hearing news about people losing jobs as opposed to people getting jobs. So you'll start to think about scaling out, start to think about hiring people.
What are the, when you're thinking about bringing people into a company like this and hiring as a technical arm within that co-founder leadership team, what is it that you're going to be hiring for? What tips would you have for people that are starting to apply for jobs? What is it you're looking for?
Suranga Fernando (28:33.531)
So for where we are in our growth trajectory, the individuals we are looking for, again, diversity of thought is key, being able to communicate with customers is key. For me, empathy is a huge part of consulting. So listening, trying to understand, and make sure that you feed back to a customer that we do understand what they are asking for. And I don't mean in a kind of surface way that we really think about.
So individuals who can show that are like gold dust. The technical skills behind that allow them to engineer, architect, or lead delivery through are almost a hygiene factor for us, because those skills can be learned. Some of the things which I was talking about at the start of this.
you can train yourself, and I think some of the content that you provide is exactly to that point. They can be trained, but you have to practice them. And so we are looking for people with that spark to say they invest in themselves in those areas as well as the technical areas.
BenP (29:35.742)
Yeah.
BenP (29:46.598)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, it seems to be the technical stuff. You can sit down, can't you, with, I don't know, some documentation, with some labs, whatever it is, and you can get there. Some of those skills, like you say, like empathy, for example, you can learn the theory of empathy, you know, which to me is like, so firstly, I need to exercise a bit of curiosity.
And then I've got to listen. Then I've got to take back and consider and reflect upon what they've said. Now I've got to maybe take ask some more questions and take some action. And then when I take that action, then I'm actually doing something with that. You know, it starts off with curiosity and asking and listening and all of that kind of stuff. But then you've actually got to do that to get better at it. And you practice. So you can absolutely learn it. But it takes a little bit more effort and a little bit more experience than looking at a lab or doing a lab.
Suranga Fernando (30:25.542)
Yes.
BenP (30:39.446)
I'm knowing the answer at the end of 10 minutes.
Suranga Fernando (30:39.879)
That's it. Exactly right. You know, I can go online and within 10 minutes, I'll find 50 hours of how I can practice writing Power BI reports or visualizations that get better or do data science accelerators that will teach me something and do 50 of them. But how do I learn how to be more empathetic or listen better? The practicing of that, it's harder to find that content, I think.
BenP (31:04.842)
Yeah, no, completely agree. No, I know, I think it's really fascinating. And I think the other thing that's fascinating is the, as generative and AI, it seems takes more of a chunk out of knowledge worker skillset. You know, so generative AI is able to do more and more things and is gonna continue at that fast velocity. It feels to me like a lot of jobs are gonna start to, you know, become more AI-ified or AI replaced.
But the bits where it seems a lot harder is where the technical or the knowledge world interfaces with the human world. To take a really silly example, getting an AI to try and fix your sink that's got a blockage is really hard at the moment, right? Because you'd need a robot that could do all of that, then you'd need the AI. So that's a great example. But it feels to me like that interfaces the bit where you've got a foot in the tech camp and the knowledge world, but then a...
Suranga Fernando (31:49.351)
Yeah.
BenP (32:02.198)
in that human world as well, it feels where that's a bit safer from your job being replaced by AI at the moment. What do you think?
Suranga Fernando (32:04.792)
Absolutely.
Suranga Fernando (32:10.691)
No, I fully agree and I think, you know, AI or technologies that help you understand how to do something are brilliant. But I guess in my line of work, often you can get there with the help of AI or with your experience, here's what we should do. The key is how do I organise and persuade the relevant people that it's easy to persuade everyone that that's the right answer.
But then getting from where we are now to have that right answer implemented isn't, AI can give you a project plan, but it can't deal with the human element of, well actually, every one of the people in that plan has their own needs and wants who have, I'll go right down into a technical example. You've got a security function who have needs and wants, which is to secure an organization. You have a,
a department who wants to make money and deliver value quickly. And sometimes those two things clash. AI will tell you the outcomes that are needed and a plan which will give you a secure architecture and use these platforms and, you know, but persuading security to listen to the outcome when it's the same company that you're working with. Some of that bit is the nuance that AI yet, to this day, I don't think can solve all the little gaps in between.
BenP (33:35.486)
Yeah. And then when you add in the further nuances that guy from security is having a really bad week and then doesn't get on with this lady that works in this department. And, you know, there's some bad blood going on there and you need to get in the middle of that. And then some contractual agreements with a third party vendor that isn't doing what they do. By the time you start to add all of those human layers on as well. That that theoretical plan is a bit a bit. Yeah. Not going to get you there.
Suranga Fernando (33:42.331)
Yeah.
Suranga Fernando (33:46.551)
Exactly.
Suranga Fernando (33:50.468)
Yes.
Suranga Fernando (33:54.715)
Yeah.
Suranga Fernando (34:00.132)
Yes.
Suranga Fernando (34:04.675)
Yeah, and being able to navigate that with empathy and understanding that there are rationales and reasons why everyone is coming to the table with options, blockers, whatever it is, and then being able to work through those, that's key.
BenP (34:19.186)
Yeah. Well, do you know what? We have zipped through time. We are we are heading towards the end of the episode. So I wonder perhaps, could you maybe from your perspective, what would be the key takeaways for anybody listening? So that's thinking, you know, oh, I am interested in founding a data consultancy or any of their own sort of company. What would be the key takeaways that you'd want people to take away from this podcast?
Suranga Fernando (34:45.507)
I suppose depending on where you are in your career, if you're early on, I would seek balance. If you are an expert technically as a data scientist, go find out what it means to be a tester or a project manager. And if that's not in your current role, talk to people, get mentored by people who have got a completely different mindset to you. If you are an engineer who doesn't understand salespeople or how they work or what makes them tick.
Find that experience, get that balance. I guess going back to the start of my career, I've been fortunate enough to have a variety of skills and all the way through that tech career, there have been leanings into the commercial side, pre-sales side, as companies I've worked at have gone through acquisitions and you kind of get thrust into that commercial side. And you just need to open your mind to seeing how they work and why they work. If you're...
If you're thinking you're ready to make the jump, then hopefully that means you've got some really solid experience behind you or you've got a very good idea. For those people, the key is for me, plan and carefully, I suppose, because some of these things might be really interesting ideas that you do need to keep confidential, find that kind of inner circle of trust or the tent that you want to work within and get some feedback from people that you trust.
BenP (36:11.622)
it. Always love to jot down some notes, seek balance, so trying to balance out your skill set and that kind of stuff. Love it. And then, and then getting feedback, you know, what a gift feedback is, isn't it? You don't always want to hear it, but what a gift it can be. So I'd love to hear that. And the other thing that I love to hear was just when you were thinking about hiring there, how, you know, so often we get caught up in our tech skills and you were saying when you're thinking about hiring, that's almost like a hygiene factor, you know.
Don't get me wrong, very important foundation, super important, but relatively straightforward to develop but actually investing some of those longer term skills like empathy was the one that you brought out. That's what's gonna make the difference. And that's like the gold dust. Those are the people that you're gonna hire that are gonna be top of the recruitment tree, you know, you're trying to bring into the hall. Fascinating.
Well, for everybody that would love to find out more about Ario Blue, connect with you, where can people find you and connect with you?
Suranga Fernando (37:17.179)
So if you're interested in what we are as a company and whether you want to think about careers with us or come and utilise our services, the first place I would go to is our website at www.arioblue.com. You can also find us on LinkedIn. We're quite prolific at sending out quite a lot of content on LinkedIn, so you can just interact with that and come to our LinkedIn page that way.
BenP (37:40.514)
Brilliant. And for anybody that's interested, I will pop in the show notes. A link to that. How do you spell aria blue? That's the bit that confused me. How do you spell that?
Suranga Fernando (37:50.967)
It's A-do dot com.
BenP (37:54.806)
That is that double R that got me that double R. So what I'll just say is thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. Ranga is, I think, really inspiring to see people from the tech world adding balance, to use your words, you know, adding vision and, you know, building different skill sets, really inspiring and really interesting. So hopefully some of the things that you've said here will really help people.
inspire them a little bit, give them something tangible to take away. So thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today.
Suranga Fernando (38:26.859)
Oh, and thank you, Ben, for inviting me. It's been an absolute pleasure.
BenP (38:29.762)
Brilliant, see you soon, bye bye.
Suranga Fernando (38:31.727)
Take care, bye bye.
