Interview by Dan Selman, CTO Clause Inc.
Stefan, you are a Middleware Engineer at Clause. What attracted you to Clause?
At the end of my university years, we had to attend a compulsory law and finance module. I quickly found law to be interesting, but saw, that although most parts of the world’s information exchange had become more frictionless because of tech, law was stubbornly old-school. Not only was it not automated, it seemed that by making legal documents hard to follow by the untrained eye, some gatekeeping was in order. I was mulling over the idea, that if one day I have the opportunity to launch my own business, it will likely have to do with legal automation and making law more user-friendly.
When a recruiter told me what Clause were doing, their offer immediately caught my attention. After a chat with my interviewer — Dan, it became apparent that I will get along with the people there as we shared lots of interests and views, that at least in my experience, are hard to come by easily in others.
All in all, working on a project that I’m passionate about, with people that I have similar passions to, made Clause the right place for me.
You have a background in banking and worked on a project with the Ripple (XRP) platform. Can you tell us anything about it? Are there any potential synergies with Clause?
At my previous role I was involved in a project tasked with making international payments more frictionless and trustless and less centralised. It showed me how a novel concept can overcome the rigidities of a conservative industry if people are trusted with the time and resources to try it out. As a result, it had become an award-winning project, saving the bank and customers time and resources.
Can you tell us a little about your current project at Clause, the frameworks/products you are using and your experience?
I’m currently entrusted with developing the Public API for the Clause platform. This is essential for the future of the project, as it allows us to place our technology where it’s most useful — as a part of someone else’s great idea.
I’m primarily working with Loopback 4: an Open Source API-optimised framework using TypeScript. This is complemented by some Amazon Web Services products, such as their API Gateway and Lambda Functions. Coming from a strictly on-premises world, my experience with AWS was limited. But thanks to my colleagues and the ease of use of those products, this is quickly changing. As far as Loopback and microservices go, I’ve had time to experience the evolution of a product throughout different phases: monolith, numerous small microservices, bigger agglomerated microservices and have an idea of where some pitfalls lie.
What do you like to do when you aren’t programming?
I’m a firm believer that STEM can solve many of society’s problems as it has done so in the past. This is why I’m interested in behavioral economics, politics, social sciences, history, automation and civil engineering and design, and I try to read up on these topics as much as I can. I also enjoy tinkering, travelling, skiing and a good night out with my friends.
