CTO interview: Adam Horner, being present as a tech leader
In this edition I’m interviewing Adam Horner, CTO of Adfenix, a premier martech platform connecting real estate agencies to buyers and sellers at scale. Adfenix was named one of the fastest growing companies in the Swedish tech sector and was recognized by Ernst and Young as Entrepreneur of the Year in International Growth. In his role Adam oversees Adfenix’s tech stacks and maximizes the company’s approach to platform software engineering. In the interview he discusses his prior experience at Palantir and Barclays Capital, while highlighting his collaborative approach to leadership in a modern startup.
You went through big companies like Barclays and Palantir. How did these experiences help you to get where you are today?
My first job out of university was in investment banking at Barclays Capital, which was a sudden shift in size from the tiny companies I had been working at before and during my studies. I was with a bunch of other graduates, it was a real eye-opener for me. I worked out on the trading floor, very busy, very fast-paced. There was little tolerance for people who slacked. Working in a big organization, you learn how to delegate, how to compartmentalize.
Years later at Palantir, I was employee number 200, so we weren’t that big at the time. I was the first UK employee, and only the second overseas employee, but it’s where I learned the meaning of hypergrowth! When I started it was just me working from home, then we expanded to a room, then to full blown offices. The growth there taught me an incredible amount, not just what I learned on the job, but also how to cultivate relationships with colleagues. Everyone was excellent, we had an atypical environment in that respect. It seemed like every person you looked to was more skilled than you in several areas. That was exciting and very high pressure.
How would you compare it with smaller companies?
You need to think more for yourself in a small company. Each decision sends a ripple of signals to other people: customers, prospects, suppliers. Every decision, every choice is on you, and your choices say something to everyone. In a large corporation, decision making processes are sourced to teams. Everything is decided on by someone else, like the PR team or Tech team, not you. For me, this is one of the biggest differences, and it can be a big challenge for someone like an introverted engineer who isn’t used to shared decision making.
How do you structure Product and Tech team collaboration?
This may sound counterintuitive but, believe it or not, I find that there’s more synergy when the lines are deliberately blurred. When collaborating I ask both teams, first and foremost, to put themselves in the shoes of the customer. The question present on everyone’s mind should be: How can we make the customer (and/or user) experience better? What does the data tell us our customers and users like? And just as importantly what don’t they like?
All features should come through the lens of customer experience. This approach creates focus and perspective, and most of all it helps us prioritize. This has to be ingrained in the teams so you don’t need to keep explaining it. Once both teams understand that’s our entry point, that’s our focus, we can produce the best outcome.
What was the influence of mentors and colleagues in your career path? Can you maybe give an example?
I am lucky to be able to say there have been a few who taught me along the way. In my first consulting role, there was a developer who was notoriously difficult to please but who was incredibly talented with Oracle databases. He taught me the value of automation. He showed me how to do something just once, do it straight-up and do it right the first time. People found him difficult because he wanted to automate everything from the beginning of a project. But I realized this approach made the process more predictable. Once I realized keeping his timelines was what made him happy, we got along just fine, and I was able to learn a lot from him.
Another example, again from my consulting years, was on a project with around a hundred engineers from my company. A few days into the project the boss grabbed a group of five or six of us who he’d never managed before and turned us into his leadership team. The faith he put in us instilled confidence in me. He showed me how to teach others to improve their performance, how to lead by example and that leadership is not just being put in charge of a bunch of people. He taught me concepts and principles of leadership which, to tell you the truth, are more important to me now than any technical knowledge. Many leaders lack the confidence or decision-making skills to pull something like that off, but learning to trust your team is part of leading too.
What are some of the biggest challenges, or more difficult moments, you faced in your career?
Probably the most difficult challenge is having to lay someone off. Telling someone they are out of a job is never easy. The pace of change in any company is incredibly fast and of course a role or position can become redundant quickly. You chose to employ someone, but now because of circumstances that are often completely out of your control, you have to let them go, and many times it’s not their performance that’s the issue. In these cases, I find that the key thing is to respect the employee. You need to treat each affected person with humility, recognizing they’re about to go through a major life change. Hopefully you’ve been doing that all along because mutual respect is the foundation for healthy relationships. It’s important to be empathetic with an employee you’re letting go. The way they leave the company must be as respectful as the way you onboarded them, support them as best you can and remember they’re people, not positions.
Do you have any advice for any “techie” willing to move to more managerial positions?
For me the key point is that management involves a completely different skill set than anything you’re likely to have done before. It is a very different role. There are things you need to learn, and one thing’s for sure, you will make mistakes, sometimes repeatedly. You’ll need to adjust on the fly and re-learn. If you enjoy working with people, then stepping into a managerial position could be a great thing to do. Keep in mind management is about being present. You can’t just decide you want to be left alone coding, your team won’t let that happen anyway. You must be available for them because they’re going to have questions, concerns, or just run into a wall and get stuck. They’re going to need you to give them perspective, keep your eye on the bigger picture and put the pieces of the puzzle together. So, for me, being present is the single most important thing a tech leader can do. I’d say it’s like switching your mentality from the maker to the manager.
If you want to connect with Adam, click here.
To learn more about Adfenix, visit their website: adfenix.com
If you’re a techie working on something exciting or you simply want to have a chat, get in touch with me. I’m currently CTO at Kolleno.com
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