Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald
by NTP Talent
Latest episode
Clone Your Best People, Don't Replace Them: Natalie Ashes, CEO and…
Clone Your Best People, Don't Replace Them: Natalie Ashes, CEO and…
About this podcast
Building Tech Teams is a weekly podcast on how Australia hires, builds, and leads tech teams in the age of AI.
Host James MacDonald sits down with the founders, CTOs, VPs of Engineering and People Leaders building Australia's best tech teams, from startups to enterprise, on what actually works. How they hire, how they build and lead their teams, and the calls that made or broke them. It is built for the leaders making the hire and the tech professionals making the move.
Building Tech Teams is produced by Day One®, trusted partners in the technology space and the team that spent more than three years helping to build Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts into one of Australia's best-known founder podcasts. Sister shows include First Cheque, Oversubscribed and In The Blink of AI. Episodes are cross-promoted across the network.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 139 episodes
- Clone Your Best People, Don't Replace Them: Natalie Ashes, CEO and Founder at WorkClone · 59 min · Season 2 Episode 12DESCRIPTION Every business has a few people who are commercially brilliant and close to impossible to replace. Natalie Ashes thinks the answer is to clone them, not to go and…
- Why Everybody Unpacks the Dishwasher: Ella Brennecke, People Operations Manager at Everlab · 59 min · Season 2 Episode 11DESCRIPTION Most people teams wait until someone with an HR background is in the room before they build a culture function. Ella Brennecke didn't have one, and Everlab's culture…
- The Engineer Who Hasn't Written Code in 9 Months: Jack Rudenko, 10x Labs · 1 h 16 min · Season 2 Episode 10Jack Rudenko hasn't written a line of code himself in nine months. In that time, his team has shipped six or seven products used by millions of people, and he says that gap…
- Nobody Knows What to Pay Anymore: A Building Tech Teams Best-Of · 21 min · Season 2 Episode 9Eight guests into Building Tech Teams, one theme has shown up in every single episode: money. A principal software engineer who now manages a team of agents asks what he should…
- Why "The Number Is Never the Problem": Matt McFarlane, Founder of FNDN · 1 h 13 min · Season 2 Episode 8Most companies treat compensation as a math problem: get the number right and the rest takes care of itself. Matt McFarlane says that's backwards, and it's the reason so many pay…
- Why "Show Me Your Harness" Beats Any Coding Test: Adam Witanowski, AI Architect · 1 h 14 min · Season 2 Episode 7Most technical interviews still ask a candidate to write a function on a whiteboard. Adam Witanowski says that question is already obsolete, and what should replace it says…
- The Junior Engineer Isn't Needed Anymore: Cloë Stanbridge, Talent Lead at Airtree · 1 h 3 min · Season 2 Episode 6The junior engineer used to be the safe first hire. Cloë Stanbridge says AI just made that job disappear, and that's only the start of what's rewriting tech hiring right now. In…
- How to Build AI Capability Without Chasing Every New Model, with Patrick McQuaid · 1 h 13 min · Season 2 Episode 5Most organisations are asking which AI model they should use. Patrick McQuaid thinks that is the wrong conversation. Patrick is Group Head of Data, Analytics & AI at NGM Group…
- Are Your People More Productive or Just Faster? Claudia Barriga-Larriviere, Startup Flamingo · 1 h 5 min · Season 2 Episode 4Every great team she has ever seen shares one trait: they are comfortable with discomfort. Claudia Barriga-Larriviere has spent nearly 20 years building people and culture inside…
- AI Can’t Replace Domain Expertise — Nathan Hill, Head of Telco at AWS · 44 min · Season 2 Episode 3The business wants AI, and it wants it yesterday. But once the proof of concept works and the partner goes home, someone inside the company has to keep the thing running. Nathan…
- Guardrails Are Just Suggestions: Securing AI Agents with Okta's Kevin Akermanis · 1 h 7 min · Season 2 Episode 2The business wants AI now. The people who have to secure it are being told to move faster while their budgets shrink. Kevin Akermanis, Solutions Architect at Okta and a 15-year…
- Why Your First Hire Isn't an Engineer Anymore — Michael Batko, ex-Startmate CEO · 1 h 6 min · Season 2 Episode 1The first hire used to be an engineer. Michael Batko thinks that's now backwards — and that's just the start of how AI is rewiring the way you build a tech team. In the first…
- Tech Exec // Oliver Shanahan, Group Head of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure at BetMakers Technology Group · 58 min · Episode 120From a childhood without electricity to co-founding a listed betting company, Oliver Shanahan’s story is a masterclass in technical grit and commercial pivots. As the Group Head…
- Tech Exec // Matt Vitale: Executive Director at New Dialogue · 1 h 1 min · Episode 119In this episode of Tech Execs, James MacDonald heads to Melbourne to sit down with Matt Vitale, former co-founder of Australia’s largest equity crowdfunding platform and now…
- Tech Exec // Victoria Aspden: Executive General Manager - Digital & Transformation at Ampcontrol · 1 h 5 min · Episode 118Victoria Aspden, Executive General Manager - Digital & Transformation at Ampcontrol has had an unconventional career journey. Initially choosing technology for its earning…
- Tech Exec // Andrew Cresp: CIO At NGM Group · 45 min · Episode 117On the first episode of NTP’s Tech Exec podcast series, James MacDonald sits down with Andrew Cresp to talk about his journey through financial services technology leadership…
- Margareta Bogatir Studdert: Head of Digital Workplace & Service Management At NGM Group · 31 min · Episode 116Ever wondered what it's like to transition from finance to IT, and from Sweden to Australia? On this episode of the NewyTechPeople podcast, Linda Apostolidis sits down with…
- Adam Ingles: Fractional CFO / Director At Quick:Ratio · 22 min · Episode 115In this episode of the NewyTechPeople podcast, James sits down with Adam Ingles, a fractional CFO and Director at Quick:Ratio, who works with technology startups. Adam shares his…
- Roger Crellin: Fractional Tech Exec · 41 min · Episode 113In this episode of the NewyTechPeople podcast, we sit down with Roger Crellin, a seasoned technology executive who has recently moved to Newcastle. Roger shares his extensive…
- Michael Graham: Partner at Cutcher & Neale · 47 min · Episode 114In this episode of the NewyTechPeople podcast, we sit down with Michael Graham, a partner at Cutcher & Neale. Michael shares his journey from labourer to accountant to systems…
