DAMIEN SHIELLS – DEFINING FINTECH AT SALT

An opportunity to chat to Damien Shiells , CTO at marine fintech start-up SALT , tells how a childhood fascination has shaped his career path and plays a big part in what motivates him. This is exactly why he is the right guy to lead SALT’s tech.

Q: Tell us a little more about you and your background.?

A: I’ve always loved technology, particularly computers, from a young age. Having had all the games consoles, I was always much more interested in how the games worked, what went into making them, how the consoles functioned, far more so than playing the games themselves.? I used to stay up all night tinkering around, trying to figure out how they operated, building websites and playing around with electronics ..... you know, all the things that makes you the cool guy in school!? I’ve always had that fascination, almost obsession, with knowing how something works under the hood.

The explosion of the internet helped me find other people with the same interests, and essentially, I’ve never grown out of being a nerdy kid. It was no surprise to anyone when I decided to study Computer Engineering at 英国曼彻斯特大学 , and now, I’m lucky enough to now be paid for my childhood hobby. Don’t tell anyone, but I’d probably do it for free – or at least food scraps and a roof over my head!

Q. How has your career developed?

A: After university, I had a brief, almost accidental, stint in banking, introduced to by a guy I had met and quickly became good friends with whilst studying, that was Joe Dalton (CEO of SALT). Whilst I wouldn’t call those my most productive years, working on the ATM’s relit my desire to work in technology. So I left banking for a few brief technical roles, before teaming up with another friend from university building software, where we conceptualised and built what would be my first start up, Twine (initially Clowdy).

Whilst CTO there, I fell in love with start-ups. Having just come from that corporate system, I loved how I had a hand in everything. While I was the CTO, I helped with marketing, design, product, sales, engagement - everything! It sits well with me that there is no passing the buck, if something is not working it must be fixed, it’s not just someone else's problem. Having an idea on a Monday morning and releasing it on a Tuesday evening was so different from what I was used to, and I loved it! I have not, and will not, look back. After leaving Twine (of which I am still a Technical Advisor), I co-founded and am CTO of my second start-up, my2be, enterprise-level mentoring software.

Q: How do you see your skillset?

A: In terms of skillset, I have been described by a previous business partner as a jack of all trades, but master of none, which I think sits perfectly in the start-up ecosystem. Whilst I am very technology/product orientated, I have a desire to apply myself to all areas of the business. Understanding all areas helps me be better at product, so it’s a nice cycle. Scale-wise I like to build an MVP, from frontend, app, backend, infrastructure (the jack of all trades part), then hire people who are better at all those things individually to improve it (the master of none part).

Q: What do you find exciting today in the tech landscape?

A: What alerts me and piques my interest is technology and any new trends that emerge in this fast-developing industry. Now I’d probably say Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Blockchain, Data Visualisation, and of course their application and benefits to wider society are very current. You can often hear me discussing the ethical implications of a lot of these, from data security and privacy to the question of just because we can, should we? (The latter is how I like to sometimes play Devil’s advocate to test my own thought processes!).

Q: How did you get involved with SALT?

A: As mentioned, I know Joe from my time at university, our friendship grew over the years, and we naturally stayed in touch after Joe left Manchester for sunnier climates. While he was building the idea of SALT, I was able to give him help and pointers on the technology available, the scale of the technical challenges, and my insights from experience in the start-up world. I’d like to think I played a valuable part in its formation and shaping.

Q: Tell us about innovative tech used for the SALT platform, what influenced development and how secure is the infrastructure??

A: Like so many start-ups, what we are doing just would not be possible 20 years ago. Cloud computing has been revolutionary as it has lowered the bar of entry dramatically. To start a platform or service you no longer need to guess scale, buy and wheel-in the big servers and manage them. So, we rely heavily on the cloud. We have designed and built SALT using all available best practices, bringing with it all the security features you would expect. We do integrate with third party services for Open Banking, document signing, credit checks, identity verification, etc, and for each service you can be assured we did a lot of due diligence (and continue to do ongoing checks), ensure that these services are regulated and audited, and ultimately do everything to secure our customer’s data. The culture that has been built at SALT ensures all this is taken very seriously, not only because we are regulated and are required to, but because everyone within the organization takes it personally. You can be rest assured we have the best people in place, with the right background and experiences, to get the job done!

Q: How do you see SALT and the tech progressing and what are your goals?

A: We are very nearly there. The tech will be in place ready for an early 2023 launch. We are ahead of schedule in a lot of ways but adding in some of our nice-to-have integrations. Our focus at this point is finishing off those and to continue our testing so we ensure all the functionality is in place. Beyond that, and beyond our launch, we will focus on the user journey. We have a real desire to ensure the process is clear, easy, that everyone has full visibility end to end, whilst maintaining our high standards for the responsibilities we have to our customers. Ultimately, we have a financial product, and we need to keep our customers, and potential customers, safe. All this will come through user feedback, so we will continue to improve this, although I am confident we have done a pretty good job already!

Q: What makes you so passionate about SALT as an organisation??

A: Joe Dalton . He really has led from the top. He has identified a problem in the market, and he has figured out the solution. His vision is strong, his market knowledge is remarkable, his approach to our target audience has been empathetic and caring, and I have a true belief in him as a person, and he feeds this into the company he has built. I don’t believe SALT is here to exist as a company, I believe it is here to solve a problem, and that is a HUGE difference. As is true with every early-stage company, Joe is the company, and the company is Joe. And for me that’s a really strong foundation.

Q: Do you sail or enjoy any marine activities in your spare time?

A: As a young boy growing up in Australia, my cousins bought a speed boat. This led to a lot of time spent (initially unsuccessfully) learning to water ski and fun being towed on a rubber ring. It was a blast and I have plenty of fond memories from that time. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to do much more than that, nor are there many areas to have a boat around Manchester, except for canals! Hopefully in my future.

For more information on SALT please visit: https://www.salt-finance.com/ where you can also sign up to the newsletter and link through to all social media channels.

Please note: Salt, via its group company Salt Money Ltd (Company No. 14001838) has applied for full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") to run a consumer credit provider under the ‘lending which is not limited’ permission. Salt does not currently offer any regulated or unregulated lending services until these permissions have been finalised.