Just six months ago, we welcomed Matthew Tyrrell as our APAC Commercial Director and first team member in Australia. We recently chatted to him about life at the helm of Codat’s expansion into Asia-Pacific, how he’s settling in, and what he’s looking forward to most in 2022. Find out about his experience below.
If you are interested in learning more about the opportunities in our Sydney office, please visit our Careers page.
Why did you get into a career in Sales?
I naturally gravitated to Sales because I like being in front of people and the flexibility. As I got further into my career, I found I really enjoyed finding solutions as part of Enterprise Sales and working on deal strategy.
Why did you decide to join Codat?
I was in London at the time and when I decided to make the move and return to my home town of Sydney, I had to convince the Founders that it would be a good move to set up an office in Sydney. With strong inbound interest from clients in Australia, fortunately, they didn’t need much convincing. After spending time with the team in London, I was incredibly impressed with the culture at Codat – it was super clear that everyone was moving in exactly the same direction. The management structure was flat and void of egos and they had a solid, repeatable sales process with some very impressive clients.
What have been the biggest challenges in your role so far?
While Codat’s value proposition is relatively simple to understand, the technology is complex and the use cases are almost infinite. So, it has taken me a while to get up to speed on the product and time zones have made it difficult to get answers as soon as you need them. Fortunately, the teams in both London and New York have been incredibly supportive and after some long days, it feels like I have a solid base of knowledge to begin to share with the team we are building in APAC.
What have you learnt during your time at Codat so far?
With a payments and FX background, my exposure to business lending was fairly limited before I joined so I have managed to get a much better understanding of the way Bankers make lending decisions and the types of data and applications they use in the process. I have also learnt a lot more about B2B SaaS and the metrics a successful scale-up uses to measure growth.
What advice would you give to someone looking to get into the fintech industry?
I think the fintech sector globally is at an incredibly exciting juncture and the next few years is going to see exponential uptake by SME businesses in particular. In my view, to be successful in this industry the highest performing people are curious and inquisitive – they really want to understand the tech. They can multitask and are prepared to be a bit scrappy at times. They are creative and like solving complex problems. They can break through walls.
What excites you about the next year?
2022 is going to be a big year for Codat. I think this year will see us continuing to secure some big-name clients in Banking and Fintech, and launch some amazing new products and integrations. Personally, I have set some ambitious goals this year and like everyone, I hope we can finally put the craziness of the pandemic behind us.
What’s your favourite restaurant in Sydney?
In the City, Mr Wongs and Cafe Sydney are favourites. At home on the Northern Beaches, you can’t beat Pilu on Freshwater Beach.
Join us! We have a number of open roles across our Sydney, London, and New York offices. Visit our Careers page to explore them or contact Zak Forbes with any questions.