We settle into our comfy wingchairs for a jolt of java and a chat with the newest addition to the Quiddly Geek squad, our new VP of Engineering: Magnus Winter. Our goal is to do a deep dive, learn more about who he is, where he comes from, and, most importantly, what he brings to the table.
Engineering Physics and Scuba Diving
Early on in the interview, it dawns on us that this is a man with a wide array of interests and a deep pool of experience and knowledge that will benefit us greatly. (Editor’s note: To be honest, it dawned on us even earlier; otherwise, we wouldn’t have hired him 🤓)
Magnus holds a degree in Engineering Physics from the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University, a field blending deep theoretical knowledge in physics with practical engineering skills. His studies focused on advanced topics like quantum mechanics, materials science, and computational physics.
During my university years, I took on quite a few extra jobs, paid (sometimes) or unpaid (most often), which gave me lots of leadership experiences, even if they did delay my studies quite a bit. I’ve also previously worked with our SDR, Hugo, as a sailing instructor.
Magnus was born and raised in Stockholm. However, about 20 years ago, he fell in love with the south of Sweden and has since settled in Malmö. When not at his desk, he enjoys scuba diving, motorcycle rides, and hosting dinner parties. And a day is never complete without at least one session of Duolingo and GeoGuessr.
From Startup to Scale-Up and Beyond
About 14 years ago, Magnus started working at a small telecom startup called Telavox. Over the years, that little company grew into one of the largest telco challengers in the Nordics and Europe, and Magnus had the privilege of growing with it.
Most of the time, I was in some shape or form responsible for the Business Support Systems (telco jargon for ‘everything the customers don’t care about until something goes wrong with it’), initially as a developer, then as a team lead, and eventually running the product area as Engineering Director.
Having someone like Magnus aboard Quiddly is an important step on our growth journey. With gaining the trust and onboarding several large clients over the last couple of years, we’ve gone through several processes to evolve our organisation and optimize our structure. However, this work is never truly complete; it’s an ongoing process.
Hiring a dedicated VP of Engineering who’s been through the hoops and loops of taking a small startup through scale-up stages and beyond – complete with internationalization and a rapidly growing workforce – is something we’re thrilled about.
Why Quiddly?
Magnus tells us he stumbled upon one of our mascots (Sir) in a LinkedIn ad. Seeing the distinguished cartoon gentleman with his hat and pipe, Magnus just couldn’t resist clicking on the ad. (Thank you, marketing and HR!)
What really got me interested was the idea of joining a smaller company again – one that wants to grow in terms of employees, revenue, and geography. I’m excited by the opportunity to contribute to that journey again, this time with more experience and tricks up my sleeve.
Besides the chance to jump on the scale-up train again and bring his expertise, Magnus brings one extra bonus to the table: he knows what our core functionality is all about, on a pretty in-depth level. He’s actually written and maintained code that, to this day, sends invoices to thousands of customers each month in a successful SaaS.
Lots of Small Changes Over Time
Magnus’ focus areas will be leading the engineering team when it comes to people, roadmaps and backlogs, tooling, processes, and developer experience.
My first order of business is to talk to all my skilled developers and peers to understand their pain points and find lots of small changes that will improve efficiency in our engineering processes.
Moving forward, his goal is to gain the trust of all customers to the extent that they know, “we understand their needs even better than they do themselves.” The only way to do that is to continue building and improving the best SaaS suite for Factoring, Invoicing, and Debt Collection.
The Future and the Winter Legacy
All good things must come to an end, and so did our interview with Magnus. Our concluding question was: What will be the Winter legacy when people, 25 years from now, look back at the defining moments of Quiddly’s journey?
I’d like to be remembered as the guy who always had time to grab a coffee and who laughed more and louder than what’s appropriate. Beyond that, I’d love for people to remember me as the one who made sure we had fun while working – not just having fun at work.
Magnus’s words really struck a chord with us. Ping-pong tables and pizza nights are great, but having fun during all the work hours is even more important. Magnus’s take on achieving this is to ensure that everyone feels ownership and pride in what we do and develop, while also ensuring our customers love us.