S1 - Episode #18: Turan Rustamli - CTO - One Dome
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About Turan:
Turan Rustamli is the CTO at One Dome, a platform that enables home movers to conduct an end to end property transaction via a single interface. Previously, Turan served as the CTO of an early-stage startup, Landmax Software, focused on innovation around the property in the street. As someone who’s always been into mathematics and AI, Turan has successfully established himself in the software engineering industry without any engineering degree.
Synopsis:
In this episode of The Technology Leadership Podcast, Turan Rustamli discusses new models of work and how to develop an employee-friendly and vision-led structure that fits with modern times. Turan also talks about building a successful startup and why open source software offers a huge advantages to develop new ideas. We look into the role and skills of a CTO and how technology leaders today can discover the right opportunities for them. Finally, Turan talks about the importance of enthusiasm to learn, shares how his learning curve looks (and the most challenging parts of it) and talks about the software he uses (including Roam Research) to help save time and increase efficiency.
Key Takeaways:
Understand the importance of investing in learning around new start up ideas.
Learn creative ways to approach a new idea - use open source technology, implement a basic version and put it out to the open-source or tech community to help commercialisation, allow exchange of ideas and feedback.
Hear about investing in knowledge management and asynchronous communication and the importance of letting your team be autonomous and avoiding the temptation to micromanage and constantly track deliverables.
Find out more about the advantages of open source software from getting feedback quickly, to getting feedback via authentic participation.
Understand how to find opportunities at start ups - don’t compromise on the team, find a product that’s an interesting challenge for you and look for future opportunities to learn and grow.
Get more detail on why a bottom-up approach works best for engineers and ensures easier collaboration between members of the team.
Learn about getting a strong remote set-up, avoid replicating an office and why leaders should avoid micromanaging or constantly tracking deliverables.
Episode Outline:
[00:38] Meet Turan
[02:51] Turan’s most significant achievements in life so far
[03:30] Best practice techniques for reducing written code
[05:34] The foundations needed to ensure good sources of funding
[08:17] Advice for engineers and CTOs looking to start their own company
[12:17] What you can learn from the Personal Learning System
[13:33] Rom Research
[17:35] The advantages and benefits of open source technology and harnessing the community
[19:39] Advice for leaders looking for opportunities at start ups
[22:28] Turan’s thoughts on learning from challenges
[25:09] Turan’s growth journey and the challenges he’s faced
[31:21] Advice for managing remote teams
[34:24] Software and applications Turan uses to enhance productivity
[41:08] Turan’s thoughts on the new post-pandemic work culture and the changes needed in hiring and teams to adapt for the changing times
[43:52] Cultivating a culture of excellence within a team and the CTO’s role
[51:42] Turan’s ideas on culture and team
[55:10] Laying the foundations for remote working culture
[58:30] The most significant challenges technology leaders will face in the years to come
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