Software engineer turned “The Mary Poppins of Startups”, Naily Makangu, is passionate about bringing her multifaceted toolkit to lead complex software projects and launch products. With over 10 years of experience, she has a proven track record of turning around struggling technical projects and organisations, from seed startups to large corporations such as Siemens Industry Software.
Ms Makangu, as a startup advisor and tech consultant, has helped several startups and scaleups via her company Athena Leaders.
This week, Ms Makangu will lead a talk at the tech event, Slush’d in Cornwall.
Taking place on Thursday (September 14) at Sailors Nightclub in Newquay, this will be the first time that the European event has come to the 海角视频. Software Cornwall won the opportunity to bring Slush to the 海角视频 for the first time in collaboration with Liverpool.
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Ahead of the event BusinessLive caught up with Ms Makangu to find out what this means for the industry and what she is most excited about.
Ms Makangu told us: “What I love about Slush’d and the reason why it’s coming to Cornwall and Liverpool is that finally people are appreciating smaller tech hubs.”
She continued: “You wouldn’t really associate a place like Cornwall with technology, and I think it’s about time people appreciated that there are other hubs out there and a really strong ecosystem that needs nurturing.
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“Another reason why it’s more important, one we’ve got the cost of living crisis, not everyone can live in the London area and all those places. And two, even if they could there’s not enough space in all of the cities. So we need to grow as a country and expand the potential happening in those hubs.
“A lot more people can work hybrid, especially the way we are going, remote work is going to be the new norm.”
Ms Mankangu described how in her experience when people are happier in life they are more productive at work.
She added: “Even when it comes to Government decisions, especially when they offer grants or when they want to sponsor an event, people are naturally attracted to the bigger hubs and I think it’s about time the smaller hubs are recognised for the strength that they bring because at the end of the day we cannot just run a country based on the bigger hubs because they are just saturated as places to live.”
Ms Makanu is committed to fostering innovation and growth in the startup community via Athena Leaders’ ‘Tech and Product Catalyst’, which is designed to empower startups to close and manage more clients, prepare for investor due diligence, and improve their maturity level for faster scaling.
She has coined the term the ‘workplace playground’.
“For me, when I talk about a workplace playground, it’s not ‘let’s go away on a retreat or let’s give food’,” she told us.
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For her it is about making the working environment a fun, productive place to be.
“Are you building trust, leadership, communication, processes, and growth? Once you’ve done all of that, people feel empowered and they can speak up, even if there’s conflict, it’s a good level of conflict and helps move things forward. Then people are more productive and get a lot more done; and that’s what I mean when I say the workplace playground.”
'Finally people are appreciating smaller tech hubs'
Among other things, Ms Makangu worked for an early-stage startup as a fractional chief product officer, transforming the idea of a recruitment platform to an MVP that is currently being used to attract early clients and land investors.
When asked what the biggest challenges facing the technology industry are, Ms Makangu touched upon recruitment.
In terms of startups, she explained, the industry has to think about Brexit and the accessibility of talent from outside of the 海角视频. She said recruitment in technology and the STEM sectors is something she is hearing a lot about.
“The Government has good intentions,” she said. “But I wonder if they are still in touch with what it actually means to run a startup.
“When you apply for something like grants in the 海角视频 they tell you that the majority of people you are going to hire needs to be in the 海角视频, which is fair enough, but it’s easier for startups, especially when you are in the early stage, to hire from outside or to offshore some of the allotment of the capital - even if they have a team inside it helps them to grow - they grow to a certain extent and they bring everything home.”
Ms Makangu told BusinessLive although startups would like to hire from within the 海角视频, “there are tough realities out there”.
These tough realities are part of the reason why Ms Makangu turned her hand to leadership.
She said: “If I see something that doesn’t work quite right I’m going to speak up and I’m going to be part of the solution, not just complain but how we fix it.
“I got to a point in my career where I realised I love three things, one I love to dream and come up with ideas and creativity. I love to build and make up things and I love to play.
'There is still a barrier when it comes to people from different races'
“Startups allow me to do those three things. I work with entrepreneurs, who have a vision but they are tired, they are burnt out yet they are still passionate regardless of anything. I think that people like that give me the fuel to continue doing what I am doing.”
Another issue facing the sector is diversity and although “people are talking a lot more” there’s still a lack of women being represented. Especially in leading roles such as chief technology officer and chief product officers.
“People still have this idea about credibility in tech if you are male,” said Ms Makangu.
“When you look at panels around the world they will go for male CTOs more than women CTOs and it’s something I’m aware of and trying to change. On my podcast I’m actually interview a female CTO next week, and I want to ask them ‘what is the easiest way of finding them?’ because they exist but they don’t get acknowledged the same”
Ms Makangu continued: “I think CTO is just one example. But when it comes to leadership in tech there is still a barrier when it comes to people from different races.”
As an advocate for STEM education, Ms Makangu explained that there still needs to be more encouragement for younger generations to take these subjects. She told us how there are barriers, such as being afraid of maths.
“If we do not nurture talent from the inside, how are we going to maintain our strong position into becoming a country of innovation, a country of startups, a country of tech?” She asked.
She warned: “One of my concerns is that when we think about technology or engineering we talk a lot about maths, and maths is scary.”
Ms Makangu wants to re-educate the younger generation to let them know that a career in engineering doesn’t mean you have to be a maths expert.
She said: “I’m not saying that maths is not important. I think that the messaging is we need to push STEM but also recognise that software engineering can be done without maths.”
'I just can’t wait for the pitch competition'
A lot of young girls, according to Ms Makangu, are worried about maths.
“I see a lot of young women coming up and saying ‘I want to try software engineering but I’m not good at maths’. Of all the things you could be bad at and that is the worry you have.
“So I don’t want to sound like maths isn’t important, because I believe it is, I just believe that regardless of your level of maths if you want to become a software engineer, it’s actually not as scary as people think.”
As a supporter for young people and a champion of STEM education, Ms Makangu told BusinessLive that during this week’s Slush’d event she is particularly excited about the pitch competition.
“I’m definitely going in there. I love pitch competitions and I also want to hear and see the calibre of startups that it will bring. Some will be from the region.
“So for me the pitch competition will be the highlight of the day.”
She continued: “If other founders are out thinking should we go or not, I say please go because you’re going to get way more for your bucks in terms of connections. They have so many talks about different areas of running a startup from investment, running a product to marketing, and so much more. But I just can’t wait for the pitch competition.”
- Find out more via www.athenaleaders.com
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