Matt Johnson

So I'm a British programmer who has worn a few different hats in his time, it's fair to say that I've been around and witnessed a few horror stories first hand when it comes to dealing with VC's, founding partners and people who buy businesses for fun. As well as working in big business such as PLC's and internationally trading corporations and conglomerates.

How did it all begin?

When I was eleven/twelve I got a C64 and almost immediately started learning assembly, making beeping noises was fun but I wanted more, moving sprites, graphics and making undemoable games up until the age of 17 gave me a good grounding for college. It was at college where I expanded my knowledge of computer internals and began trying to make a micro-kernel operating system and learned the magic of Smalltalk-80 - a language I still love today.

The operating system didn't work out, at the time there was a lack of learning material so I moved on and saught bigger challenges in Physics. That didn't quite work out so I ended up getting a job for a semi-failing company around the time of the dot-com bubble as a junior programmer. Obviously it burst.

Since then I've worked for five PLC's in senior positions, founded five companies (not all successful) and been the first employee of two startups that both successfully exited for a combined valuation of £61.5M. I've even won a Webby award for my designs (back in 2006)

What's Happenning Now?

I'm a full-stack developer with a business-head and a digital-marketing head. Currently employed as Technical Architect for a UK PLC in the recruitment industry and loving life.