Company-X has grown to more than 50 in the last decade, but there’s a small team who have been with the Waikato software specialist since the start.
“I like the Company-X ethos,” says Company-X senior developer Rob Scovell.
British-born Scovell was one of the first to join co-founders and directors Jeremy Hughes and David Hallett after Company-X began trading in April 2013.
“The Company-X ethos fits very comfortably with my personal ethos. It’s an honourable ethos. You do what you say you’re going to do, and you align yourself with the customer. So, you align what you do with what the client goals are.”
Scovell has found himself on an array of projects over the years, working for clients as diverse as big tech company Cisco in the USA, Jumpflex in Hamilton, NZ Police in Wellington, and Yabble, in Auckland.
Scovell was hired after meeting Hallett at the Innes 48-hour Business Startup competition at The Atrium in Wintec House, Hamilton.
For the first eight years Scovell split his time between New Zealand and the UK, spending about three months of every year in Britain. Scovell has divided his time between Thailand and the UK for the last two years.
Scovell’s most memorable moments with Company-X include his first visit to Jeremy Hughes in Raglan and playing Professor X in a promotional video.
Darren Harrison joined Company-X as a contractor after working with Hughes at Ignition Software, eventually becoming a full-time team member.
“Being the lead developer and architect for the One Network Road Classification Performance Measures Reporting Tool for the first five or six years was great,” Harrison said.
The tool, built for the transport sector, became Transport Insights – the world’s first system that provides evidence-based insights for national transport decisions.
Latterly Harrison has worked on software for Fleetcoach.
Frank Mele joined Company-X in 2013 on the recommendation of another team member who had worked with him before.
Mele is one of a handful working from an overseas office, so he particularly enjoys virtual meetings where he gets to eyeball other team members and clients.
“It is nice to talk to people,” he said.
“It is good to see people’s faces.”
Finance manager Antonia Withey has been with Company-X since day one.
“When I started with Company-X it was just a couple of hours a week as the company was in its infancy,” Withey said. “It has been great that, as the Company grew and required more of my time, my daughter was also growing up and I had more time available. I enjoy and am proud to be working as part of the Company-X team.
“There have been many things for 10 years that I have had to learn as I go, especially with the expansion into the USA and in dealing with foreign currencies. There is always a deadline or challenge along the way.
“When I think about what has made me smile over the last 10 years it is a flashback of many of the speeches David or Jeremy have made at meetings or get togethers. They have had a way of making everyone feel part of the team, appreciated and all of us a part of the company’s success.”
Company-X co-founder and director David Hallett said he and Hughes prided themselves on building high-performing teams.
“It’s really exciting to see that our people want to be the best team doing the best things,” Hallett said.
“We continue to hire people who want to be part of that ethos. A rising tide lifts all boats. A rising tide lifts all waka.”
Hughes said he was thrilled Company-X still had team members, or lifers, from its early days.
“They’ve made this company what it is,” Hughes said. “They joined us at the beginning, helped paddle the waka and after 10 years we’re still having a great time creating and delivering amazing software innovations.
“One of the most satisfying things in the journey of Company-X is building the team that we’ve built, and the fact that we have Company-X lifers tells me that it’s been as much a satisfying journey for them, as it has for me.”