About TimberWatch
Here are some questions people tend to ask us.
- I obviously understand what you guys do, but I don't know how to explain it to my five year old. Can you help me out?
- We talk to business people about their tech problems, then we typically use a computer, or build a little computer, to help people solve their business problem.
- Could you describe it again, but with more filler language, so you sound marketable, like a real consultant?
- We're a technology consultancy. We scope, design and build software and electronic solutions. Our pattern of work is always the same: work out what the real problem is, then build the smallest thing that solves it. Sometimes that's a set of simple internal programs, sometimes it's a custom web application, and sometimes it's a custom built circuit board with our own sensors on it.
- Why are you called TimberWatch if you build software and electronics?
- Before tech, Charles spent a decade in the Australian timber industry, installing and sanding timber floors. Our first (failed) product was called 'TimberWatch' a IoT sensor system, designed to protect Timber during the supply chain, and make it cheaper to insure effectively. Despite that product being abandoned, we haven't felt the need to change the name yet.
- What made you start TimberWatch?
- We both cut our teeth in the tech industry at tech startups, where we learned rapidly (and painfully) about the process of designing and building applications for growing companies. In these roles, we had to deliver large projects with minimal financial resources and tight timelines. We observed that lots of businesses stand to gain from a modest investment in software tooling, but are perhaps not at the right stage to hire dedicated technical staff to help recognise these opportunities. It appears to us that the industry's solution to this is a 40 person team of management consultants with no engineering experience, throwing scaling businesses through 'Digital Transformation' at a traumatising time and financial cost. Our goal is to bridge that gap, and be our client's first tech team, and to help our clients see a strong enough return that they want to hire their own dedicated team of engineers.
- So what's the goal?
- We want Australian scaling businesses to get the best the IT world has to offer. We want to any time spent on business admin behind a computer more ergonomic. We want our clients to (almost) never have to think about their database, or even onedrive, again.
- Who ends up doing the work?
- We do! If a technical problem falls within our expertise, we solve it ourselves. If a technical problem falls outside of our capabilities, we have an expansive network of peers in the industry we can connect you with, or, liase with on your behalf.
- Why should I trust two people on the internet?
- We're a young company. The best evidence we have so far, other than our education and experience listed below, is that we put our names and faces behind the business, which so many in tech are not willing to do. If you're not comfortable taking a chance on us, we get it. Come back and check in on us in a few years.
- Who do you work with?
- We're told that we're supposed to have a target demographic. We've both worked in operations heavy businesses, so we're experienced with warehousing, ERPs, sales, importing and distribution processes and associated technologies. We've worked in trades and around safety-critical technology in Australia for long enough to know some of our fiddly local laws. But honestly: if you've got a technical problem, and nobody appropriate in-house to solve it, come to us.
The two of us (again)
Charles is a software engineer, specialising in all things data. Before tech, Charles worked in the Australian timber industry for a decade, in sales and floorsanding. His software career has spanned freelancing, tertiary education, and the Sydney-based startup Chirp, where he architected frontier AI-native applications to scale to thousands of users, internationally. He co-founded TimberWatch, where he architects and implements custom analytic and operational systems, and is often, apologetically, the first face our clients see.
Victor is a very serious electrical engineer, specialising in electronics. His early career was at Umps, where he designed serious systems, like safety-critical hardware for personal alarm and health monitoring devices. He also worked on the software tools used to enable them, streamlining fulfilment and customer support to work around the tech, instead of against it. He co-founded TimberWatch, where he handles serious matters, like PCB design, sensor hardware, and embedded firmware. He does not waste time with unserious matters, like writing his own bio.