Meet the new CTO of Labfolder
Our new Chief Technology Officer holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. With over 10 years experience in building enterprise-level IT platforms, Mario Russo has been responsible for technical architecture, product development, and infrastructure at labfolder. In May, Mario joined the Management Team occupying the role of CTO. Ultimately, he will be leading the team of developers that turns our scientists' dreams and wishes into reality.
In this article, you will have the opportunity to get to know Mario and also have an insight on labfolder’s development team and their procedures.
How does it feel to be newly part of the labfolder management team?
It’s really exciting. Labfolder is growing rapidly both as a company and a product and I’m happy to have the opportunity to help shape the direction of such a young diverse company as well as help to build the future connecting laboratories, researchers, and data.
What’s it like to work as a developer in a startup? What are the best parts and what do you struggle with?
There is never a dull moment. The single best reason to work in a startup is the potential for personal growth. You must learn to adapt to changing situations. There is endless opportunity to learn new things and gain experience in a number of areas. You will have the chance to assume responsibility for significant parts of the product. Your achievements will be recognized, but at the same time, so will your failures.
I still struggle with finding balance. To work in a startup you need to enjoy what you are doing, and there is always more work to be done. There are many competing demands for your time (both professionally and personally), so you need to be strict about establishing boundaries and respecting them, which I think leads to greater success in all of your endeavors.
What do you like about working at labfolder? What is the company culture like?
I think the culture is what sets labfolder apart. We are a young and incredibly diverse company with currently 12+ nationalities and nearly as many professional backgrounds including biology, physics, mathematics, research, engineering, psychology, retail sales, and of course web development. We sit down to have lunch together twice a week, we work hard, have fun, and take the time to celebrate our achievements.
What does your average day look like?
Every day includes a quick stand-up with the development team. We have regular sprint planning and sprint review meetings, but otherwise my time is spent in some combination of technical architecture, infrastructure, product releases, code review, troubleshooting, new feature planning and estimation, recruiting, and hopefully some time for development ?
How has the company evolved since you’ve been here?
I joined one year ago and I was the second member of the development team. Since that time we have expanded to 12 members on the dev/product team. We’ve incorporated the Scrum methodology, implemented formal release cycles, developed new features, migrated our application to cloud deployment, and now expanded to support on-premise customer installations.
Our customer base is constantly growing. We now have a dedicated customer engagement team, we are launching an ambassador program for our most passionate users, we have conducted user feedback workshops to better align with user needs, and we are now extending our platform to other languages as well.
As a CTO, what do you look for in a developer?
Passion about the product as well as about your chosen profession. A personality that fits well with the existing culture. Perspective outside of your area of expertise. A pragmatic approach to development. Great communication skills. Someone that has the potential to inspire other team members.
Feel inspired to work under Mario’s leadership? We are looking for skilled developers to join our world-class team. Find out all available positions here:
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