Engineering Leadership Series - Danny Morrow
Biography
Danny Morrow is the CIO and Co-Founder of Extend. Danny has over 20 years of experience designing and building digital products, including 13 years prior to Extend as the owner of a boutique digital consultancy. He has built apps and sites for high end consumer and luxury good brands including Apple, Tiffany & Co, and American Express. His experience straddles the line between user-centric design and technical development.
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Danny Morrow
The Interview
- Tell us your story, how did you discover your interest in software engineering?
Like many children of the 80's, I got my first taste of "coding" with Logo and BASIC in middle school. I was lucky enough to have a teacher who recognized my interest and enrolled me in early BASIC programming competitions - lots of GOTO 50 and other fancy logic constructs. Fast forward to college and the early days of the internet - I was much more interested in user experiences than what intro CS classes focused on (C, data structures, etc). My earliest jobs allowed me to both design an experience and then build it using various web technologies. I focused on Flash, which let me build dynamic, data-driven applications well before JS came on the scene. From Flash I moved to a natural successor - iOS, and by then I was hooked.
- As someone trained in product design at Stanford, how has design thinking influenced the way you lead innovation at a fintech startup?
Design thinking is core to how I approach problem solving - iterating through solutions using divergent thinking, challenging assumptions and constraints, and working in a group setting brainstorming the problem and the solution. I consider myself a lifelong learner. When I was a student, Product Design at Stanford particularly appealed to me due to its multidisciplinary nature. That drive to continuously learn has followed me throughout my career - taking multi-hyphenated roles where I have the opportunity to keep expanding my knowledge of the field.
- How did the founding team at Extend come together, and what made you believe this idea was worth building?
Andrew Jamison, Extend’s CEO, and I had known each other personally for a long time. When he had left his role at American Express, we were discussing what he might do next. I had my consultancy, and I encouraged him to work for himself, as at the time I considered that to be the best choice I had made in my career. When we talked about what he might do, a seed of an idea kept coming up in our discussions. It was essentially the "single cell organism" that would eventually evolve into the product that today is Extend. As we kicked the idea around, it was clear that if we both brought our respective skill sets to the table it was something he and I could do together. Around this same time, Guillaume Bouvard, Extend’s CMO/COO, was working in a temporary office space right next to Andrew. He would stick his head in as we brainstormed ideas, and we would invite him in for his point of view. The three of us had very little overlap in our areas of expertise and it was clear we could cover significant ground together. This seemed to be the making of a great team, so we asked him to join our journey.
I knew this was an idea worth building from the start. Leading up to the founding of Extend, people would pitch me concepts of apps to build. Many of those concepts just seemed like "one-liner" apps - in that I could imagine what it would take to build the app to "feature complete". But the idea behind Extend was different - I could see green fields in so many different directions. Eight years later we're still coming up with more uses - proof of where a strong idea and great team can take you.
- Extend is a fintech company that specializes in virtual card and spend management solutions for businesses. You aim to modernize business payments by integrating virtual card issuance directly into existing workflows and systems. What problem are you solving that the market was missing?
We solve spend control and expense management problems for small businesses and the "emerging middle market". With virtual cards, we brought enterprise grade spend control to segments that never had access to them before. With Extend they can more effectively delegate and control spend, and reconcile transactions with ease. Now we are turning our attention to expense management as well - building a solution that's "right-sized" for the segment. Our offering is a powerful tool that is not overwhelmingly complex in a way that makes it inaccessible to smaller businesses. For ages, the power of virtual cards was limited to the largest of companies but now we've "brought fire to the masses". We want to do the same for expense management in order to offer an end-to-end solution.
- What’s a product decision at Extend that you’re particularly proud of, and why?
We made an early decision that users should always be able to start from the credit card they already had. This was entirely novel when it came to virtual cards, a product that typically required a weeks-long bank onboarding process. In hindsight, it seems so simple, but that was just not where the industry was. As Extend moves further into Expense Management for SMB and the emerging Middle Market, we've followed the same approach - we will allow any credit card from any bank to be enrolled in Extend to manage business expenses, allowing users to do more with what they already have.
- You ran your own boutique digital consultancy called Morrow, Inc and you had some pretty large customers including Tiffany & Co, American Express, Morgan Stanley among many others. For young entrepreneurs earlier in their career, how did you stand out and land those big clients?
There's a surprisingly simple rule I stumbled upon - Do what you say you're going to do, when you say you're going to do it. Early on, a number of clients reached out to me in high-pressure situations - they had deliverables with a tight deadline and their go-to partners had left them in a lurch. By solving people's problems, and the simple act of delivering high-quality work in a timely manner, I was able to make long term clients (and friends). Every business is a people business, and building those relationships allowed me to gather bigger and bigger clients. In the early days of iOS development, there was a shortage of teams who could build big projects. Having already built a name earlier on, I had a network of clients at many great brands who would reach out to me for help. I was able to build a roster of clients who I enjoyed working with and who had interesting projects. But it all starts with delivering great work, on time.
- What do you think are the secrets to being successful?
I'm not sure it's a secret, if so, it's not a very well kept one! I think staying hungry, being curious, pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, and staying true to your word are all ingredients in success. I get bored if I'm not learning something new, as I truly enjoy learning. This has been all the motivation I've needed throughout my career. I also don't ever presume that I can't achieve what someone else has achieved as it's most likely the product of hard work.
- What kind of culture have you tried to build at Extend, especially within the product and engineering teams?
We strive to build a culture of learning, curiosity, pride in one's work, and collaboration at Extend. I've always said that if you put a hard problem in front of a team of people who are curious about how things work, take pride in their own work, and like working together, that's all the motivation they need. We've also put a huge emphasis on hiring people who we would like to work with. We have been able to build such a kind and supportive team, which has helped to accelerate our growth. This culture has also enabled us to hire great people who get the job done.
- How do you approach leadership? Are there certain things you try to do and certain things you try to avoid?
My approach to leadership is to lead with authenticity, empathy, and by example. I always aspire to be my authentic self, which often means confidence and decisiveness, while at other times can mean uncertainty and doubt. I aim to give my all daily, but I know that everyone is human and sometimes that's just not possible. I strive to always be proud of my work, but I also know some days "good enough" is what we've got and we will get them tomorrow. As a cofounder, I have lots of thoughts and opinions, which I try to communicate as clearly as possible. But I always work to make sure team members' voices are heard and amplified as well. Lastly, I aim to learn new things all the time.
- When you’re 80 looking back, what do you want to have accomplished in your life?
From a career perspective, I hope to have continuously grown and learned new things, positively impacted other people's lives and careers, and given other people the support and safe space to take on the challenges and risks to achieve the same. We spend a large proportion of our lives working, and I want to be sure it's for growth. All the while, I want to be sure to do it with a laugh and a smile - because if you can't laugh at yourself or it's not fun I don't want to have done it.
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