David Nicholas Williams
I turn ideas into products

David Nicholas Williams - CV

printable version
davnicwil.com | davnicwil at gmail.com
  • 10+ years in startups, getting products, teams and businesses from zero to one.
  • I've built Engineering teams at several startups. I can run hiring, onboard & manage people, structure teams, build community and culture.
  • I'm a full stack Engineer and have built products from scratch many times. I've been in the first 5 Engineers, and later promoted to technical leadership postions, at multiple startups.

Education

MSc Computer Science
2010
University of Durham, UK
BSc Computer Science. 1st Class.
2009
University of Durham, UK

Experience

Engineering Manager
Stacker (YC S20)
Oct 2020 - Dec 20222 years, 3 months

No-code startup backed by YC & a16z. Employee #10, joined at seed stage. Now $20MM Series A.

I joined as an early Engineer and helped hire & grow the Engineering org to 20 people, eventually transitioning to manage all our 12 Product Engineers across 4 teams.

Worked with the CTO on strategic planning for the Engineering org: hiring strategy and process, team structure, Engineering community culture and events, among other things.

Consultant
Independent
May 2019 - Oct 20201 year, 6 months

Independent consultant, helping clients launch products quickly and effectively.

Examples of things I delivered:

  • Helping an early startup transform a prototype frontend for their product, built quickly to raise seed, to a sustainable scalable architecture to build upon with a growing team through series A.
  • Helping a top-3 pharma company rapidly develop a marketing app for a trade show.
  • Advising a startup Engineering team on web product security best practices.
Founding Product Tech Lead
Kynd, London
Mar 2018 - Apr 20191 year, 2 months

Cybersecurity startup. 1st employee. Now $5MM series A.

Built the first version of the product from scratch, and got to first customers and revenue within only 9 months.

Helped hire and grow the early Product Engineering team.

Product Tech Lead
HeyJobs, Berlin
Aug 2016 - Feb 20181 year, 7 months

Recruitment startup. Employee #20. Now $47MM Series B, 300+ employees and one of the major recruitment platforms in Germany.

Came in and built the product from a prototype with no customers to a platform that had placed 1 million hires by the time I left.

Hired, grew and led the early Product Engineering team.

Senior Software Engineer
Foodpanda, Berlin
Mar 2016 - Aug 20166 months

Food delivery startup with major market share in Asia. Later acquired by Delivery Hero.

I was brought into a small team, working closely with the C-suite as a sort of internal startup, to build AI-based delivery logistics tools to improve operational efficiency and get food to customers faster.

We were truly full stack, including going to Hong Kong to work with our dispatchers and delivery riders to launch and test the tools on the ground.

Sabbatical

Here I took a sabbatical year. I lived in Bogotá, Colombia, took Spanish classes at Javeriana University, and travelled extensively in Colombia.

Team Lead << Software Engineer
Gamesys, London
Aug 2012 - Feb 20152 years, 8 months

Gaming startup. Later acquired by JPJ Group for $500MM.

I worked on established products with millions of DAUs in the UK, and developed new products to expand to US and European markets.

I joined as an Engineer and was promoted to Team Lead after 18 months, leading a team of 6.

Software Engineer
Aqulia Heywood, Manchester
Oct 2010 - Jul 20121 year, 10 months

Fintech products serving large enterprises in the UK, including Shell, AON and the BBC.

I joined the graduate training scheme covering all aspects of Software Engineering, focusing at various times on frontend, backend and testing.