Building products at Kippa is quite interesting. It can take many forms and different timelines but it would always be based on our users’ needs. To do this, we use data - this data is used to integrate new elements and features of our products and solve problems for our users. To understand this a little more, I talked to a Senior Data Engineer at Kippa, Monty Dimpka. Monty has been working at Kippa for a long time and left one of Africa’s largest technology companies to join Kippa. We talked about his passion, his role at Kippa, and his choice to leave Andela for Kippa.
Hi Monty, can you run us through your previous role?
Andela is a firm that secures senior engineering talent for placement with global firms. There, I qualified as a Principal Software Engineer, I was attached to a US-based client in the social media space as a data engineer. I was a level 7 Engineer which is the highest grade at Andela.
That’s pretty cool, so why did you leave?
I joined Kippa because when I felt like this was the kind of problem that I would love to work on. Prior to working at Kippa and Andela, I had worked in consulting with KPMG and Ernst & Young and I can say that based on research, Kippa is solving a very relevant problem. SMEs are struggling with managing and accessing their finances. I had always wanted to be part of the solution and Kippa provided that platform to be part of the solution and that's why I jumped at the opportunity to work here.
So it was really something that resonated with me and when Kennedy, the CEO contacted me about the opportunity at Kippa, I was elated to hop on the opportunity.
So your sole motivation for leaving a multinational for a startup was the passion?
That and the fact that I‘ve always wanted to work at a FinTech. Working as a data engineer here as someone who loves to solve challenging engineering problems, is actually awesome. I am also exposed to so many new things every day.
Did the fact that you were moving from a Multinational to a StartUp scare you?
No, not Really. At Andela, we were operating a contractual model. That meant I was free to explore other opportunities and was not contractually locked in. So choosing to join Kippa was a very deliberate choice. At the time when I took the Kippa offer, my contract on the project was ending anyway, so it was an easy choice.
I made a personal decision to take on this role because I am very interested in the problem we are trying to solve.
Amazing, in the few months you have spent at Kippa, do you feel you made the right decision?
Yeah, it's been a great experience so far. From my own perspective, I'm the sort of engineer that likes to solve challenging problems and a pet peeve that gets me fed up easily is a routine. Working at Kippa challenges me every day and there's been no shortage of excitement so far even from my first day at Kippa.
We are growing rapidly so there is no shortage of new challenges and I'm very excited to be a part of this. I'm really looking forward to all the exciting new stuff I'm going to be traversing and all the exciting and probably gonna be solving.
Take me through your role on the Kippa?
I'm the senior data engineer, essentially the team lead for the data engineering team. And in this capacity, we are working to define data pipelines, data platforms, building them and deploying management solutions that are integrated services that connect other parts of the business.
The data engineering team connects all sides of the business together. Whether that's the mobile apps, there's an impact to be made on the backend services.
We've been working with some internal tools to expose the API that allows the platform as a whole to interact with other third party services. We are generally trying to understand our users and provide services that are of value to them.
So yeah, this leadership position really sets the pace, as the team expands and grows, I am able to learn my capacities as we reach new frontiers around data.
Interesting stuff! How would you describe Kippa in three words?
Kippa is amazing, visionary even! We established a problem space and we're actually leading the process around solving the problems. We're breaking new grounds.
Kippa is actually the first highly impactful bookkeeping application for SMEs on this side of the continent. We're thinking about this problem space differently and trying to approach it from a very unique angle that is impactful.
Lastly, it is fun. You get to work and mingle with intelligent people. It’s also a really good culture here and a very relaxed but driven environment.
Want to work together?
Kippa is the simplest accounting software for small Nigerian businesses. Over 2,80,000 small business owners currently use Kippa to manage their business transactions, create and send professional invoices and collect debts 3X faster. To do this, we need a team of thinkers; in return, we give them the resources to do their best. View our open jobs and help us make business easy.
