Hey there! I'm Reuben. I live in Surrey, England but I grew up in South Africa and also lived in Spain for a while, so howzit and hola too!

Being half British half German, I live life in a constant battle between innuendo and efficiency - switching between creative and analytical thinking. One could say digital product design is almost a genetic pursuit in my case.

I studied macro economics and started my career as a business analyst for a golf media startup called RetailTribe. I'm a golf nut so that was a pretty good fit. This is where I first plugged in to the power of the internet and learned about everything from design to code to copy.

From there I was headhunted (fancy, I know) by a digital agency called Clickthinking and worked with an immensely talented team for two years. This is where I went deep down the rabbit hole of usability, user experience, conversion rate optimisation and SEO.

I got to work with some great companies and even flexed a little creative muscle crafting a game for a pet food company! Almost won an award for it too. Great fun.

From there, I packed up my life and jetted off in search of something new. I ended up in Madrid and absolutely loved it. I landed a job with an awesome startup called… JustLanded. How apt.

At the time they were the largest expat portal in the world - translated into over 40 languages. This is where I learned how fast you can actually build great custom tech and worked with some outlandishly smart people.

I also made friends for life over beer and tapas and spontaneous adventures around the city. It was a magical time. Qué bueno!

Sadly my Spanish adventure came to an end and I moved to England to get serious about some career goals.

I was offered a job with a company called NEST Pension working with a small but mighty UX team. It appealed to my philanthropic side to create a solution which would have a meaningful impact on people's lives.

I didn't realise it at the time, but this was Europe's largest FinTech project – and I was part of the team that helped launch and scale it to millions of savers. I even travelled to India twice to work with the software engineering team. Bonus points for surviving the local level of spice.

However, after a few years with NEST I realised it was time to take on a new challenge. But this wouldn't be my last foray into pensions - I just didn't know it yet!

Anyway. I was hired as Head of UX for a stealth agency called SevenSeconds - run by two industry heavyweights. I had to grow a team and a full product design capability quickly.

The agency grew to £10mil turnover in four years and a team of about 100 people at it's height. It was a whirlwind.

While there, I was a trusted adviser and product design leader for some of the UK's biggest companies: Boots, Waitrose, Samsung, Halfords, British Airways, Virgin Media, and more.

After four intense years in agency land and following an acquisition by Publicis Media, I felt it was time to tread my own path.

At this point, I started my own product design and transformation consultancy - Sidenav. I focussed on helping startups create world-class products and older businesses transform their digital ecosystems.

Over the past seven years I have worked with some wonderful people and been fortunate to create businesses from the ground up and transform a few from the inside.

During this time I've helped build a Top 100 fastest growing startup and crafted the products behind multiple 8-9 figure companies. To date, the companies I've helped have raised over $100mil.

Notable clients include: Arbolus, ai.io, Crystal Palace F.C., Currencies Direct, Snugs, Veygo, and more.

Over the past year I've also been quietly building an innovative FinTech which will be the UK's first Retirement as a Service platform.

It's called Retirewell and I'm both a shareholder and adviser - having designed it from the ground up and recruited the team to build it. We're hoping it revolutionises the way people access and use their pension savings.

Aside from all the above, I'm always exploring new tools and ideas. I'm busy honing my AI skills around prompting and building in the 'new way'. I have a few niche ideas I'm exploring, but I'll keep those under wraps for now.

Seriously, are still readying by this point? I'm impressed. Apparently people don't do that on the internet anymore.

You're clearly an outlier and we should probably connect at this point.