Founder and entrepreneur, Alex Banks, visited Croydon College to discuss his career and current start-up Petproactive.pet. Alex has had an illustrious 20-year career in Information Technology, working in project and programme management roles for major financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, NatWest Bank and HSBC.
The entrepreneur discussed different models of project management. In his experience in the finance industry, Alex discussed how the “front-desk” traders adopted a more Agile/RAD project strategy. This approach, “suck it and see” was to get their systems to do what they wanted and adapt them quickly to changing trading conditions. The back-office compliance staff demanded a much more measured, stream lined approach, carefully documenting the requirements in advance, designing the look and feel of the interfaces and running extensive testing routines before it was “made live”
Alex’s current project is a “virtual” business called Pet ProActive. This is heavily reliant on Cloud technology, not only for data storage but also for delivery of services. His business has been supported with $200k of credits from Google to use Google Cloud services such as BigQuery. By gathering data from veterinary practices about the costs of treatments, outcomes and the details of the animals involved, the entrepreneur believes that he can offer competitively priced pet insurance through a network of independent veterinary surgeries. Through statistical analysis, Alex has discovered that the colour of a cat was a major factor in the likelihood / cost of it requiring veterinary treatment. Ground breaking.
If you have an entrepreneurial spirit like Alex, are interested in business and are tech savvy, our BTEC Level 3 Information Technology and Business courses are ideal for. You can still enrol now for a September start.
