Success leaves clues. Finance Strategists sat down with Kahtaf Alam, founder of BitSpice. He shared his thoughts on the past, present, and future of the company, as well as the insights he has gained from running the business. Q: Who are you and what’s your background? My name is Kahtaf Alam. I'm a Canadian immigrant and a software engineer for more than 10 years. I love using technology to solve everyday problems. I was very fortunate to figure out and pursue what I enjoyed doing from a young age. Growing up, I attempted everything related to technology, such as animation, 3D rendering, game development, digital design, programming FPGAs, and the list goes on. Every new domain gave me a different perspective on how to solve a problem. During university is where I landed on software engineering and have been doing that ever since. I have been an engineer at consulting agencies, large enterprises, and small startups. Q: Who has been your biggest influence, and why did they have such a significant effect on you? I'm not sure that I can identify a single person who heavily influenced me to be who I am today, but I have been very fortunate to be surrounded by intelligent, hard-working folks whom I constantly learn from. One quality that I really identify with, that was instilled in me by a place where I worked for more than 5 years, is craftsmanship. It was one of their core beliefs, and I think about that a lot when I'm building software. Q: Knowing what you know now, what advice would you have given your younger self? Continue surrounding yourself with brilliant thinkers, who are amazing at what they do. Everyone has something they can teach you. Try not to stay in your comfort zone for too long, because once you get there, time passes in the blink of an eye. I find myself learning the most when I'm thrown into a new environment with new challenges. Q: What is BitSpice.net? BitSpice.net is a collection of tools and applications that we have built or worked on. It showcases the craftsmanship that goes into our products and the quality of service we provide when building software. Q: What separates BitSpice.net from its competitors? At BitSpice, we focus on crafting quality software and building an amazing experience for our users. Q: What led you to start BitSpice.net? Just before I started BitSpice, I realized I had worked on a lot of software products, some which were ready to be released, and others that would never see the light of day. BitSpice was meant to be the brand under which I published my best work. As traffic to our products has increased, visitors are led back to the BitSpice home page where they can see other products we have built. Q: What has the experience of building the business taught you? I think it's rare that someone enjoys every single aspect of running a business. For me, I love building software but dislike accounting and taxes, marketing, support, etc. Narrow your focus on what you enjoy doing, and if possible, outsource the rest. Q: Where do you see things headed for you and the company in the next five years? BitSpice will continue crafting great software and build products we are proud to put out there. Check out BitSpice.net for more information.
Introduction
Who is Kahtaf Alam?
Business
True Tamplin is a published author, public speaker, CEO of UpDigital, and founder of Finance Strategists.
True is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF®), author of The Handy Financial Ratios Guide, a member of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, contributes to his financial education site, Finance Strategists, and has spoken to various financial communities such as the CFA Institute, as well as university students like his Alma mater, Biola University, where he received a bachelor of science in business and data analytics.
To learn more about True, visit his personal website or view his author profiles on Amazon, Nasdaq and Forbes.
