Professional connector

With a view to the big picture, our Partnerships guru has an eye for opportunities…

It’s been a little while since we caught up with business whizz Neil Morrell and in the mean time, he’s been busy making friends and influencing people.

But seriously —

Give us a recap on your role at Sylo.

I am the Partnerships Manager here, which means I spend most of my days meeting with companies who want to work with us, either by using our protocol to build their own app or by building a connected app inside Sylo with our SDK (Software Development Kit).

We are at a really exciting time now, as our framework for connected apps is ready. So the conversations I have been having with companies over the last 12 months are now past planning stage and starting to become a reality. It’s cool to be part of that journey.

Do your family and friends understand what you do?

Absolutely not, and that’s okay.

They know I work in ‘tech’ and I have explained a bit about what we are trying to achieve here at Sylo, however like most people, they don’t care HOW stuff works, more just that it works.

I use Sylo to chat with my family and some friends back home in Scotland, so I’ll take that as a win.

What part of your area of work do you find most challenging and why?

In some of my meetings I will be talking with a developer and they expect me to know specific technical things……. I don’t.

We have an amazing team of smart developers and designers at Sylo who can cover the nitty gritty stuff. Although its sometimes challenging, I love meeting with people and learning about the problem they are trying to solve, and the tech they are using in that solution.

Just don’t ask me to code.

What do you think ‘the next big thing’ for your area of tech will be and why?

Sylo’s connected app marketplace, for sure.

We are making it easy for developers to build their app in the contexts of Sylo, enabling them access to the whole Sylo community.

For users it means not having to download multiple apps and the ability to give access to their profile and wallet when, and to what extent, they want.

It’s a big thing as you will no longer have to give all your data to a number of apps who can then sell it off to the highest bidder. You decide which apps have access, to what, and when.

What issue relevant to our industry concerns you the most right now and why?

The fact that social media knows me better than I know myself.

A pet hate of mine is ‘Login with Facebook.’

Sure, I’ll let you access everything online about me and in return, you can give all my data back to Facebook so they can sell it.

Sounds like a great deal, but let’s be realistic for a second, I don’t want to have to create a new account for every app I use. I struggle to remember my wedding anniversary - let alone a password I chose for a loyalty app I downloaded to get a free muffin last December!

We NEED a better way of accessing apps, giving permission and controlling who gains from the use of that data.

What’s a misunderstood thing about your job that you’d like to clear up?

I don’t just ‘go for coffee’ with people, well I do, but it is to discuss the problems they are trying to solve, and how we can help them.

I’m working, honestly!

I’m happy to meet with anyone who has an idea or is looking to see if we can work together — we are all about collaboration.

Make a prediction for where technology will be at in five years time:

Having a digital wallet will be the new norm — you won’t have to send money from your bank account to a long-winded account number and pay transaction fees.

Being able to message assets to others will be as easy as sending a txt.

If I want to buy a beer for my dad on Fathers Day, I will be able to send him a digital beer that he can redeem at his local pub in Edinburgh.

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Next week, we’ll be catching up with the Sylo’s chattiest group — the marketing team.

In the meantime… Got a question? Want more info?

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