Moving from a global mining corporation to a software startup has been one of the most eye-opening shifts of my career. Though my role at VRIFY is still rooted in geoscience and driven by discovery — understanding rock properties and geological processes — the context has completely changed.
In the mining world, value is measured in decades. Decisions were frequently slow, deliberate, and process-driven. Though this could be dubbed “resistant to change” or “living in the past”, I understand first-hand that this approach was often for good reason with billions of capital and operating cost at stake. At times it felt like moving a glacier with a teaspoon: Progress happened, but patience was key.
In the startup to scale-up world, like at VRIFY, value is created in weeks. Decisions are fast, sometimes uncomfortably so, but also for good reason. With the expectation to move, learn, and succeed or pivot, I’ve learned the value of being able to iterate quickly to create impact and ultimately, see results. As Google X’s Astro Teller suggests, and I am paraphrasing here, "The only way to get people to work on big, risky things — audacious ideas — is if failure is a path to learning, not a punishment”. In the tech space, that’s not strategy, it’s survival.
And though there has been an adjustment, something that hasn’t changed is the importance of working with a team. Whether at a mine site or building new software, the foundation is the same: Communication, honesty, and putting an emphasis on hiring the smartest, most resilient talent possible. Working alongside a growing team of top geoscientists, AI experts, and developers, I’ve found myself learning as much from them as I’m able to share from my own experience. Plus I get to throw a limerick or two into conversation to remind ourselves that though we take our work seriously, it’s helpful to not take yourself too seriously. If you can’t laugh at mistakes together, you probably won’t fix them together either.
That mindset has been just as important when tackling the technical side of things. Over the past year, I’ve had the chance to dive deep into:
- Variations in structural, geophysical and geochemical expressions of orogenic gold systems; the footprints change, the process echoes.
- Data gymnastics and data pipelines: A little bit of code in the right place leads to big productivity improvements.
- A blend of traditional geospatial interpolants and machine learning predictions can be very effective at honoring input data while simultaneously stretching the data into unknown areas.
- Generative models, like inpainting, are like magic when applied to the correct problems and with limits. They open up the door to properly managing anthropogenic effects or cultural noise in geophysical surveys.
- The most successful prospectivity models come from having knowledgeable and curious geologists involved, not just to choose the inputs and assess the outputs, but also to stay open to fresh data-driven insights.
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On a personal note, my wife was 100% right. She encouraged me to take the leap and to embrace discomfort in choosing a role that, though deeply related to my area of expertise, felt quite different. And though there are still differences, I have found a balance, not just in my skills, but also in my life. The shift has meant moving my family toward a more balanced, happier lifestyle. Remote work and flexibility have allowed me to be more present — something that feels like its own form of success. Although apparently, “being present” also means taking the bins out on time and not losing your phone. Much like my role at VRIFY, there’s always progress to work towards and stretch goals to strive for.
Reflecting on my first year at VRIFY in context of my career as a whole, I am able to clearly see the perspectives of these two worlds — very different in speed and scale — and each has taught me something invaluable. From the major mining company: Discipline and patience. From the scale-up: Clarity, focus, and adaptability. Together, these different perspectives have come together and reshaped how I define both work and life.
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