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Aaron Bourne on enhancing the software sphere

By Aaron Bourne

Founder - Devtiro

Stemming from his own experiences in deciphering the world of coding and software, Aaron Bourne has created his own company passionate about raising the bar on software.

Having worked in various in-house and contracted developer roles – including a time with the Small Robot Company leveraging technology to solve global food network challenges – Aaron has always been motivated to purposefully apply his software skills.

This purpose is at the source of his company Devtiro, sharing his commercial coding experience and industry best practices to supercharge the software journey of other businesses and developers.

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You’ve launched Devtiro to raise the bar on software; what aspect of that are you focusing on at the moment?

The purpose of Devtiro is to raise the bar on software; making everything that I and other experts know in the industry freely available for anybody to use and benefit from. Learning how to code and how software works is super complex, but I believe that anybody that wants to do it, can do it.

I'm focusing on supporting Software Developers at the junior and intermediate level.

It's important to me that the community starts to grow. Because if there is a community, and if you give the community knowledge and motivation, some really special things will happen and I'm really excited to be a part of that.

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What’s one thing everyone should know about software?

Software can appear horrendously complex and very scary – whether you’re learning it, opening a coding project, or a company running a software development function.

Some of the things that experienced developers say and do can seem extremely alien, but I wholeheartedly believe that if you break it down it’s far simpler and more accessible than people think.

Software is a very powerful thing – in every modern-day item, chances are, there’s software behind it somewhere. It’s in absolutely everything nowadays; it has changed the world.

Talk to us about the tech behind software; where do you think it’s going in the future?

In a way, I’m technology agnostic. If you get the processes and culture right around the technology, then technology itself tends not to matter too much.

That being said, there’s lots of movement in the tech world in terms of artificial intelligence and machine learning which I have had the opportunity to be involved with over the last few years.

ChatGPT is an example of artificial intelligence. You can have an almost human-like conversation with it and it’s able to draw on huge amounts of information for you. It’s something I think we’re going to see a lot more of in the future and I think that’s going to be a game-changer. The movement and progress that’s being made in that space is outstanding.

"Software is a very powerful thing – in every modern-day item, chances are, there's software behind it somewhere."

What are you most excited about the future potential of the industry?

The first thing, from a purely technological point of view, is artificial intelligence – it’s going to change the way that we see the world.

Secondly, is the way that developers work on projects. In some companies, software development is seen almost like mining: you extract as much as you can and ultimately that’s where the money comes in. I wholeheartedly believe that’s not the model because humans simply don’t work in that way. Software development gives people the opportunity to gain mastery over something. If we make the world better for software developers as well as everyone else, that will bring fulfilment and happiness, and ultimately it will also affect the bottom line in a positive way.

What’s a common challenge being faced by software developers?

The first challenge is breaking into the industry – it’s hands down one of the most difficult things that I’ve done; there’s a lot of competition in that space.

Once you’re in a company, you can be at the mercy of traditional business frameworks. It can be very hierarchical and leaves very little room for experimentation. Innovation only comes as a result of experimentation – you’d never have these amazing artificial intelligence models today if everybody did exactly the same thing. You need a little bit of open-mindedness and room for experimentation which is one of the things Devtiro aims to support.

"Innovation only comes as a result of experimentation – you'd never have these amazing artificial intelligence models today if everybody did exactly the same thing."

Aaron Bourne - Founder, Devtiro

Social media is an important element for Devtiro in building a community of software artisans; who do you follow for inspiration?

I would describe myself, in traditional developer fashion, as an introvert, so doing things on Instagram and YouTube didn’t necessarily come naturally to me.

I follow Alex Hormozi and find him inspiring. His is a true rags to riches story. Today he runs multiple million dollar businesses with thousands of subscribers across different platforms. What I really like about his story is the humble beginnings and being invested in his passion to see it through to success.

What are you currently listening to, reading, or watching?

Again, I’m big into Alex and Leila Hormozi’s content. They’ve got a fantastic story through the hard times and the good to growing multi million dollar businesses. They’re very humble and share everything that they know and that really resonates with me.

Other than that, I’ve really enjoyed Simon Sinek’s book “Start with WHY”. It’s often the case that the why behind our businesses gets lost when we focus too much on the what and the how. A simple, but very powerful lesson.

Aaron Bourne