Henry's Journey with Upscope

You spent 7 years in China teaching English before moving into tech — that's quite a pivot. What made you take the leap?

For me, it felt like I finally found my place. Before, when I was younger, my priorities were to explore the world, experience something new, and just have a job that didn't bother me too much. Now I'm more focused on becoming better as a professional and doing something that brings me joy and a sense of accomplishment. It does require more effort and time, but it's worth it.

How did you end up at Upscope specifically?

The job description, mainly. It resonated with me — it was just different. Not perfectly polished corporate sentences. More like an invitation to an adventure. Something about "proud underdogs" and challenges. And this was the only time I sat and wrote a cover letter from the heart, without using any AI refinements or anything else (ugh — who uses those when applying for jobs anyway?).

What was your first week like?

Exciting. So much information and new things to learn, but everyone was really helpful and welcoming and that helped a lot. What surprised me most was the relaxed, chilled vibe in the office. We're doing real work, we face real issues and run into bugs and problems — but instead of stress, we kind of turn it into fun? Can you believe it?

You mentioned you expected the usual startup intensity coming in. Was it that different?

I expected deadlines, sprints, performance reviews. Don't get me wrong — we have all of that. But it's different. You're expected to work and perform and ship, but there's still a healthy balance. It also might be my perspective after seven years in China, where you're kind of expected to dedicate your whole life to your job and make that the highest priority.

How has your role evolved since you joined?

I joined as a very junior developer and honestly knew pretty much nothing. I'm really grateful to Pablo and Joe for not just throwing me to the sharks, but for actually taking time to explain things and giving me ideas on how to learn and get better. Because of the massive tech stack migration that was already in progress when I joined, I got to learn the codebase really deeply. Now I'm happily doing much more complex assignments, working on new features, and helping our support team with technical issues.

What's a moment from the past two years you're most proud of?

I built an internal AI system that's become genuinely useful across the company and saves people a lot of time. I'm proud of creating something practical — taking modern AI capabilities and turning them into tools people actually use day to day.

What's been the hardest part?

Probably adapting to how startups work. Priorities move fast. One moment you're building a feature, then suddenly you're helping with a support issue, fixing a bug from last week to unblock something else, then jumping back into your original task. Somehow, we all still magically respawn at the pub by the end of the day.

Walk us through what a typical day looks like.

In the morning I grab a cuppa, sit down, and do a quick catch-up — emails, Slack, GitHub — checking if anything urgent came up overnight. Based on that, I plan out the day. I'll usually start with urgent fixes or support issues before moving onto feature work or whatever's highest priority.

Lunch is honestly one of the best parts of the day. Most of us eat together, either in the office kitchen or somewhere around Soho. After lunch I take short breaks every hour or so — walk around, rest my eyes, stretch my legs.

Around 6pm I start wrapping up and pushing final commits. I head home around 6:30, though sometimes later if I'm in flow. I really don't like leaving unfinished things hanging over the weekend — that especially happens on Fridays.

What are you focused on right now?

I recently finished working on the beta version of Upscope AI, which has been really exciting, and I'll probably continue shaping it over the coming months as it grows into something bigger. I've also been working on a small internal CRM system for blogs and docs. Outside of that, the usual mix of fixes, improvements, and ongoing product work.

What kind of person do you think genuinely thrives here?

Someone who's genuinely open to learning, because you learn a lot here, very quickly. Also someone who prefers proving their skills through their work rather than just talking about them. And personality-wise, you need to fit into a very open-minded, fast-paced, and diverse team.

What's one thing about working at Upscope that you couldn't have known from the outside?

That it's really, really fun!