Tech Journeys Podcast

Sam Strawbridge is a product manager at ITS, a UK infrastructure builder and service provider that operates across multiple metro areas. In this episode, Sam walks through his proudest project: redesigning the layer 3 routing architecture for ITS's direct internet access service to cut hardware and carbon emissions, then building a DDoS protection overlay on top of it with Cisco and EdgeHawk. He talks about starting his tech career later than most, moving through support, engineering, and product roles before landing in product management, and how a recent ADHD and autism diagnosis at 40 gave him new context on his own career path. The conversation also covers where the connectivity market is heading, with commoditization pushing value into overlay services like security and resilience rather than raw bandwidth.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Anand Kumar Veeramachineni built his career in an unusual order. He earned a PhD in biotechnology from Monash University, spent years selling scientific databases to researchers, and now works as a senior product manager at Springer Nature, where he builds life science and experimental workflow tools shaped by AI. He talks about the confusion of translating academic research into a real job, including recruiters who told him to hide his PhD because he looked overqualified, and how that experience taught him to treat every career move as a chance to adapt rather than specialize narrowly. The conversation also covers what AI actually replaces (repetitive, reference-based work) versus what still needs a human, using lawyers and Einstein's need to prove his own theories as contrasting examples. Anand's main takeaway: a tool is only as capable as the person using it, so building real experience matters more than chasing whatever technology is newest.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Yasmin Mohamud is the founder of Kastan Mentoring, a self-funded initiative teaching digital skills to young people across Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti. After a career in the UN and a diagnosis of arthritis and lupus limited her mobility, she taught herself AI and machine learning from home and built a peer-to-peer mentoring model with no institutional backing. In two years, she has helped 500 young people access fully funded scholarships and training programs, including one participant who now studies cybersecurity through the University of the People. The conversation covers what it takes to build something from nothing, the size of the digital gap facing East Africa, and why she believes talent exists everywhere even when resources don't.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Prakash Singh is a Product Manager at K2 Group, where he works with customers to identify problems and shape new product features. In this episode, Prakash traces his path from a junior product engineer role in India through an early bet on cloud infrastructure, and explains why that decision became the foundation for his move into management. He talks about the moment during COVID that pushed him to stop waiting for opportunities and pursue a master's degree in International Technology Management at Warwick University. Prakash also shares his view on AI as a productivity tool rather than a threat, and where he wants his career to go next: owning a product portfolio that creates impact at scale.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Manoj Shah is a solution architect at The Law Society, where he's leading a Databricks implementation designed to centralize and clean up the organization's data. In this episode, he explains the medallion architecture behind the project and why fixing data quality matters more than ever with AI in the mix. He talks about the shift in his own thinking over the years, from chasing new technology to focusing on people, culture, and clear decision-making. One concrete takeaway: undocumented decisions come back to bite you later, so log the reasoning behind big calls while it's fresh. He also shares what's next for him, including a growing interest in enterprise architecture and a side project called Spelling.live, an app he built to help his kids with handwriting and spelling.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Yudhistra Bhardwaj works as a Business Analyst and Product Owner at Capgemini, where he's spent five years managing stakeholders and gathering requirements across a range of client projects. In this episode, he talks through his seven months on the Aramco digital project in Saudi Arabia, and what it took to adapt to a new market, culture, and pace of decision-making. He also shares how he uses AI tools like Copilot to speed up his day to day work, from summarizing emails to analyzing metrics, while keeping the human relationship with clients front and center. Yudhistra's biggest takeaway: get your foot in the door early, because the theory you learn at university only covers a small slice of what the job actually demands, and a good mentor closes that gap faster than trial and error.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Aditya Keshari is a Solution Architect at Vodafone, working on marketplace solutions for enterprise customers across thirteen markets. In this episode, he talks about delivering a major cloud project in Germany under strict workers' council regulations, and how prioritizing MVP requirements helped his team hit a hard deadline without cutting corners. He also breaks down Vodafone's "build once, deploy many" approach to reducing customization costs across markets, and shares what he'd do differently if he started his career today: get certified in AI and TOGAF early rather than picking it up on the job. The conversation closes with his read on where enterprise tech is heading next, from self-serve platforms to AI agents built into everyday tools.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Doug Hendry is a solution architect at Chameleon Creative, where he builds Salesforce solutions powered by AI. He started his career as a service engineer, then spent decades working with Oracle databases and Salesforce consulting before AI reshaped how he works day to day. Doug explains how AI now handles discovery, documentation, and development work that used to take weeks, giving him more time to review decisions instead of doing the manual work himself. He also shares a lesson from a major UK charity project: keep your project scope tight, because it's easy to take on more than you can handle. Doug talks about the side projects he's building with AI, including tools to help his brother sort real opportunities from time wasters on event industry tender sites.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

To learn more connect with me on LinkedIn and message me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentuppelschoten/

Ade Pycroft is a senior telecommunications engineer and team leader at TXO, with nearly 12 years at the company (formerly Linx) and over two decades in the industry. Ade talks about leading a six-person team on a 20-month European fiber rollout that spanned Austria to Spain, and the customs delay that stopped his crew at the Swiss border with equipment "worth more than 50 grand." He shares why he'd tell his younger self to get Cisco certified before learning on the job, not after, since bad habits picked up early are hard to shake later. Ade also walks through his current project upgrading Virgin Media's fiber network across the UK, and explains why staying sharp in one specialization beats trying to keep up with everything.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.

Laura Burrell is a data center infrastructure specialist at Hammer Distribution, where she moved from a product management role earlier this year after earning her Certified Data Center Professional qualification. She and Vincent talk through how AI has reshaped the data center world: rack power draw has jumped from 5-15 kilowatts to 20-40+ kilowatts in under a year, forcing a rethink of cooling, power distribution, and rack design across the industry. Laura explains immersion cooling, where server racks lie flat and sit submerged in cooling fluid instead of standing upright with air or in-row cooling. She also shares her path from audio-visual integration into data centers, and what pushed her to make that switch. Laura was recently shortlisted for a Women and Diversity in the Channel Award and is starting to think about what a more advisory, consultancy-style role could look like down the line.

This show is sponsored by The Consulting Launch Method, where I help experienced tech professionals build their own consulting business without spending years figuring out the business side. We've helped clients go from first idea to first clients in 90 days, and 6 figures within a year.