Team Spotlight: Introducing Halvard

Every week we ask a Terra team member to let us know who they are. Here's Halvard.

What wearables do you use?

I currently rock the Oura Ring as I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow a ring from our office. I used a WHOOP before that, and I also used to wear the Garmin HRM when I rowed in my Uni days. Oh - and I also use the Garmin Forerunner 945 when I'm running and on a daily basis.

Rowing... as in ergometer training - or on the water?

I picked up rowing when I lived in the Netherlands a couple of years ago, as rowing is a huge part of their culture. Also, during my master's degree at Imperial College London, I was a member of the rowing club. It was a really cool experience, but hands down one of the most physically and mentally grueling sports I've ever tried out.

Halvard racing in the Quintin Head Regatta at the River Thames in London with Imperial College Boat Club

What's your background prior to coming to London and Terra?

I grew up in Oslo, Norway, and played football professionally for FC Lyn Oslo in the Norwegian 2nd Division during high school, and then I moved to the United States on a scholarship to play collegiate football - or soccer as they call it in the states haha! I did a bachelor's degree in Economics with a small concentration in Computer Science before I moved to London for my master's degree in International Management at Imperial College London.

Halvard playing Division 1 football in the CAA conference in the United States

What do you miss the most about Norway?

I grew up in a family that loves to spend time outdoors. I love to go fishing and sailing in the summers and I try to go cross-country skiing as often as I can when I'm back home during the winter. Actually, I escaped back to Norway a couple of weekends ago just to be able to go skiing one more time before the snow disappears for the summer, haha!

Halvard cross-country skiing with his father in Geilo, Norway this past winter

How have you found these first few months at Terra?

It has been a lot of fun. We're definitely moving at 100+ mph, which was certainly an adjustment for me early on... but I can honestly say that I've never been a part of a team with so many extremely smart and talented people before that I've now become really close with. We have a really good group of people in our office and I think that's a major part of our success.

Speed is the name of the game... So what has been your highlight so far?

IC Hack — without a doubt! It was such a cool experience to be able to help out with organizing our challenge for this year as a Gold Sponsor and seeing the Terra logo light up the Queen's Tower was surreal. Imperial has so many talented young engineers and it was awesome to see what they built with our API in just a few hours.

The Terra Avengers holding a workshop for the hackers from Imperial at IC Hack 23

Lastly, what's your take on the future of wearables?

Oh man, we're just getting started... No, but seriously - I think the coolest thing about being a part of Terra at this stage is that I believe we're just scratching the surface of what's possible to do with wearable technology. We have come so far in just a snippet of time and I can only imagine where the wearables technology space will be in 4–5 years.

A really cool part of my role as a Growth Engineer, is that I get to talk with our customers on a daily basis about their use cases with wearable technology - and it's amazing to see some of the things that they are building with our API and I'm really excited to support these developers going forward.