Team Spotlight: Introducing Ross

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

What wearables do you use?

I have a Garmin Forerunner 935 and a chest strap monitor. The watch is just to track everyday fitness, track my sleep, and stuff like that. The chest strap monitor was for when I was getting huge into running. So, my trainer wanted to be able to track me a bit better. I was on training peaks, and it automatically uploaded all of the information for that. So they're connected, and she could see it as well.

What kind of running were you doing?

I did the Cambridge half-marathon back in March. And then, after that, I wanted to do a full marathon. So I was looking at the London Marathon that had just passed, but I got shin splints that lasted for about a month.

How was running a half-marathon?

It was pretty good. It was a bit scary because I told too many people about it, and so many people were waiting at the finish line. Thankfully I smashed my best time.

How long did it take you?

1 hour 45-ish?

That's an incredible pace, like a few minutes/kilometers?

Something like four minutes per kilometer, I think.

Nice man, how did you train for it?

I normally do Fartlek training, like, you know, sprints and stops. My average on peaks is about 3:14 per kilometer. I think that's the metric that I really like to look at the most.

How did you find your trainer?

She's in Italy actually. A friend's mom who does it professionally initially said she'd give me a discount. But yeah, just from the apps and the data she can coach me on everything.

Are you still taking running seriously?

Well, since my dissertation, I kind of dropped out of running really frequently. And yeah, life just gets hectic sometimes.

What else do you do for training?

Oh, well, it's that and going to the gym doing some strength training. I think that just makes me feel better day to day. I also did kickboxing as an undergrad and competed in a few competitions, training was intense. 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. It was very fun though, the guy leading the club was a 5 times uni/varsity champion so it was great to learn from them. Sadly I had to stop when I dislocated my shoulder in the ring, unfortunately.

So what's life like outside of Terra for you?

Well, I've recently just moved down to London. So right now it's not very much fun on that side as I'm still looking for a flat :) Normally, I play the guitar and do lots of sports. And yeah, lots of cooking too.

Oh, nice. What style of guitar do you play?

Like fingerstyle/Portuguese Bossanova and also rock, it's a very weird mix.

What guitars do you have?

I have a Fender back at home, but whilst I've been at uni and moving around, I just find it better to go to a charity shop buy one for 10 pounds, and revamp it. Feels a little more personal.

What kind of food do you cook?

Lots of Italian was sort of my base, but the girlfriend is Armenian so I've just been trying to perfect a certain rice dish that she said she has every day at home. But no matter how much I practice, it just pales in comparison to her grandma :)

Yeah, nearly impossible to compete with grandma's food man. Do you remember what the dish was called?

She just calls it Persian rice.

Where are you from?

I'm from the UK, up in Yorkshire. My hometown is a very small place called Whitby. I lived right by the beach. Whilst I was there, I got a little bit into surfing. I was big on swimming and I was gonna do a triathlon, except I suck on the bike :) - and that's just too much training.

Fair enough. What did you study?

My undergrad degree was in Mechanical Engineering at Loughborough. And then I did a summer camp for entrepreneurs/start-ups. That's kind of where I really grew to like them and the fast-paced, action-based environment so I went to Cambridge University to do a business conversion degree. And yeah, I think that landed me a job here at Terra :)

When you say you did a summer camp, what was it?

It was a university lead course, they gave us 1000 pounds over the summer to work on a business. They had two engineers on the team, which was me and another friend, and two business students. However, we all ended up doing a little bit of everything. That was my first touch on the commercial side.

What was the business idea?

Our idea was a detachable electric skateboard. So you could basically just click on a skateboard, it becomes electric and makes it more portable.

That's a great idea.

Yeah, I mean, I won't divulge too much about how it works, I might pick it back up later.

Do you have an electric skateboard?

Yeah, back home. It would definitely save on costs here, but I don't want to get run over by a bus :)

How do you find living in London?

It's great. I tell my friends I'm exhausted and love the hustle and bustle of life. I basically leave the house at seven in the morning and then I'm either working at Terra, house hunting, or seeing friends. It's great having a real purpose and a big difference compared to being in the small town of Whitby - we don't even have a McDonald's there, but there's everything you need here :)

Yeah, sadly from a health perspective, I think there are two on this street. Anyhow, what languages do you speak?

Unfortunately, just English. Been trying to pick up a little bit of German.

Do you like to travel?

Yeah, I took a gap year in-between my A-Levels and uni. I traveled to Australia, Thailand, and Vietnam and have done a road trip in Europe as well. Actually, I've just come back from renting an RV and driving around Wales for a short term.

How was Wales?

Wales is lovely. The people there are so friendly. And yeah, just driving around everywhere, it's like a fairy tale. We drove through the south and saw all the nature reserves. Then we drove up through the coast in the southwest and went to the North Sea. Unfortunately, we couldn't hike because my girlfriend sprained her ankle on the fourth day.

That's a shame.

It's fine. I offered to piggyback her up, she didn't believe in me though :)

Favorite place you've been to?

Probably Barcelona. It really had everything. You could relax by the beach, you've got all the culture, you've got nightlife out there. And whilst we were staying in a hostel, everyone was completely friendly. We just made friends and were out doing something different every night.

What excites you about what we're doing here at Terra?

Well, it's really nice seeing these tech companies that are the hidden infrastructure. Your everyday consumer won't know about them, but they're essential to everything that they use. And it's those kinds of businesses that can really grow and become super stable. And also, it's my own fitness that I'm pursuing that gets me even more interested. Also, just the work life and the culture here at Terra is really good.

How have you found your first week at Terra?

Everyone really believes in the company and actually cares about their work and I find that quite motivating in itself. Also, everyone seems to actually be mates. You're very trusted and you get your responsibility. And I'm just learning quite a lot here that I don't think I would at a much larger company.

What would you say your future plans or goals are?

Well, I believe in the unicorn here at Terra :) I want to learn as much as I can from Raouf and Kyriakos because they clearly know what they're doing. Eventually, I'd say after Terra I want to try building my own startup.