Chris Preen

Background

About Chris Preen

Entrepreneurship is close to my heart. After attaining my B.Comm degree, I was employed as a Senior Small Business Advisor for three years. Other than those three years, I have been self-employed my entire adult life. After successfully exiting the first business I built, Consolidated Portfolio Advisors, I founded FindaProfessional - a suite of professional online directories. That was in 2004, a time when there was no Facebook, no iPhone and Google was still a private company. Since then, many online businesses far bigger and better funded than mine, have come and gone, and I consider it an achievement that my professional directories are still dominant in their niche markets 17 years later. Over the years I have developed a passion and skill for web app integration and automation. I love the overlap of logic and creativity that is required, and my extensive experience in running my own online businesses puts me in a great position to craft innovative automation solutions for other startups and small businesses. Using various SaaS apps together with webhooks and platforms like Zapier and Integromat, I have successfully streamlined and automated many business processes. I was the second person in Africa to qualify as a Zapier Certified Expert. I am an advocate of lifelong learning, and continue to study coding and web design, and keep on top of the latest trends in the business and tech fields. Particular fields that interest me are blockchain, crypto economics and web 3.0. I also contribute articles to South Africa’s SME Entrepreneur Magazine as one of their SME Thought Leaders.