Rob Stringer

Background

About Rob Stringer

Having spent close to 10 years working in digital education, working as a freelance product designer for startups, through to project owner for multi-nationals, I've had a varied and exciting career even as a niche specialist. When I was let go as part of Blippar's wide-reaching layoffs, I decided I'd take some time out before searching for my next role to get my house in order. Having moved home somewhat regularly and even between countries, I'd always tried to limit what it was I was carrying up and down stairs in moving boxes. But things collect, things silently become irrelevant, and one day you're looking a pile of both rubbish and incredibly important documents that need going through once again. As I sit there with my personal admin paperwork, surrounded by 5-year-old payslips and bills from old homes in other countries, I realise just how much I hate it! These are the demands and requirements of other people and institutions on my time and money. Miss a deadline for a payment? Not cancel a contract in time? Forget to update the address on your driver's licence? Then you can either pay a lump of cash or fight an uphill battle which is unlikely to overturn the decision. Don't pay the fine and prepare to watch things spiral out of control very quickly.'I wish I could pay someone to take this off my hands', I thought to myself.'I bet other people would as well', I added. As I looked down at the paperwork in front of me, I saw it in a new light. Now, instead of representing pain (actual and potential) and my legally bound responsibilities, it became a source knowledge, knowledge with which to design a tool, an app, a service with which to lift this burden off my shoulders and prevent future problems! This was the birth moment of FileCaddie and the start of my new journey into the world of start-ups.