Paperform People: Josh Cuneo, Lead Developer

Welcome to our new series, Paperform People! With each post, we'll introduce you to one of the talented and diverse individuals on our global team. You'll get a unique look at the people behind the company, learn what working at Paperform is really like, and find out more about our company, values, and mission.

Meet Josh Cuneo, our Lead Developer at Paperform. Josh joined the company as Paperform's first hire, and, over the last four years, has played a significant role in building out the product—and Product team. Take a look at Josh's journey from cafe owner to web dev, and learn more about his passion for building software that genuinely helps people.

What does your standard workday look like?

I generally start the day by catching up on comms, particularly with users or teammates who I only overlap with in the office early in the day. After that, I review any issues that might need urgent attention, plan the day's meetings and usually jump into a few calls (might be a team sync, 1:1 with another dev, peer programming etc.).

After lunch I'll generally get to write some code, or at least tackle a few issues from JIRA. Code review tends to happen in random gaps through the day, but if I have outstanding PRs to review, I generally finish those off last thing before wrapping up any comms and knocking off for the day.

Why did you join Paperform?

After seven years running a cafe, and over a decade working in kitchens before that, I'd wrestled with a lot of bad software. When I decided it was time for a change from hospitality I was keen to learn how to build software that could solve problems for people.

Knowing the Paperform founders, it seemed like a no-brainer to find out what the requirements would be for their next junior dev hire and try to meet them. A couple of hard years of study later, and I had a new career!

What were you doing before you joined Paperform?

Running a little cafe and market garden with my wife in Wollongong. We loved it but it was tough running a small business with young kids.

Which one of Paperform's values do you care about the most?

Compassion. One of the amazing things about running a business, that I didn't fully appreciate until I stopped, is the way it can impact both employees and customers. Our cafe gave our staff security and flexibility to get through some really difficult times for them and gave our customers a sense of belonging and community that they really valued.

In hindsight it was our compassion as business owners that made that possible. I see compassion at Paperform having very similar impact on our team, our users, and me personally.

What's one of your favourite things about working at Paperform?

Solving problems. Finding solutions gives me a great deal of satisfaction. At work it is almost always useful. I could definitely stand to learn that not every problem is looking for me to solve it though.

Josh at the Paperform Team Retreat in October 2022

What is your favourite thing about your team?

Hmm, I think we have a really great culture of honesty and openness as a team. People feel comfortable to share their views, even if other mights disagree, and we are generally able to find a resolution that everyone is comfortable with.

How would you describe the culture at Paperform? What makes it different from other jobs ?

Fast-paced, innovative, considerate, compassionate, perhaps at times a bit chaotic. 😄

I've had pretty amazing jobs over the years but, honestly, for me the standout difference working at Paperform is that we don't just talk about work-life balance, we are all (pretty much) living it week to week.

What's your favourite Paperform feature?

Controversially, I would say the random theme generator. I really depend on it and have had to advocate against it being removed from the product on more than one occasion. Mashing that button is just so much simpler than having to decide on the theme elements myself.

What's your favourite Paperform integration?

It's a tough call but I've always had a secret love for spreadsheets, so probably our Google Sheets integration. Getting my submissions data into a platform where I can play with it is great.

When you aren't working, what can we find you doing?

Hanging out with my 3 boys, walking the dog, playing guitar (or lately a bit of organ synthesiser). We are really enjoying a sneaky episode of Mythbusters before bed on the weekends at the moment.

• 🍔 Favourite food: Today, bread and butter pudding.
• 📚 Favourite book: The Expanse series.
• 🏌️ Favourite weekend activity: Hanging out at home with my people, maybe around a fire in the yard.
• 🎬 Favourite movie: It really varies but I watched Mighty Ducks with the kids recently and that might be an all-time fave.
• 🏝️ 3 items you'd take to a desert island: Guitar, fishing line, axe.