Pragmatic tech for the real world
Hi! I'm Raoul. I work in tech under the brand World-wize.
Software systems are now ubiquitous, and suddenly very smart. Their potential is still rapidly expanding.
What do I get involved in?
I work as a business-aware technical consultant in start-ups and mid-size companies. The best description of the role I most often play is Technical Product Owner. I help my clients tackle high-growth phases sanely and responsibly, by advising on software management and development. I am often involved in the first 18 months of a software product's lifecycle, which involves standing up the first prototype followed by the first working version of a product.
I like responsible organisations with a strong purpose.
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What am I doing now?
I am currently working with a software consultancy and a few under-the-radar projects.
Last updated Oct 2025.
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Notable project examples
For Rising Academies a North African education provider, I acted as the temp CTO and then technical product manager for Rori, their award-winning maths chatbot. I oversaw and directed an aggressive build and feature expansion programme.
Zero One is a frequent collaborator. Most recently I helped them redesign the main technical product offering for SearchKings Africa and for CoreVision Australia.
OURS was a funded edtech startup. I advised the founders and tech lead on tech strategy and product rollout for their combined software/hardware offering.
Simplepay has been a frequent client. In the past I worked as a software consultant on the core product, interfaces with external systems and data analytics. I have also run training and mentorship initiatives for them.
At start-up Turn I got exposure to machine learning. I implemented an interface between a Neuro-Linguistic Understanding model and the Turn messaging app, allowing intelligent tagging and prioritisation of messages.
For African Impact I fulfilled a technology lead role, including implementing performance improvements, helping the company better execute on sales pipeline metrics, and set up a full DevOps process.
At start-up Karri I helped to rebuild the core application in 3 months and migrate all customers to the new system enabing Karri's expansion plans. I was also involved in the design, building and rollout of most requested features.
CCi provides operations knowledge and consulting to global manufacturing companies. I have a long association with the company, and most recently I helped them build new online assessment and project management tools with modern web technologies.
For African Budget Safaris I helped build a complete Elasticsearch service for faster dynamic searching of their tour database, enabling customer conversions.
JourneyApps was a long-term client, and I have worked on several internal and client applications that deliver important business performance reports to decision makers.
For ImpactReady and UNICEF I created the basic architecture and technical design for a water point monitoring and fault reporting system, designed to bring automation to a low-technology environment.
For JourneyApps and Peninsula Beverages I created a data broker in 3 months that helps their tablet-based deliveries application talk to their main SAP ERP system, ensuring end-to-end tracking of their product distribution.
For Union Swiss I helped create a manufacturing system from scratch in 9 months, responsible for managing manufacture of 4,5 million units with a market value of $80 million within the first 2 months of going live.
For Uber5 and start-up Rollout I assisted in creating the web and mobile components for a new scheduling application. Immediate benefits: Improved revenue visibility, enhanced service due to the reduction of scheduling errors.
For Uber5 and a confidential client I built an automatic reporting engine for a large research division that saves hundreds of hours of work during the course of a year.
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Tech Talks
A Cross-Platform Survey App (Tech4Africa 2013)
Some Writing
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Tech experiments
Water Wazi: An OpenUp initiative aimed at collecting and mapping water resource data in an unbaised way. I collaborated with them to attempt to add legal compliance data to their existing maps.
STATUS: Involved 2021-2022.
STATUS: Involved 2021-2022.
Incivent/TeamReady: An android app and API back-end for managing roaming field-teams.
STATUS: Sold in 2015.
STATUS: Sold in 2015.
World-wize Surveys: A groundbreaking social survey app built for the first iPad.
STATUS: Sold in 2013.
STATUS: Sold in 2013.
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Get in touch on LinkedIn or at raoul..at..world-wize..dot..com.