On today’s episode, we’re joined by Sam Moore, VP of Architecture at Betterment, where he has led groundbreaking initiatives, including the re-platforming of mobile codebases from native to Flutter, and the launch of Betterment Checking. Sam’s extensive experience in scaling infrastructure and software architecture has made him a key figure in driving Betterment’s technological advancements.



Sam discusses leading major tech transitions, managing technical debt, fostering innovation and scaling engineering teams while ensuring continuous growth in the financial technology space.

Key Takeaways:

(01:16) Fatherhood influences Sam’s leadership and management approach.

(02:13) Guiding teams through questions is more effective than directing.

(08:12) Transitioning to Ruby on Rails improved innovation flexibility.

(12:45) Moving to mobile-first required major strategy changes.

(15:33) Iterative approaches are safer than big bang rewrites.

(17:03) Flutter helped streamline Betterment’s mobile development efforts.

(22:00) Inconsistent architecture patterns slowed development.

(29:42) Developing the tech investment life cycle framework.

(30:03) The four phases of the tech investment cycle.

(39:05) Pilot projects evaluate cross-platform strategies like Flutter.

(42:37) Early team alignment and training ensure success.

(50:03) Full tech adoption needs a complete cleanup phase.

(54:45) Features now take days, not weeks, with Flutter.

(58:02) Confidence in tech transitions is crucial for success.

Resources Mentioned:

Sam Moore -

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelamoore/

Betterment -

https://www.linkedin.com/company/betterment/

Betterment LLC -

https://www.betterment.com/

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