Coffee #3: David Naude - from Big Man on Campus, to Accenture MD, and now Co-Founder of Pathfindr.ai
Dawid’s story has it all. Dawid's journey above all, tells the tale of his pursuit to find his passion across different continents and career paths. *Major Spoiler alert* but it begins with a curious childhood, a couple of years at uni that maybe were a bit too much fun (did I mention he had an afro?), to a detour in finance, before rising through the ranks to Managing Director level at Accenture, and culminates in setting up his own AI Transformation business.
So, join me for a coffee with Dawid! ☕
Early Life and Education: Crisscrossing Continents.
Dawid was born in South Africa before moving, at the age of 3 to Australia with both his parents. It was long enough to get his Australian passport (unknowingly securing him the life we know now), before his parents separated and Dawid returned to South Africa with his mother and his father remained in Australia.
In South Africa, Dawid's mother plays a pivotal role in feeding his curiosity. She gifts him two early-era computers, and a very curious Dawid was granted free reign to learn, explore, and even break these computers in his pursuit of understanding how they work (and he did break them 😅).
This unconditional encouragement to explore technology lays the foundational stones of his future career.
University Life and Personal Growth
Rhodes University
Dawid attends Rhodes University in South Africa to study computer science. A notoriously social university, his years are marked by a vibrant campus life where he potentially reached living legend status. Picture this: he’s sporting a fro, running the college pub, and basically winged his first year. Life seems good. But second year started catching up to him, as his marks slipped and he sported 20-30 extra kgs. Dawid soon realised that if he didn’t do something, he was going to be kicked out.
Moving to Northern Queensland
At this point, Dawid decides to join his father in Northern Queensland, where his father has ventured into prawn farming after a career in foreign exchange with investment banks.
He transfers to James Cook University in Townsville, and underwent a significant transformation, losing 50kgs and even was featured in Men's Health magazine (we’re having coffee with a model at this point!). This period marks a turning point in Dawid's life, showcasing his resilience and determination. He also wrote a blog post about the physical and mental transformation of losing 50kg.
Dawid’s Early Career Moves in finance
After university, Dawid is presented with two paths as he considered an IT Advisory role at KPMG but ultimately joining NAB as a banker, in North Queensland. Dawid admits this was an early cliched mistake, following in your father's career instead of your calling. He eventually moved to Brisbane and took on a corporate banking role. It wasn’t for him. This tech guy who had played with computers and studied tech knew this path wasn’t for him, but he was getting deeper and deeper in finance. What if he moved to the sexy part of finance (trading and investment banking)? Maybe he’d like it then? So, he sat his CFA which is gruelling and was one of the 20% that passed - it's an incredible achievement and by 27, Dawid landed himself an Associate Director position complete with Associate Director bonuses. This role in his mind was the one that make him ‘content’ with having a career in finance, and not his calling in Tech.
Finding His Path: Transition to Technology
Through out his study and despite early success in finance, Dawid's passion for technology and design hadn’t ever been completely dropped. He had a shadow career co-founding Green Fig Design with Ian Roberts, an SA friend which saw them delve into web development. This was the mid 2000s and the world had moved to web 2.0. The venture allowed him to explore the intersection of technology and design, and apply his self-taught skills in a practical setting. His days were grinding through his banking role, but evenings spent doing web development.
But a shadow career wasn’t enough, while some people might be able to sit in roles they don’t love, Dawid’s desire to fully transition to tech was overwhelming. We’re getting ahead of the timeline but in 2023, Dawid was confirmed with something he long deeply suspected, he was diagnosed with adult ADHD which explains the intensity in which he dives into the things he is curious about, but an inability to sit still when doing something that doesn’t align with his interests, or inability to complete any mundane task on time. It’s an entrepreneur’s super power, but a bored workers downfall, but luckily without having this insight, Dawid knew he had to move!
He had decided that his finance time was done, and started looking for a tech role, when he saw a Consultant role going at Accenture. A close friend from SA, Chris Dachs (or ‘Chip’) was working in the US Accenture, put a word in and 9 months later the role came through. At this stage, he had 6 a figure bonus up for grabs, but packed up and moved to Sydney with his partner (and now wife) to take up a junior Tech Consultant role at less than half his current base pay, and foregoing the entire 6 figure bonus and the chance to buy their first home. He know though, that this was it, this was the moment. He wrote a blog about his career change and advice for others to take the leap.
Year One at Accenture and the Leap into Startups:
Dawid's initial year at Accenture was outstanding; he ‘fell’ into the world of CRM, Cloud and Salesforce and leveraged his prior experience as a user of these platforms. His deep understanding of Salesforce from a user's perspective proved advantageous. He loved it. He loved the intensity of consulting, being able to problem solve, and see people actually use solutions he’d designed. He found great mentors in Project Delivery and Technical Architecture in Jonathan Shotter and Olivier Rachon. However, a rare opportunity popped up where a high-growth startup were grabbing as much good talent as they could find.
This led him to join Paul Mansfield at Cloud Sherpas, a startup where he could immerse himself in creative problem-solving and innovation. At Cloud Sherpas, the culture was dynamic, with everyone contributing wherever needed, contrasting with the more defined roles in larger consultancies and corporate. It was “beautiful chaos”, where you were given as much responsibility as you could handle. From 2013 to 2016, Dawid expanded his expertise, particularly in AI, being an early pioneer of how to incorporate it into a typical business users workflow.
Personal Milestones and Business Evolution:
In 2013, a personal milestone coincided with a professional opportunity; Dawid got married, and Cloud Sherpas secured a project in Brisbane, prompting his return there. In 2016 as a strange turn of events, Accenture acquired Cloud Sherpas, taking Dawid back to where his career change started. While some close colleagues departed and pursued new ventures, Dawid stayed, not feeling it was the right time for him to do the same, wanting to do things with Accenture that weren’t possible as a small startup.
Innovation in Analytics at Cloud Sherpa:
Before the acquisition, Dawid with colleagues John Cosgrove and Andrew Price initiated an analytics division within Cloud Sherpas, a bold move as the company was primarily focused on revenue-generating activities in the lead up to acquisition, so taking a gamble on an emerging platform wasn’t common. Their approach with analytics became so differentiated that Salesforce brought them into their presales process. The bold move was simply – “in 2 days we’ll tell you something about your business you didn’t know”, and created rapid dashboards and analytical tools. Admittedly, with some very late nights in the process.
Leadership at Accenture:
Returning to Accenture in 2017 as a Senior Manager, Dawid balanced his growing family life with two children and the demands of his role, which often required travel. By 2019, he sought stability and contemplated the path to partnership, known as Managing Director at Accenture. His move to Melbourne culminated in his promotion to Managing Director in December 2019, achieving this milestone in a remarkably short time frame of 2.5 years. His passion at Accenture was always commented as showing up with boundless energy, trusted entirely by his clients, and always trying to do the right thing for his customers, and in more than one occasion disagreed so strongly about a decision that a customer was making that Dawid shared that he would not be issuing a quote, suggesting that they seek a quote from other providers. In all these cases, this led to years long trust and business from clients.
Pioneering Design Thinking and Technological Innovation:
Dawid's passion lay at the intersection of technology and client problem-solving. He excelled in bringing a technical perspective to management discussions and was equally adept at translating tech jargon for non-technical teams. He also had a knack for making others excited for even the most boring technology – “your passion is contagious”. His alignment with technology was strong, yet his interest in Design Thinking and creative problem solving methods propelled him to lead this domain within Accenture, teaching the methodology across Asia and among Accenture teams. Dawid also managed a blog, establishing himself as a thought leader in technological innovation. His reputation grew, and he became a trusted figure, taking on responsibilities beyond Salesforce, including managing the tech portfolio across multiple accounts, leading the Metaverse Group and eventually leading the Technology Generative AI capability.
When the AI bug bites, it bites deep, and Dawid just had to dive into it as deeply as possible.
Entrepreneurial Drive and the Creation of Pathfindr:
As 2023 ended, Dawid felt a strong pull towards the agility and focus of startup culture, it was where he’d come from and after 8 years in big consulting, it was time. He has nothing but praise for his time at Accenture and the things they’ve achieved, but for him he wanted to be part of the initial growth of something new.
This time he took the leap with recent collaborator Nate Buchanan, a former colleague, they laid the foundation for Pathfindr. This new company specializes in enhancing business efficiency through AI, such as using AI agents to improve close rates, transform call centres, deploy corporate copilots and keep on top of all the AI innovation that continually gets released. Their differentiator is combining business consulting, cutting edge AI, and practical, innovative change management approaches. In short – they’ll help you run a better business using AI, with tools that the company employees will absolutely love.
Launching Pathfindr:
The formation of Pathfindr began in December, swiftly moving into operational mode by January. By February, they were already gearing up to onboard their first hires and secured clients. Dawid and Nate also reached out to former Cloud Sherpas colleagues who had started their own successful businesses, gathering insights to accelerate Pathfindr's growth. They tapped into the founders network in Australia and were given so many lessons learnt, most of December was filled with 1 on 1 coffees in various cities sharing their ideas and getting feedback and inspiration. Long conversations with recent successful founders like Ian Goodwin, Dale Rankine, Hudson Harr, Cameron Douglas-Savage, John Cosgrove, Uriah Jacobs were instrumental in avoiding some early mistakes and faith that the leap is worth the risk.
Dawid's story, from his global transitions to his evolution from finance to technology and entrepreneurship, exemplifies a profound commitment to personal growth, professional excellence, and the pursuit of innovation. His story continues to unfold with the development of Pathfindr so I’d recommend you buckle up because Pathfindr is no doubt going to be a brand to watch!