005. Bobby John: On being an entrepreneur, computer engineer, and founder of Band of Coders

The story of what happens when a group of software engineers get together, nagging your parents to buy you that first Commodore 64, hiring someone away from Steve Jobs, parental expectations, how to grow a start-up into an international company and whether or not the Toronto Raptors actually play basketball in Toronto (this year, anyway). Travis chats with Bobby John, founder of Band of Coders, a custom software engineering company, with offices across North America, and Argentina.

Bobby John is a serial entrepreneur and mentor to startups. While in university, he founded a highly capitalized boutique software development firm and later went on to become CTO of Trade Settlement Inc., Wall Street’s leader in post-trade loan settlement processing. The technology he built is used by thousands of traders at the world’s largest financial institutions. In 2002, Bobby founded Band of Coders.

Internationally recognized for his achievements, Bobby has received numerous accolades including Canada’s ‘Entrepreneur of the Year Award’ as well as Canada’s ‘Top 40 Leaders under the Age of 40 Award’. Bobby regularly mentors dozens of young founders worldwide. His motto is: “I always have an ear for somebody who has a dream to build something.”