Listen "AGL 199: Tanaka Mutakwa"
Episode Synopsis
About Tanaka
Tanaka is a senior software developer and the VP of Engineering at Names & Faces, a Cape Town-based technology company. He's the founder of a lifestyle brand called NoDaysOff, and a partner at Pahari African Restaurant. Tanaka started Tech Leadership Community in South Africa, a community of long-time, new, and aspiring technology leaders. Their mission is to help each other learn through conversation, collaboration, and ideation.
Today We Talked About
Tanaka's past
Technology in Africa
Transition from Contributor to Leader
Slower feedback loop
The four key areas of focus for successful technology leaders
People
weekly checkins
Product
A Seat at the Table by Mark Schwartz
Process
Retrospectives
Technology Stack
Understanding what your team is using
Side projects
Pull Requests
Running
Connect with Tanaka
Names & Faces
Pahari African Restaurant
No Days Off Lifestyle Brand
Website: www.mutakwa.com
LinkedIn
Twitter
I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even one sentence will help spread the word. Thanks again!
Private Internet Access
I’ve been a customer of Private Internet Access for over 3 years now and I love this service. I was at a security conference a few years ago and I connected to the hotel wifi. Immediately my endpoint protection software began to alert me of hacking attempts. I launched my VPN from Private Internet Access and all of the attempts were stopped. My data and internet connection was secure. Another great use of the VPN service is connect from different geo locations, which is very helpful when testing DNS and CDN caching. To get a your VPN account starting at $3.33 per month, please visit https://ageekleader.com/vpn
Tanaka is a senior software developer and the VP of Engineering at Names & Faces, a Cape Town-based technology company. He's the founder of a lifestyle brand called NoDaysOff, and a partner at Pahari African Restaurant. Tanaka started Tech Leadership Community in South Africa, a community of long-time, new, and aspiring technology leaders. Their mission is to help each other learn through conversation, collaboration, and ideation.
Today We Talked About
Tanaka's past
Technology in Africa
Transition from Contributor to Leader
Slower feedback loop
The four key areas of focus for successful technology leaders
People
weekly checkins
Product
A Seat at the Table by Mark Schwartz
Process
Retrospectives
Technology Stack
Understanding what your team is using
Side projects
Pull Requests
Running
Connect with Tanaka
Names & Faces
Pahari African Restaurant
No Days Off Lifestyle Brand
Website: www.mutakwa.com
I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even one sentence will help spread the word. Thanks again!
Private Internet Access
I’ve been a customer of Private Internet Access for over 3 years now and I love this service. I was at a security conference a few years ago and I connected to the hotel wifi. Immediately my endpoint protection software began to alert me of hacking attempts. I launched my VPN from Private Internet Access and all of the attempts were stopped. My data and internet connection was secure. Another great use of the VPN service is connect from different geo locations, which is very helpful when testing DNS and CDN caching. To get a your VPN account starting at $3.33 per month, please visit https://ageekleader.com/vpn
More episodes of the podcast A Geek Leader Podcast - inspiring technical and creative leaders around the world
AGL 442: Emily Chase Coleman
07/11/2025
AGL 441: Magdalene Amegashitsi
31/10/2025
AGL 440: Erin Herman
24/10/2025
AGL 439: Jimi Gibson
17/10/2025
AGL 437: Noam Krasniansky
03/10/2025
AGL 436: Dream Culture with Dane Espegard
26/09/2025
AGL 435: Garrett Rice
19/09/2025
AGL 434: The Vale by Abigail Wen
12/09/2025
AGL 433: Pam Buchanan
05/09/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.