Built for pressure: Louis & Patricia Droguett

Most technology firms hedge their bets and specialize in work that’s practically guaranteed to go well. Software@Scale is not most technology firms. In fact, the Sydney-based firm founded by husband-and-wife duo Louis and Patricia Droguett has built its reputation doing the exact opposite.

"We operate in environments where the stakes are high," Louis, who is CEO, tells The CEO Magazine. "That’s where we like to be."

The company works with large-scale financial and commercial institutions to turn around struggling programs, strengthen delivery capability and bring critical engineering expertise into high-stakes environments. And its success in the space has been immediate. In just three years, Software@Scale has grown from its two Founders to around 150 people, with plans to reach 250 this year.

Surprisingly, its rise hasn’t been driven by a traditional sales machine. In fact, the company has no dedicated sales team at all. Its growth continues to come through trust, referrals and reputation.

"We just get called for work. It’s quite nice," COO Patricia says with a smile.

Engineering trust

The idea for Software@Scale was born from years spent inside the kinds of organizations it now serves. Louis was one of the first engineers on CommBank’s NetBank platform, writing the prototype for both NetBank and the mobile app.

Meanwhile, Patricia led major technology delivery and transformation programs across financial services, including banking and insurance.

Over time, both saw the same pattern: large organizations that had deep internal capability, but when the work became highly complex, heavily regulated or commercially urgent, they often needed a very specific blend of engineering depth and technical leadership.

"We were often relied on to deal with those complicated problems within the enterprises when their own teams or departments couldn’t solve the problem," Louis recalls. "That opened our eyes up to the gap in the market. Organizations repeatedly needed this service.

"So we said, ‘OK, cool. Let’s turn that into a business, providing high-performance engineering talent very quickly and hand-picked for any particular problem.’"

Patricia says that in this first version of the business, which was much broader, they explored smaller clients and scale-ups, including early technology builds. But one of their earliest projects became a costly lesson.

"We made a huge loss. Basically, we didn’t want to go back to the client and tell them that we severely underestimated the project," she reveals.

"It was one of our first clients and we decided to not worry about the money and just get the company a good outcome."

This experience wasn’t wasted. In fact, it sharpened the company’s focus. Software@Scale found its strongest fit where the Founders had built their own careers – in large enterprises with complex technology problems, high accountability and no room for missed deadlines.

"It was a good learning experience," Louis says. "It taught us which projects to say no to."

Where stakes matter

Today, Software@Scale provides multidisciplinary teams across software, engineering, architecture, DevOps, cybersecurity, data, AI and delivery leadership. But the company’s edge lies beyond technical capability in its ability to understand what is truly at stake inside a regulated environment.

"We operate in the spaces that don’t get written down but are some of the most important like security, compliance, the quality of the product, capacity and how it scales," Louis explains.

"Those things are typically taken for granted."

This is why the company pairs principal engineers with delivery leaders who understand the client’s domain, whether it’s banking, insurance, superannuation, financial advice or other high-pressure global consumer-facing digital platforms.

The aim is to fully embed themselves inside the client’s team.

"We’re not consultants advising from the outside in," Louis stresses. "We’re there delivering right alongside our clients."

Patricia describes the model more directly.

"Organizations call us when they have a timeline to meet and their teams say they can’t solve it, that it’s unachievable," she explains.

"That’s when we go in and have a look. There’s always a solution."

This mindset has made the company’s teams unusually sticky. They may enter a client environment to solve one problem, only for the relationship to evolve as new needs emerge.

"We’ve grown so much just with our existing clients and the work naturally evolving into more," Patricia points out.

The right people

To deliver at such a high level, Software@Scale has built an intentionally selective hiring model. Around 90 percent of the company’s people have worked with the founders or someone else in the business before.

However, that doesn’t mean they’re a shoo-in from the start. Every candidate goes through the same process.

"We’re very picky about who we bring on," Louis says. "We would never put anybody on a project if we aren’t 100 percent confident they could do the job."

While technical strength matters, Louis explains that it’s only one part of the equation. Communication, curiosity and problem-solving are just as important. Above all, he looks for people who can think through ambiguity.

"If they don’t ask questions back and collaborate with me during the interview, then that’s a red flag for me," he stresses. "If they can’t do that with me, then they won’t be able to collaborate with the client either."

Patricia is just as clear about the type of person who fits the business. Software@Scale doesn’t want people looking for a narrow role description or a single project. It wants people who are confident in their ability to enter complexity and solve what’s in front of them.

"We want the problem-solvers. The ones who have skills and are confident in their skills," she says. "I want to be able to go in there and fight fires together."

It’s a strong reflection of the values Louis and Patricia have embedded into the company. They win as one and own their business. However, for them accountability doesn’t mean perfection. It means taking ownership and bringing solutions when conditions change.

"We expect everyone to be watching the outcomes," Louis says.

High performance with a human edge

Louis and Patricia first worked together around two decades ago, when Patricia led the NetBank engineering effort and Louis was the technical lead.

Their skills are complementary, with Louis bringing engineering, architecture and client relationship strength, and Patricia bringing delivery, execution and operational discipline. Together, they share a high-performance drive and a willingness to challenge each other.

"We are both ‘type A’ personalities," Patricia says. "We have the same drive to do whatever it takes to achieve a goal."

Their life outside of work is equally as full, they admit. The couple have three young boys aged 10, eight and four. To balance the business with their personal lives, Patricia has put one rule in place.

"We go out every Friday night. We get a babysitter, I get dressed up and we head into the city. No work talk is allowed," she reveals, adding that there’s a caveat, though.

"We can talk about the business, but not about work – more about our ambitions and frustrations. It’s quite nice because we get to give each other feedback, which we both want. We want to grow."

Family dinners are also protected from Monday to Thursday, with no devices and no calls. Once the boys are asleep, work may start again. While the pair admit it’s not a perfect separation, it is an intentional one.

"When we have our boys, we’re with our boys," Louis says. "That might mean we work late to get something done, but we won’t work during family time."

Calm in complexity

Working in high-pressure client environments means Software@Scale can’t afford to be reactive. Louis and Patricia have spent years learning the early signs of delivery risk and that experience now shapes the company’s inner workings.

"We’ve learned the patterns on when things are about to smoke," Louis says. "We’re building processes to detect that before it becomes a pressure situation."

Patricia applies the same discipline to running the business as she does to managing large transformation programs. Across operations, delivery, clients and risk, she keeps a close watch on where issues may be forming.

"Everything is like mitigation of risk and assessment," she says. "The way I manage a project is exactly the same."

When pressure inevitably arises, the company’s leaders are not left to handle it alone. Software@Scale rallies around the person closest to the client, helping them prepare for difficult conversations and move the work forward.

"What we like to say is that we’ll move the grenade away from the client, we’ll deal with that," Louis says.

This support is balanced with a culture that recognizes intensity can’t be sustained without release. As such, the company holds quarterly events where people are encouraged to connect, celebrate and step away from the pressure.

"It can be high-pressure at times," Patricia acknowledges. "We work hard, but you also have to make time for life."

AI with guardrails

As AI reshapes technology delivery, Software@Scale is moving quickly yet cautiously. Its clients, particularly in financial services and insurance, can’t afford to adopt emerging technologies without understanding risk, data governance, security and compliance.

"We’re there to make sure they’re using AI safely," Louis says. "We look at the guardrails, the security and the compliance, and figure out what all of that means to their data."

As far as he’s concerned, AI is not a magic fix – it amplifies what already exists inside an organization. Strong foundations can be accelerated and weak ones can become more exposed.

"AI is an accelerator for both the strengths and the weaknesses in an organization," he explains. "The stronger the particular area is, the more AI is going to complement that. The weaker a particular area is, the bigger the mess."

Inside Software@Scale itself, AI is being used across engineering, operations, finance, administration and proposal development.

"We’re very much embracing new technologies and investing in AI," Louis confirms. "One of our values is staying curious. There’s a lot of opportunity for a firm like ours to leverage AI."

Patricia says she also uses it as a sparring partner when preparing client materials.

"I’ll feed the deck to the AI and tell it to kill me with whatever feedback it has," she says with a grin.

But Patricia believes the real opportunity lies in helping cautious industries move forward without becoming trapped in endless risk assessment.

"We know their industry really well, so we know the risk types to look out for," she explains. "Couple that with what we know about AI, and we can make recommendations so clients don’t fall behind while remaining stuck in a loop of risk assessment themselves."

Built to scale

Software@Scale remains fully bootstrapped, with no external investors and no outside shareholders. It’s a point of pride for Louis.

"It’s just us. That means we still have complete decision-making and we can stay lean," he says. "We can keep the company true to what we want it to be."

The couple say the next phase will likely include new service lines, expanded managed services, deeper partnerships and, potentially, acquisitions. Global growth is also on the table, with opportunities emerging through international clients and a small team already in the United Kingdom.

"There have been some global opportunities coming our way," Louis adds.

Patricia sees the next chapter simply as growth, but growth with the same core intact.

"The sky’s the limit," she says.

In 10 years, Louis wants Software@Scale to be known globally for the same qualities that have built it locally – strong engineering delivery, high trust and the ability to perform when the stakes are highest.

"We could become a firm of over a thousand people as long as we stay true to our founding principles – strong engineering delivery when the stakes matter most with a high trust level," he says.

Success for Patricia comes down to the relationships. It’s the moments when a client calls not because there’s a contract to discuss, but because they trust the team enough to share a problem and ask for help.

"We really do care," she says. "When they win, we win."