Paga Conversations – Gideon Abate

Paga Conversations is back!

Today’s conversation is with Gideon Abate, our Head of Product Innovation. Gideon can eat a BLT (bacon, lettuce, tomato) Sandwich every day for the rest of his life, and one of his favourite movie lines is from Gladiator. 

Find out more about him below! 

• What are three [3] words to describe Paga?
  • Three words that I would use are Fun, Challenging, and Ambitious. 

• What do you find the most challenging at Paga?
  • I think one of the most challenging things about working at Paga is trying to solve problems for customers. In the Product team, we’re fortunate enough to create products that shape how people lead their lives. When we create things that don’t necessarily help them, or we don’t make it easy enough for them to understand, or when we create things that don’t solve a problem, it makes me want to do better the next time — this is what excites me and challenges me.  

• What have you gained from working at Paga?
  • Probably a lot more grey hairs. 😁

• Do you have any favourite lines from a movie?
  • I don’t remember many lines from movies, but I think this was one of the most memorable for its impact on the rest of the story: “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son. Husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.” – Gladiator 

• If given a chance, who would you like to be for a day?
  • Marco Pierre White, during the days when he was working up to earning his first Michelin Star (he worked hard, partied hard, created amazing food, and broke all the rules as he did it). 

Marco Pierre White (Google Images)

• What would it be if you had to eat one meal every day for the rest of your life?
  • This meal would need to work for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so I think it would have to be a BLT Sandwich. 😋🥪

Thanks, Gideon, for this fun conversation! It was lovely to get to know you better. 🙂

Curious about what it’ll be like to work with Gideon or other folks like him? Get more details here and here!