Dynamic Duos: How a pitch over coffee sparked a strong partnership
This week in Dynamic Duos, Dentsu Creative's chief product and experience officer and head of creative technology ANZ, Gabriel Tamborini and James Bush, share how a meeting at a coffee shop in Surry Hills led to building a prototype together, working together at Fjord (now Accenture Song), before reconnecting years later at Dentsu Creative.
In Dynamic Duos, Mumbrella each week asks two colleagues with a professional and personal affiliation to share with readers the importance of workplace relationships in an increasingly hybridised world of work.
Gabriel Tamborini:
It’s 2016, and I’m sitting at the Paramount Coffee Project in Surry Hills. I’m waiting patiently to meet Streaker, a start up creative technology company who had come highly recommended by colleagues.
Whilst at Fjord (now Accenture Song), a colleague and I came up with an idea – convert data from the web into sound and hope it sounds like something cool.
Coffee in hand and jittery with excitement, I was meeting Streaker to talk about the idea and how we could potentially build a prototype. I remember James (then a co-founder of Streaker) listening intently to our crazy idea, silently nodding and sipping his coffee.
We finished our pitch, nervous that James and the team might think we were nuts. But the opposite happened. James articulately played back what he had heard from us, and shared several approaches for how we could develop a working prototype. He also explained how we could expand the idea with different soundscapes and visualisations.
What stood out to me immediately about James was his ambitious attitude towards creating something new and unique – a quiet tenacity to challenge the status quo and create something special.
Since creating The Sound of the Web, James and I worked together at Fjord. Whilst we didn’t get a chance to work on many projects together, I always leaned on his creative and technical expertise.
During that time, James also started his coffee business. My wife Hayley became one of his clients and her team often ordered his coffee for events and conferences. I remember bags of his coffee appearing at my house one night because they had over ordered! Thanks James, for supporting my coffee addiction.
Following Fjord, we both had a stint in separate places, before reuniting at Dentsu Creative earlier this year. When I joined Dentsu, our CEO had asked me who would be a great and experienced hire for us to bring creative and technology together. I’ve worked with many great technologists, but James was top of the list. Not just because he understands technology deeply. But because he understands creativity and the spark that is created when both come together.
Having a partner in crime to balance my experience and fill the gaps in my expertise has meant we’ve been able to explore a bunch of interesting ideas and opportunities in the first few months at Dentsu. I can’t wait to see what we create together with the team.
James Bush:
Gabe and I first met when I was running my own production company, Streaker. Gabe was working for Fjord (now Accenture Song) and he approached me with a brief to build a prototype for a talk he was giving at Spikes Asia.
We worked closely on the idea for a couple of weeks before flying out to Singapore for the presentation. I don’t really remember how the talk went. I sat nervously in the audience hoping the prototype didn’t fail and make my then client look stupid. It must have gone well as Gabe invited me to join him and the Fjord team for a few beers that night.
Imagine the scene – a rooftop bar, at sunset, an expense account, celebrating a project success and basically putting the world to rights. Did we become ‘best friends’? Not quite, but it did lead to a job offer and the two of us working together a few months later.
We worked together at Fjord for about four years across a variety of clients and projects. I’ve always enjoyed Gabe’s approach to solving problems, navigating big organisations, and the empathy he shows when dealing with people. If you could compare us to any famous couple I’d say Steve & Woz. Gabe would be Steve, I’d be Woz, but with flipped personality traits. Gabe is incredibly kind, patient and understands design and what makes an experience great. Our skills and personalities complement each other perfectly and I regularly feel I learn something new from him.
During a work hiatus where we went our separate ways to try new things, Gabe always supported my solo endeavours. Even convincing his wife to buy large quantities of coffee from my new venture for an event her company was hosting. Nothing says friendship like a bit of nepotism.
When the opportunity arose to work with Gabe again at Dentsu Creative, I jumped at it. We now sit next to each other, so maybe we are more Bert & Ernie than Steve & Woz, but I actually think it is a huge benefit. It means fewer emails, more sharing of everything work related, and a lot of laughs.
We’ve known each other for over nine years, so we’re past the seven year itch. Here’s to the next nine!
Gabriel on James:
Most memorable moment with James: There are many but it’s probably seeing him in action when we made The Sound of the Web. He and the team at Streaker came up with a bunch of amazing builds to our idea; from how to create different sound scapes, to how the visualisation could look like – It was amazing to watch him and the team work through it and create our prototype!
Best word to describe him: Tenacious creativity – James is always in pursuit of something new and exciting that challenges the status quo.
Most annoying habit or endearing behaviour he has: James is a quiet thinker but explodes into a flurry of ridiculously smart perspectives on any topic!
James on Gabriel:
Most memorable moment with Gabriel: Fjord used to host an annual event for employees in different parts of the world. One year the whole company, over 1000 people, went to Berlin. Imagine 3 days, all expenses paid in one of Europe’s best cities. I only remember two things from that trip with Gabe, a fancy dress party and Berghain…
Best word to describe him: Artistic. Everything Gabe produces is aesthetically pleasing. He lives and breathes craft and he always looks like he stepped out of a magazine photoshoot.
Most annoying habit or endearing behaviour he has: Gabe is perpetually in a good mood. Whilst that can sometimes be annoying in some ways, it never fails to rub off on anyone who is around him.
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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