Max Clayton Clowes
contact@mcclowes.com · mcclowes.com · LinkedIn
Maker of products, teams, and ideas. I bring over a decade of experience shaping software and fintech products, from founding startups to directing product at scale. I build with equal care for strategy, usability, and nurturing talent and creativity.
References available upon request. You can see what people say about me here.
Experience
Experience
Product Lead - Weavr
August 2025 - Ongoing
Weavr provides embedded finance infrastructure, letting any business plug regulated accounts, cards, and payments into their own products. Leading developer experience, I:
- Own the developer-experience roadmap across mobile and web SDKs, building best-in-class tools and docs to accelerate embedded finance integrations.
- Rebuilt Weavr's developer documentation from the ground up, restructuring the API reference and driving adoption through internal enablement and external promotion.
- Steered architecture and API design decisions including an OAuth 2.1 authentication overhaul, gateway refactor, and API reference restructure.
- Owned Apple Pay certification, establishing a repeatable wallet-provisioning process for embedder partners.
- Introduced Shape Up (fixed cycles + betting table), Architecture Decision Records, and a prioritisation framework — improving delivery predictability and reducing reactive firefighting.
Product Director - Codat
November 2021 - August 2025
Codat helps banks and fintechs build insights and automations with accounting, banking, and commerce data. Leading the service and platform teams, I:
- Defined and delivered product vision + strategy supporting clients for spend analysis and underwriting use-cases (inc. J.P. Morgan and other major banks).
- Created best-in-class products including Codat's Link (↑2x conversion, driving data sharing for 100,000 SMBs), developer portal (↑40% MAUs), and award-winning docs (↑30% faster go-lives).
- Replatformed Codat, improving efficiency, supporting enterprise-grade client needs, and improving delivery pace (e.g. deploying new webhooks ↑5x faster).
- Built cross-functional teams and nurtured high-performing PMs, engineers, designers, and technical writers. Celebrated as a top PM and manager, promoted swiftly.
- Pioneered product excellence at Codat, including data-driven methods (supported by Amplitude).
- Led innovative projects inc. Codat's nascent AI & LLM work, new commercial models, and more.
Other roles — co-founding Codogo, plus engineering at the NHS, Pollen, and Workshare — are on the full CV.
Education
Education
BSc (Hons) Computer Science, 2:1 - Durham University
2012 - 2016
British Computing Society accredited. Awarded Rising Star of Research.
Dissertation: The use of evolutionary AI in the balancing of competitive multiplayer games
Awards
Awards
- UK Technical Communication award, ISTC, 2024
- Duke of York Young Entrepreneur Award, 2017
About me
About me
I'm a relentless maker — there's always a side project on the go, lately a trio of programming languages and a read-it-later app. I build by feel — instinct, test, rework, ship — and care as much about how a tool feels as what it does. I write and speak about product and AI (BCS, React London, GitHub Universe, Next Conf, WTD London).
Off-screen: board games, quizzes, cryptic crosswords, and cats. I run, climb, sing, and play several instruments.
The full CV has the complete record — every role, project, and award.