Dime of the Month: Aly Payne

Our September dime of the month is none other than, Aly Payne, our VP of Information Systems! Aly is one of the beloved members of the Cents team, and her contributions go far beyond her dry humor and legendary love of animals. A real-life Dr. Doolittle (ask her about her rescue dog, monkeys, and cats!), she is a natural protector and nurturer, and that energy shows up in everything she does. She builds infrastructure that protects Cents and its users, creates processes that make her teammates' lives meaningfully easier, and advocates fiercely for the people around her. She is the go-to person for so many across the org, and her impact is felt in ways that are hard to fully quantify, but impossible to miss.

One more thing worth noting: Aly could teach a masterclass on negotiation. It is an underrated superpower that has quietly been one of the most valuable assets Cents has had during its lean startup years.

Tell us one thing people don’t know about you.

I am a professional musician and I play six instruments. Prior to COVID-19, my sister and I were set to open for Portugal. The Man. COVID-19 happened and it all got canceled, and we didn’t get the chance to pick it back up. We still haven’t finished our last album but we plan to at some point in time.

What is your secret to making progress each day?

Doing the hard thing, not the easy thing. That's where progress comes from. Focus on what is the highest impact thing. Cut out the noise.

I also don’t believe in sitting in meetings unless it’s required. I intentionally don’t fill my calendar with meetings so I can spend 80% of my time in deep work.

What makes Cents different from other places you’ve worked?

When we ship something that saves an operator three hours a week, that's three hours back in someone's actual life, not a line on a dashboard. We care about our customers and that changes how we make decisions daily.

What has your career path looked like?

Data Engineer turned VP of IT over more than a decade, across two industries nobody expected software to transform, cannabis retail and laundry. I realized I loved fixing the hard problems early and running IT Engineering in fast scale startups was the perfect place for someone like me to thrive. I love building more than maintaining. My first jobs were in corporate, but once I made the shift to startups I never looked back.

Through that, I’ve learned to take on difficult challenges and step out of my comfort zone; growth across multiple IT domains came along with it by just taking on the work that others didn’t want to do. Infosec was the most significant growth yet also the most challenging to grasp initially. I am where I am today because I’ve gained so much experience by breaking and fixing things fast; embedding myself into teams and understanding their work deeply and building them better outcomes. Now I know what 'great' looks like, how to build it, and where to start. But I had to break a lot to get to this point. Being in startups created that foundation and taught me how to build for the future and deliver impactful business outcomes instead of chasing short term vanity wins.

What is your proudest career moment and why?

I don’t have one proud moment to call out. But where I have made it in my career was only possible through keeping myself uncomfortable and taking on things others either put off or found to be too ambitious.

When I came into Cents, the data was messy, systems were poorly implemented, not much of a security program in sight and there was nobody in IT. I'm proud of where it is today, the amazing team that I have mentored to get it to this point knowing what I’ve built here has created a foundation that can scale well into the future and through our next phase of growth.

So not one moment, but the combination of everything that has brought me here makes me very proud of myself for not doing the easy thing and for challenging others around me to do the same daily.

A typical weekend for me is…

I’m a total homebody. I love a day at home in my music studio with my cats. Drinking good coffee and creating something new. Recently I have been spending a lot of time working on AI projects over the weekends to help my friends' businesses just to solve some creative problems and learn. I’ve been building something new every weekend at this point!

Motto or personal mantra/Words to live by?

The hard conversation/work you're avoiding is where the growth is.

What advice do you have for prospective Cents candidates?

Business impact is really valuable at our stage. Tell us how you can help bring us to where we are going, not where we have been.

What Guiding Principles of Cents do you feel like you identify with?

Act Like an Owner:

Don’t point fingers, look for someone to blame, or spend time complaining. Take ownership and fix it. Focus on the resolution and get it done. Everything else is a waste of time.