Our company provides high-quality web designs and implementation. We serve to blockchain companies (we have some big names in portfolio). We see a website as investment tool which should bring positive ROI. We can measure it and we do.
Tell us about yourself?
I have been working on several blockchain projects. In 2016 started the first Bitcoin retailer business in Canary Islands (Spain) and was running it for two years. We got a lot of traction, created network of Bitcoin ATMs, escrow systems for buying/selling properties, cars, etc.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
I would say regarding the internal projects: slow down. Do one thing at the time. Rome has not been build in a day nor a year. So take it easy.
What problem does your business solve?
We optimize the conversions of the websites, showcase the products and generate business by providing top-quality web design.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
In 2017 I created a new project: Exlama. It was meant to be the simplest Bitcoin exchange ever. But we failed. And that was because of the poor design. We had a great backend, money management, automated hedging and all of it very save. However we could not find investment. Since then I took this as a lesson and created a moto: Always the top quality. This also moved me towards the web design. I understood why and what and studied the top schools.
After building the websites and web applications for Liberland (liberland.org), Deloitte, Budweiser Budvar, I decided to step down from agency work and started to work on my own. It took me a year and I was hiring the first employee.
Now it is 2 years since that, we’re 10 people, super skilled in the line of work. We’re building our own tools to help customers to work with us and providing them the top results.
What is your magic sauce?
Quality: I always push for more. I push the team to give to the client more then he/she paid for. Always.
Talents: I select the best people to work with. I had to learn to hire people and also how to fire people. I can spot a talent pretty easy, but it is hard with attitute. That takes some time to show. Also one important thing is that all employees are shareholders so I always question my self after working a few months with a person: Do I want him/her to be part of the business? Is hiring him/her on full-time in the best interest for the company?
So, I give to all new members a small task to do. First a free project to spot talent: something that they have no chance to finish up but I want to measure attitude. Then we have a small project for a client. Then we do bigger project. After that we start working on freelance base. If that successful we will hire the employee on full time.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
I want the studio be positioned as the leading web design agency for IoT and Blockchain IoT startups
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
We’re self-funded, so we don’t have big budgets that many startups have. For that reason I find challenging the speed of growth. We could grow much faster but we prefer like this.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
I give to all the employees company shares. A big portion, something close to 50% is distributed between everyone. I never liked to work for someone for a small fee and that person getting the most from it. I didn’t want to do that to my employees and I want them to have skin in the game.
We’re fair for the client: Company profit is distributed to all of us so he/she don’t feed greedy shareholders bud people working in the team.
