- What is it exactly that you do, and what is your start-up about?
We are a custom web development company based in Cape Town, South Africa. We build complex websites and web applications with advanced features and functionality.
2. When was your start-up founded? What stage is your startup currently at?
Elemental – Web Solutions was founded in 2005. Since then, we’ve grown significantly to become the well-established company we are today, with a complete in-house development, QA, and project management team.
3. Are you the sole founder? If not, how did your team meet? Who does what on your team?
Angelo and Jerry are both founders and managing directors at Elemental.
4. What exactly differentiates you from your competitor in the marketplace? Can you name a few?
We do more than just development; we offer technical guidance and support to work with our clients to fully scope out the project and help them refine their vision in order for us to build fully-fledged digital products.
5. At what stage is your start-up currently at? (Early-stage, Growth stage, Established)
Established
6. Can you discuss any significant milestones that your start-up has achieved so far?
We have worked with some of the world’s most renowned companies, like Adidas, Heineken, and L’Oreal.
7. Can you provide some information about your target market and its size?
We enjoy working with companies of all shapes and sizes due to our skillset and ability to come up with innovative solutions to their digital requirements. But small businesses launching MVPs have a special place in our hearts, as we can work with them from the inception of the idea to the final product as their tech partners.
8. How do you acquire customers or users, and what is your customer acquisition strategy?
Lots of our clients find us simply by looking up keywords. We prioritise strong SEO, but that’s not all; many of our clients highly recommend our services, and in doing so, we get lots of word-of-mouth referrals as well as other agency referrals.
9. What are your main revenue streams?
Our main revenue streams come from new projects and SLAs.
10. How do you plan to scale your business in the future?
Through a combination of strategic marketing campaigns and the onboarding of new personnel through a streamlined process.
11. How do you prioritize and manage your resources, such as time and budget?
We have a team of highly experienced project managers who ensure that our projects are meticulously tracked.
12. How did customers/users find out about you?
We have exceptional SEO, and more often than not, we’re recommended by our clients to other businesses in similar markets.
13. What is your target audience?
We primarily work with businesses in EdTech, Automotive, Travel and Lifestyle, Entertainment, and Media and Advertising.
14. Regarding your marketing strategy, do you use social media, and if so, is it in-house or outsourced?
Yes, we do. We primarily focus on LinkedIn, as it is best suited for reaching our audience. We do in-house social media marketing.
15. What are the key things about your industry that outsiders don’t understand or misperceive?
The solutions we develop are highly complex, but often the end product looks and works in a fairly easy format. Outsiders often don’t understand all the work that goes into the development of these digital products.
16. How do you handle feedback and incorporate it into your product or service development?
We handle feedback verbally and in written form. We then analyse this, and if there is merit to the feedback and it’s something that we can implement to improve our offering and add value to our clients, we incorporate it.
17. What is the biggest missing feature, meaning the one thing that customers/users keep asking for?
This isn’t relevant to us and our offering.
18. Are you going to internationalize? If so, how are you planning to expand internationally?
Yes, we are already working on expanding our outsourcing services to international clients, especially in the UK and Europe. These destinations are ideal as we have similar time zones and cultures.
19. Can you provide examples of any social or environmental initiatives your startup is involved in?
Yes, we are the proud supporters and contributors of Shark Spotters, a local initiative that actively reduces interactions and conflict between recreational water users and white sharks.
20. How do you approach customer support and handle any issues or complaints?
Our dedicated project managers work closely with our clients to identify areas that need improvement or change. Our highly skilled QA team diligently tests the platforms that we build to ensure that they run smoothly and as the clients expect them to. Should our QA testers find any anomalies, we make a point of resolving them promptly.
21. Are you looking to hire new employees for your team? If so, what job openings do you currently have?
Yes, we are always looking for PHP developers to join our in-house team in Cape Town!
22. Why should we feature you on our blog?
We would like to let the world know that Cape Town is an excellent outsourcing destination for web development. Our reach extends far beyond the borders of our beautiful country with our industry-standard development.
23. How did you hear about our blog?
We represented one of only eight South African companies at the Vivatech conference in France this August, and this is where we heard about your blog.
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