Your Tech Story

Athulya

Being a cinephile with a love for all things outdoorsy, Athulya never misses a chance to chase inspiring stories or poke fun at things, even when the subject is herself. Currently pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering, she is someone innately interested in technical and scientific research. Music reviews and op-eds define her as they allow her to explore different perspectives. Though sometimes she thinks she makes more sense playing the guitar than she does while writing.

dailymotion

The French Media Revolution : Success Story of Dailymotion

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The Internet has drastically changed the way we communicate and share media. While, most media and documents were shared via email at first, due to lack of space and other such limitations, new platforms sprouted soon enough. Presently, we are all aware of the countless media platforms which are available on the World Wide Web, ranging from YouTube to Google Drive. But way back in the early 2000s, there weren’t so many options, and that is when Dailymotion came to the rescue, becoming one of the largest video-sharing platforms in the world.

Dailymotion is European video-sharing platform owned by the French media house Vivendi and has several partners such as BBC, Bloomberg and even VICE. Read on to see how two young French computer specialists changed the way we send and share videos, by turning Dailymotion from a small idea into an empire.

About the Founders

Benjamin Bejbaum was born in Paris, France on 20th November 1976 to doctor parents. He did his schooling from Gérard de Nerval High School, in Luzarches, from where he was suspended twice for being too lazy. Though most of the staff remember him as a lazy and laid-back student who preferred playing pinball to attending school, he managed to get good grades and passed his BA with Honours. He went on to attend the University in Villetaneuse, where he graduated in Mathematics and Information Sciences.

dailymotion founders
Image Source: millionnaires.net

He was an insomniac who found it difficult to sleep, and in 1994, he found an excellent way to pass the time, i.e. with the night- gaming. With the internet and computing still in its infancy, Benjamin fell in love with computing and started teaching himself how to code. He soon started making websites and games of his own, and this later turned into a lifelong passion.

After getting turned down by his college due to his rebellious streak, Benjamin started to pick up odd jobs around time. He helped tourists in Orly, tried his hand at teleshopping and even worked at France Telecom. While trying his hand at college for the second time, he was approached by a cafe manager who offered him a job, and Benjamin quit college to start working for him. Together, they created websites and e-commerce platforms. Finally, in 2000, at the age of 24, Benjamin, along with his cousin brother, started Iguana Studio, a design company which helps people host websites.

On the other hand, Olivier Poitrey was born in 1978, in France and served as Dailymotion’s technical director up until 2015. He has a degree in graphic design and had worked at the Internet Club, freshly out of college. He later joined Digiweb, and this was where he met Benjamin Bejbaum. The two of them hit it off really well, and in 2005 founded Dailymotion.

Founding Dailymotion

Five years later, in 2005, while vacationing in New York, Benjamin took a few videos of the snowfall in Manhattan. But he was unable to send them to friends as there was no effective video sharing platform at that time. As a means to fill this void, he starts Short.tv, which was the first free site with automated video encoding. Soon, the site picked up momentum, and Benjamin dropped Iguana Studio to devote himself fully to Short.tv along with Olivier Poitrey. After a quick fundraiser, they agreed to rename their service Dailymotion.

The website started in Poitrey’s living room in Paris, with six members investing €6,000, in March 2005. By September 2006, the business roped in Atlas Ventures and Partech International and made them invest in the venture by raising over 7 million euros.

Video Rush hour: Success of Dailymotion

In 2009, owing to the growing popularity of the company, the French Government invested in the venture via a Strategic Investment Fund. In 2011, the media house Orange bought 49% of the shares of Dailymotion for €62 million, pricing the business at €120 million. But the company did not stop growing, and as the user base expanded, Orange bought the remaining 51% for €61 million in January 2013.

In May 2013, the government prevented Yahoo from acquiring a majority shareholding position in Dailymotion. Orange further pushed for an expansion of Dailymotion, trying for partnerships with Microsoft to increase the company’s presence and popularity in the US. Finally, Vivendi bought out Dailymotion from under Orange in 2015 by acquiring 80%, which they upgraded to 90% by September of the same year.

The platform soon grew and made several deals with international media houses such as Hearst Media and Bloomberg. Presently, it is available in over 25 languages with more than 43 local version serving localised content. Since then, Dailymotion has opened offices in London, San Francisco, Singapore and even, quite recently in Abidjan.

In the early days of Dailymotion, Benjamin served as the CEO and handled the company’s strategy. In June 2008, he stepped down from his position but remained a significant shareholder. Finally, in 2013, he sold off his shares in the company. In 2009, after he had resigned from Dailymotion, Benjamin launched ArtDB, which was a database of artworks and monuments. Olivier left Dailymotion in 2015, and joined Lycos Hosting, later joining Netflix in 2016.

With over 300 million monthly users, it is safe to say that the two young French boys started a largely successful and unique media revolution that changed the way we share video content.

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Cashkaro : India’s first cashback based company

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Anyone who buys things online, and does enough research regarding sales will know about Cashkaro, as it is one of India’s most prominent coupons website. If you aren’t an online buying aficionado, Cashkaro allows you to use rebates, coupons and cashback to shop more efficiently and frugally.

Started in 2013, Cashkaro which was founded by couple turned entrepreneurs, Rohan and Swati Bhargava, after graduation from the London School of Economics. Here’s a look at how Swati built up such an empire, in such a short time.

The Founders

Swati Bhargava is an Investment Banker, turned business visionary from the quaint town of Ambala. She was born and brought up in Ambala, till she left for Singapore after securing a scholarship for herself. At the young age of 16, Swati won the jackpot when she got selected for the Singapore Airlines scholarship. As the small-town girl secured more than 85% in her12th grade and ended up impressing the judges and getting selected. It was Singapore that inspired the young Swati to dream bigger.

Cashkaro founders
Image Source: businessworld.in

After finishing her schooling, she joined the London School of Economics and earned an Honour’s degree in Mathematics and Economics in 2005. She then began her banking career at Goldman Sachs, where she worked both in the Investment Banking and Executive Office divisions for five years.

While as a young girl Swati dreamt of joining the Indian Foreign Services, she instead opted to turn entrepreneur due to her love for marketing and business. Swati also had plans of joining Oxford as a youngster, but later, decided to go ahead with the London School of Economics as they gave her a higher scholarship.

Meanwhile, after graduating from the London School of Economics, Rohan worked with reputed companies like Washington Square and Aladdin Capital where he oversaw acquisitions worth more than $1 billion. He then went on to start his own venture, in 2011 called Pouring Pounds, in the UK, which too, focused on coupons and cashback. Once he got back to India, he and his wife, established Cashkaro, which quickly turned successful.

Founding Cashkaro

Leaving behind a safe and secure life as Investment bankers in the UK, the Bhargavas switched their focus to Pouring Pounds, which was a coupon based business, they had in the UK in 2011. It was the resounding success of such cashback companies in the US and UK, that prompted Swati to start such a venture.

The rebate business is a multi-billion-dollar business both in the US and China. This inspired Swati and Rohan to try out something of their own, through Pouring Pounds. While Swati never felt she would move back to India while working in London, the success of their venture, convinced the couple to shift their focus to India.

The couple gained enough confidence from the success of Pouring Pounds and so decided to extend their business to India in April 2013. The company started out with a small team in India, the co-founders staying in London. The two realised that they needed funding, so the couple wrote to a few friends about raising US$250K for the business, but by the end of the day, got replies from over 20 interested parties. Within 48 hours, the duo raised US$750K as investors knew that the e-commerce market in India had unlimited potential. Swati was able to successfully convince over 500 e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Myntra, and Jabong to join their venture, and this helped spearhead the company’s impressive growth.

Cash Positive Cashkaro

Cashkaro quickly grew to become one of India’s leading coupons website, with transactions exceeding Rs 10 crores. The company successfully offers and fulfils over 5,500 exchanges daily and since its inception has helped users save a whopping Rs 200 crores.

CashKaro.com has grown to become a preeminent player in the Indian market and is the only coupons website that is venture-capitalist supported. The company has raised over $4 million through a Series A funding managed by Kalaari Capital. The business model which allowed retailers that enlisted in Cashkaro to pay them a commission, which would then pass on to the customers as cashback, found immediate success in India. This unique model ensured that their business was not impaired by GST directly.

Cashkaro Today

Today, the site has got over 150,000 registered members who save an average of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 per year, thanks to Cashkaro. The company has over 1,500 associates including Koovs, Pepperfry, MakeMyTrip and Zoomcar to name a few.

While the idea was novel and was started from scratch, the company now has more than 80 employees. Swati’s guiding philosophy comes from the Gita, which says,” Karm karo, phal ki chinta mat karo!”, and this is something that the female entrepreneur has followed from day one to grow her business to its present glory. Currently, Swati heads Cashkaro’s marketing team and is working on plans for the company’s expansion into diverse verticals.

It wasn’t easy becoming India’s first cashback based company to raise more than $ 750,000. It took a lot of courage, knowledge, research and hard work, but it was all worth it for Swati, as she marches on a proud female entrepreneur, a flagbearer for several small-town girls with big dreams!

Linksys

Live Together, Work Together : The Husband-Wife Duo Behind Success of Linksys

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Being smart, frugal and not risk-averse helped Janie and Victor Tsao transform a small idea into a multi-million-dollar empire. Any person who uses WiFi in their homes would have heard about Linksys, a leading router manufacturer which now is owned by Cisco. Here’s a look at how the dynamic duo built a $500 million powerhouse that shaped the home networking industry.

The Founders

Janie Tsao, who was born Wu Jian, in the year 1953, in Taiwan is married to Victor Tsao, and the two of them together co-founded Linksys. The Taiwanese-native is an American entrepreneur, who sold her company to Cisco for over $500 million in 2003.

Janie pursued her bachelor’s in English literature from the Tamkang University in Taiwan. It was at the university that she met and befriended her eventual companion and business associate, Victor Tsao. The two of them fell in love, and later, moved to the United States in 1975, where they got married. The husband and wife duo then moved to Chicago in 1977, where they attended graduate school together, and later settled in California. Janie taught Information Technology at Sears Roebuck for over eight years. She has also worked as a systems manager at TRW and Carter Hawley Hale.

linksys founders
Image Source: inc.com

Victor Tsao, born in 1951 in Taiwan, pursued his Bachelor’s in computer science at the Tamkang University in Tamsui. After moving to the US, he obtained his Master’s in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology, in 1980. Victor received an MBA from Pepperdine University. On completing his education, Victor worked at reputed companies, such as Kraft Foods, T.R.W., and even Taco Bell.

Founding Linksys

Victor was 37, and working at Taco Bell, while Janie was 35 and working at Carter Hawley Hale, when they chose to start their new venture. As Victor was at a higher position at his job, Janie chose to quit hers, and launch D.E.W International. One of their associates gave them the idea of marketing connection wires, and this led to them renaming their venture Linksys. The business started as a small enterprise within the couple’s garage, and by 1991, owing to the success of its first product had generated enough profit to encourage Victor too to quit his job and work on their venture full-time.

The Tsaos had initially created the company by utilising their life savings worth $7,000. By 1991, Linksys had moved offices twice, ending up finally in a small, yet comfortable 2,000-square-foot office. Each month they sold over 8,000 products and slowly, but surely, expanded from connectors to Ethernet hubs, and cords.

When they were just starting, Victor drew no salary even while working more than 100 hours a week. He would approach US dealers during the day, and then talk to Taiwanese manufacturers at night, staying up till 3 AM on most days. The family during this period survived on the $2,000 a month salary that Janie drew. But all this hard work paid off, and by 1997, Linksys was making $32.1 million, which doubled to $65.6 million by 1998. Linksys moved once again but this time, to a massive 20,000-square-foot office.

Janie Tsao handled sales and even got the retailers Fry’s Electronics and Best Buy onboard to sell their products. These deals proved to become significant breakthroughs for the company, as it helped them triple their revenue from $21.5 in a short span of two years.

The Resounding Success

The couple has often mentioned how starting such a company was a huge gamble because they had two toddlers, aged 2 and 4 at the time. Victor often pulled in over 100 hours a week when the company was in its early days. The company’s breakthrough came when in 1999, Victor designed and created a router which cost $199. As this was the first router that cost less than $300, sales grew exponentially. That particular product alone had by 2000, raked in over $206.5 million for Linksys.

Often hailed as the maker of the modern home networking system, the company had by 2004 established itself as the main player, which controlled 49% of the networking market. With sales crossing $538 million, the success of the company started attracting significant media attention. So much so, that in 2002, Cisco Systems approached the Tsaos, and on March 2003, the couple decided to sell their company.

In 2003, the couple sold Linksys to Cisco Systems for $500 million, worked there as senior vice presidents until 2007. Following this, the pair called its quit, shifting their attention to Miven Venture Partners, which is an investment agency they had established back in 2005.

The couple credit their no-nonsense attitude for the success of Linksys, as they took risky steps at the right time, always got their products out faster than their competitors, and even kept costs down. There is much we can learn from this story of trials, tribulation and success, as it is one that celebrates hard work and determination.

goibibo

GoIbibo : An Indian Startup Helping you Explore the World

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If you love travelling, then chances are that you swear by GoIbibo! But do you know how GoIbibo got to where it is now, and who made that possible? This time around, we will be looking at Ashish Kashyap’s story and understand how working with multiple large companies helped give Ashish the experience he needed to launch something as massive as Ibibo.

Kashyap’s story has a familiar pattern to it; one we have seen countless times when it comes to Indian entrepreneurs. After getting a business degree from a good university, freshers join large corporations as managers and product designers. After gaining experience working under company greats, they exit a few years down the line to start their own company and turn entrepreneurs! Ashish did the same, as he launched Ibibo in 2007, after heading Google India’s operations and having worked as the General Manager for Indiatimes.com.

The Founder

After finishing his Honors in Economics from the University of Delhi, Ashish went ahead to procure a Masters in Practicing Management from Insead, France. Once he was done with his studies, he joined the prestigious Times Group, and slowly worked his way up the corporate ladder, finally becoming the General Manager of E-Commerce at Indiatimes. Even there, Ashish was looking for new opportunities and successfully launched several e-commerce applications.

Goibibo founder
Image Source: techcircle.in

Similarly, while heading Google India’s operations, Ashish focused on creating a lively and active entrepreneurial environment by building and designing product launches and establishing and building the business. Later, Ashish served as a senior member of PayU global, Netherlands, and helped the conglomerate by spear-heading some well-timed exits to generate income and increase company value. He is also the co-creator of PayU India, which in 2016 acquired CitrusPay. The more Ashish helped businesses grow, the more he realised that this is something he loved to do. It was this realization that led him to found the Ibibo group.

Founding Ibibo

As the internet grew, more websites and applications sprouted, and this led to the creation of a whole new customer segment. As more entrepreneurs burst into the tech field, it opened up avenues for several B2B and B2C companies to come forth and seize the opportunities available. One such service sector, that Ashish felt needed a revamp was the tourism and travel industry. Applications like redBus, GoIbibo and MakeMyTrip have forever changed the way people travel, and none of this would have been possible, if not for Ashish.

When it came down to choosing a name for his company, Ashish drew inspiration from the very movement that made its creation possible; the internet and the power it gave consumers. As the internet grew more popular, it helped shift power to the consumers, and hence, he felt his company’s name should focus on “I build”. The internet also helped people create pieces, connect with others and really made the world a smaller place. This brought together the ‘I bond’ and ‘I build’ elements, which went mashed together to become ‘Ibibo’!

While the company was backed by Napster, it was seen more like a social media experiment, rather than a company. Starting out with just eight employees in 2007, the company soon grew from being an experiment to one of the largest names in the field of travel and tourism, in just five years! It is interesting to note that the company started out with just $50k as seed capital, but by the end of the grew, and became a 15-member team.

The Success

Being the first person in India to sell a plane ticket online, in 2002, Ashish knew how to turn Ibibo into a multi-million-dollar company, and that is exactly what he did. Within a span of two years, the travel agency had its own payment portal that turned out to be a huge success. By 2011, Ibibo had grown by 180% and had become the first online travel agency to assure complete refund on cancellation of bookings. They also partnered with big brands like Citibank, MasterCard and HDFC to better their payment portals.

The same time next year, the company had launched a bus booking option and had even acquired redBus for 600 crores. By 2013, the company was growing at 130%, after having launched its own app for Android and iOS. The same year, the company expanded into the field of hotel bookings, which of late have been able to generate significant amounts of revenue for the company. GoIbibo also launched their engine for flights, Flight Advice in 2013, to help customers choose the best airline service. Since then, they have enjoyed over 140% growth, and even acquired YourBus in 2014. With a team of over 200 professionals, the team also launched a Windows app goCash, to help customers cancel tickets and bookings easily.

In 11 years, the Ibibo Group went from being a small team of employees to a conglomerate that had sizeable properties such as Goibibo.com, redBus.in, YourBus, and Travelboutique with a reach that extended to countries such as Indonesia, Singapore and even Columbia. With over 25 million app downloads and transactions that went over 24 Million USD, the Ibibo group established itself as a stalwart in the field of travel and tourism.

GoIbibo became a pillar for the travel industry in India after Ashish launched Redbus and Rightstay, and soon enough, in 2016 the Ibibo group merged with MakeMyTrip via a deal which was estimated to be worth around $1.8-$2 billion. This, in turn, brought all the businesses under the GoIbibo bracket, under the umbrella MakeMyTrip, whose largest shareholders are Naspers and Tencent.

The Acquisition

Once the acquisition, which was deemed one of the largest ever made in India, came through, Ashish Kashyap stepped down as president of MakeMyTrip, in 2017. He even signed an agreement that forbade him from soliciting and forming a rival company until September 30, 2019. MakeMyTrip which is listed on the American NASDAQ is the ultimate travel application offering everything from flight booking to hotel reservations and car hires.

As the agreement comes to an end this year, it is safe to assume that Kashyap will be back with some new creation soon enough. GoIbibo which started as a social media campaign idea became one of the largest travel e-commerce companies in the span of a mere five years. Having grown 200%, just a year after its launch, GoIbibo provides the kind of success story that inspires us to take chances and go after our dreams!

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Greyparrot : Helping in Saving the World with Computer Algorithms

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With advancements in science and technology, making an impact on almost all spheres of our lives, humans as a whole, have realised that some of these impacts are detrimental. Environmental degradation has been one of the most significant adverse effects of industrialisation and globalisation. We, as a species, have come to a stage where we cannot ignore the ill-effects of such activities. With the polar ice caps melting, average temperatures around the world increasing, and mass extinction looking on the horizon, it is time we take our environment seriously. The best way to make our environment a priority is by leveraging technology, and there are start-ups like Greyparrot that are already helping us achieve that shared dream.

Mikela Druckman is the founder of Greyparrot, a start-up that provides computer vision-enabled products and services to companies that want to upgrade their Artificial Intelligence systems. The company focuses on helping the environment by improving waste management systems by using automation.

Mikela has a rich history in the field of technology, and had previously worked with computer vision and augmented reality. She had led several teams and has worked with multiple global brands, winning numerous awards for her projects. Mikela did her BSc in Management from HEC Lausanne from 2005 to 2009, wherein she was selected for the Erasmus Student Exchange program. As a result of this, she ended up completing her degree from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

Greyparrot founder
Image Source: greyparrot.ai

Following a Bachelor’s degree, she completed a Master’s in International Management from the National University of Singapore. At the time, she was also the winner at a Tech Entrepreneurship competition. She holds a Masters from the ESADE Business and Law School in International Management, where she served as the Vice-President of the CEMS Club. While pursuing her degree, she worked as an intern in the trading division of Pictet and Cie for a period of three months. She also served as the Project Leader of Junior Entreprise HEC for over two years.

While in Spain, she worked as a Junior Analyst for La Caixa for a duration of 10 months. After graduation, she was the Lead Strategist at Galixo; a position she held for over a year. Following this, she joined Blippar, where she played the role of Brand Partnerships Director for almost two years. Soon after, she became the Commercial Director and then Chief Commercial Officer.

While at Blippar, in 2017, she was hailed as one of the leading female digital managers in Britain by Campaign. In 2018, Mikela was also one among the Top 50 Women recognised by the foundation WeAreTheCity for her entrepreneurial work. Mikela served as the Chief Commercial Officer of Blippar, which is a UK-based tech company working on Augmented Reality and Computer Vision. She even won the award for “Best campaign of 2017” given out by DRUM.

Mikela commenced her career in banking, and later on developed a strong interest in technology, leading to her shifting to tech-based start-ups. In 2012, she joined Blippar and helped grow and expand the company by holding several senior commercial and strategy roles.

She was later appointed to the Global Future Council of the World Economic Forum. Through this role, she provides leadership related advice to technologies and companies that leverage AI and VR. She briefs and guides them on matters related to sustainability and governance of such technology. Being very passionate about technology’s impact on the environment and society, she gave her first TEDx talk on the future of mobility in 2012.

It is this passion that led Mikela Druckman, Marco Paladini, and Nikola Sivacki to establish Greyparrot in January 2019, intending to create a positive impact on both society and the environment. Mikela utilised her technical experience gained by working in the B2C sector and translated it into the B2B industry to achieve this goal. What resulted was a company that leveraged technology such as Machine Learning and Deep learning to sustain smart systems that improved existing waste-management methods.

Most wastes end up in a landfill, and most developed countries such as the US, Canada and UK send their trash to China for recycling. When China banned this practice two years ago; most companies had no clue what to do with all the waste in their hands. This is where GreyParrot steps in, using computer vision to power sorting algorithms that help segregate waste. It is interesting to note that the company was named after the African grey parrot, which imitates human behaviours as the company’s AI aims to do so as well.

After securing the required funding via pre-seed funding, they built a prototype in partnership with Middlesex University. They then went on to partner with a recycling facility based in South Korea to test their technology. Greyparrot essentially helps companies understand the different types of waste they generate, and also uses automation tools to sort the waste as per required standards. In 2019, they were a part of Unbound London, which served as an excellent platform for them to showcase their technology.

With the company providing several services and products such as Smart bins which can sort waste automatically, waste monitoring systems that check composition at every stage of the waste management cycle and automated sorting software that help in waste segregation in Material Recovery Facilities, GreyParrot seems well on their way in helping heal the world, one step at a time. Being a part of Forbe’s list of the UK’s most promising start-ups means the company is looking forward to changing the way the world handles waste!

yoast

Share–Engage-Optimize the SEO Way : Success Story of Yoast

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Nowadays, with Internet access having reached an all-time high, it is not easy to keep customers engaged and satisfied. There is so much content out there on the web that it is quite easy to get lost amongst all that noise and clutter. To stand out and be heard, articles, blogs and all other kinds of media need to be unique and engaging. They also need to follow the right SEO practices so that they are picked up by search engines. Search engine optimisation is every marketers and content creator’s best friend, as it helps their work get the recognition it deserves. The undoubted king of WordPress SEO is Yoast, and this time around, we will be taking a look at how the company started and got to where it is now.

About the Founders

Yoast Founder
Image Source: gelderlander.nl

Joost de Valk started his career working for a digital marketing company. He gave that up and began consulting for big corporations such as eBay and The Guardian. While doing this, he was working on a project of his own- a plugin that would help websites boost their SEO score. It started as a mere hobby because Valk was interested in the algorithms governing SEO.

After a while, he started sensing that there was more to this than what met the eyes, and he began to take it more seriously than just a hobby. He became so busy with this hobby that his actual work started suffering. That was when his wife suggested that maybe he needed to quit his job and start trying to make some money out of the plugin he was working on.

Founding Yoast

The entire empire we now know as Yoast started as one man’s hobby in 2010! He started his blog in 2004, named joostdevalk.nl, and in 2006, began css3.info. In June 2008, he began yoast.com and started making money through advertisements placed on the blog. Halfway through 2010, he felt the time was right to invest in Yoast full time, giving up his job and founding the company.

The journey started with Video SEO, then came WordPress SEO Premium, and this morphed into Yoast SEO Premium. All these ventures became so successful, so fast that they had to make a company around these services. De Valk was the only one involved, handling everything from consulting, to support for the first few years. The initial years were very taxing as he had to single-handedly manage to support the development and testing all on his own. During these years, it was his wife who served as his biggest supporter and aid. Even today it is Joost, Marieke, his wife, and their first employee, Michiel Heijmans who handles almost all the management and logistics.

Joost’s wife, Marieke, shares Joost’s busy lifestyle having majored in sociology with a PhD in Criminology. She began her career as a researcher at Avans University in Den Bosch. But, as her husband’s company, Yoast started picking up, she decided to help out her partner with his work. Her love for writing inspired her to begin creating eBooks, and soon enough, the idea flourished. Marieke is responsible for the entire Yoast Academy tab and has been a tremendous power in assisting in growing the company.

An Instant Success

WordPress is a well-oiled machine that hosts over 74 million websites, and slowly Yoast started gaining momentum, becoming a regular feature in millions of those websites. One of the most significant issues they have had is maintaining and providing support to millions of beloved users.

Joost had to focus on testing early on, as once the business started to expand exponentially, making sure the version had no bugs or errors got more important than ever before. In the early years of the company, testing was an afterthought that rose when someone encountered an error. That practice is long gone, with testing getting two full weeks, as a means to prevent trouble later on in the release.

Yoast SEO 3.0 was a landmark release, as the company shifted 35-40% of their code from PHP to JavaScript. To facilitate the extensive testing that was necessary for this, the team expanded to include about ten developers and ten other support staff. It is astonishing how such a small group is able to pull off such mammoth tasks.

With the company expanding daily, they are in “full-on hiring mode,” having deviated from Joost’s initial plan of never taking on any employees. The team now includes 32 people in the Netherlands and over 50 worldwide. The team has also introduced several fun methods to make the team feel like a family. One such plan includes a “Know Your Colleague” Quiz which contains over 26 questions regarding the music taste and favourite colour of employees. The team also has a 40-hour workweek, unlike other start-ups and tech companies which demand a minimum of 60 hours a week, with Joost working for longer hours, as he is the leading man.

Joost de Valk single-handedly built WordPress tools to help site owners optimize their content and get discovered by search engines. Doing so helped make webpages more user-friendly, intuitive and reliable, making him one of the chief names in SEO. What makes this success story so inspiring is the fact that it is essentially the story of one man turning his hobby into a multi-million-dollar business!