An Interview with Vincent van Wyk, Founder and CEO of Fluenty, Lessons in Starting a Tech Company.
Fluenty started in August 2018. Vincent van Wyk, Founder and CEO, consulted for several businesses for five years prior to starting Fluenty. To meet the development needs of growing businesses, Fluenty equip their clients to navigate enterprise technology systems with ease so they can drive revenue and unlock new opportunities for business growth.
Funding
The company was bootstrapped for the first four months starting out with just two developers. When further funding was required to cover salaries during a difficult time of the year, Vincent approached an investor who saw future potential in his business. “As with any new business, we needed to find clients fast, and were lucky to secure our first client in the short-term insurance space” says Vincent.
Challenges
The biggest challenge initially was the decision to start Fluenty towards the end of the year. With most people going on leave in December with a slow January to follow, cash flow quickly became a problem. To get an investor involved was a critical decision as it allowed us to cover salaries in the initial startup phase. The company started to stabilize over time and the revenue gradually started to cover all overheads.
Growth
In terms of growth, the company went from two employees as a startup to seven employees the following year. In 2020, Fluenty stabilised and employed two new developers and in 2022 they doubled in growth going from eight to 16 employees.
Marketing
Fluenty’s growth strategy focuses on networking and word-of-mouth. “The quality of our work and our effort to meet client expectations timeously, together with a focus on building relationships led to us receiving referral business. We also networked on platforms such as ZATech Slack, which helped to expand our reach and get our name out there.
As a new brand in the tech space, we offered value by discounting our rates for smaller companies who had limited development budgets. We invested into those companies by giving our time and expertise, and when these businesses started to grow and scale, they started to outsource more work to us and we remained their technical partner”, says Vincent.
Responsibilities
“I did everything myself in the first three to four years. From building code to managing finances; overseeing recruitment and staff training; focusing on the marketing and new client acquisition – my hands were full and still are”, says Vincent with a smirk. “You never get to a point where everything is smooth sailing when running your own business.
After four years in operation, Fluenty has reached a stage where they were able to employ an Operations Manager and two Project Managers, as well as outsource the legal, compliance and financial aspects of the business. By freeing up more of my time, I’m now able to focus on growing the business from a strategic perspective”, says Vincent.
Our Ideal Clients
“We look for client partners who conform to the rules of technology and know we are the experts in our field. Ideally, we also collaborate with companies who want to become a long-term partner as opposed to just looking for a client – service provider relationship.”
“We lean towards clients who want to grow a team with us, and not just outsource work. Some of our clients are from the fintech industry – an area of IT we are most interested in. We also work with clients in the recruitment, property and SaaS sectors.
Our Ethos
Fluenty only takes on projects that they feel will meet the end goal required by the client. “Our differentiator is our people and we place a big emphasis on putting them first, before the business. “Our business is built around its people and the people aren’t built around the business. This means that if the team does not believe we need to go in a specific direction, we usually decide as a collective.”
“Continual improvement in our overall performance and promoting a customer centric culture is key for business continuity.” Vincent comments on how Fluenty is not a dictatorship and how everyone has equal say in the business. “Although I sometimes need to make the final decision as CEO of my own company, generating revenue is not the only focus Fluenty has”.
“Although our clients are incremental to our growth, employee job satisfaction and a team that is motivated is very important to us.” Vincent strongly believes that its “our people” who distinguish Fluenty from other tech companies.
“Personal growth is a cornerstone in our business, so all our team members are encouraged to further their development and training by finding short courses relevant to the tech stack we apply. We have a saying in our business: If you don’t grow on a weekly basis, it’s time to move on”.
Structures and Processes
“We are not a typical dev house that tries to grow with a team of junior developers. Instead, we pair a junior developer with a senior developer. In this way, we ensure there is quality control and assurance, and we have a direct reporting line.
An agile approach is adopted with tweaks that best fit client expectations and schedules. The ability to be flexible and adaptable is important. When onboarding new clients who are assigned a developer, we always try to establish the right fit. If we feel the fit is not right, we adapt our approach and rather match other individuals to a particular client until we find a good fit and then build on those relationships.
“We give our team an opportunity to provide input and this is considered when developing solutions. We are all problem-solving together. Although we do give preference to local developers to strengthen our local economy, in the case where workload rapidly increases, we then outsource some of our work.
Tech Stack
The company was built on a single technology in 2018. In 2019, Fluenty realised the importance of broadening their tech stack in a competitive market and currently cater for most technologies out there. “We also look at the requirements of the products we need to build together with our client requirements, and then suggest what we feel is the best solution.”
Personal Key Learnings
“The exposure to the business aspect and not purely the technical aspect of building a tech company, has personally helped me to develop more resilience and the ability to make difficult decisions with limited time and input,” says Vincent.
“The best advice I can give to entrepreneurs who are considering launching a startup is to fail fast and learn from your failures even faster.
Also, identify areas that you’re good at and those that you’re not. Find those who can fill the gaps where you lack expertise and get those people involved – even if just on a consultative basis.”
“Your strengths are your strengths, and your weaknesses can grow into your strengths but that won’t happen overnight. If you’re not an expert on making soap, don’t start a soap making business. The biggest trait that will serve you well in the long run is to be adaptable.”
Our Future
Our bigger objective is to align with strategic partners who have established businesses and we know that our contribution to the development of their products will secure a long-term relationship where we contribute to their growth and vice versa.
