2017 sure was a heck of a year for Capytech. I’ve heard in a few places that it takes about 1000 days for a business to really start to get traction – and that’s proven fairly true for us as well.
We got going late in 2013 and I went full time at the end of 2014 with Jason following about another year later. So we’ve now spent a good period of time dedicated to our company, and we can start to see the reward for this now.
Anyone who’s done business in the UAE for the past couple of years knows that things have been tough. We started just as the oil price tanked, and budgets (in particular training!) were cut. We obviously couldn’t see this coming, what it meant was that it took longer than we might have expected to really build momentum.
Whilst it might not be true for every sector, I feel like the big budget cuts have been made now and normalcy is returning. Companies are again willing to spend money on their training and investing in e-learning systems. Thankfully with our remote structure, and low overheads, we were able to survive this lean period and emerge stronger.
Now that we’re better established both clients wise and online, we’re more easy to discover. So when people search for “e-learning Abu Dhabi” we now are likely to be found. So in some respects by keeping things modest and building slowly, we’re in a better position to capitalise when budgets returned.
From a business front, we’ve successfully delivered to two of the biggest organisations in the UAE: DP World and Majid Al Futtaim. We’ve also partnered with other companies to deliver to a number of different government agencies. This has not only helped the bottom line but also give us greater credibility in the market.
We’re now working on even bigger deals which we hope will come together in early 2018. With this opportunity, as well as keeping our existing clients thrilled with what we’re delivering – 2018 should be our best year yet.
So here are a few highlights from 2017:
- more than tripling the size of our team
- exhibiting at our first trade show
- delivering our products in more than half a dozen languages
- finishing the year with back to back best quarters
I’m so grateful for all that we’ve achieved so far. I feel it’s testimony to our ability to stick with our vision of creating great e-learning regardless of market conditions.
What do I want to achieve in 2018? I’d like to continue on our current trajectory for a while longer, whilst also being able to take a step back to think strategically about the future. I’ve got some products that I’d like to launch in the next 12-18 months as well – so watch out for that. I also want the great team and culture that we’ve built to continue growing, if we can do that – then the clients will continue to come.
I hope that 2017 was a successful year for you in whatever way you want to judge it. Stick to your guns, and aim to make 2018 even better – I sure plan to!