Afrigator turns two today... somehow it feels like more!

Honestly I can’t believe it’s that time of year again. Today the team at Afrigator are celebrating our second birthday but strangely it feels like our baby is much older than it actually is.

This time last year I wrote a birthday post and after reading it again I can clearly remember how the first year went by so quickly. Year two is a very different story and while it did go by as quickly as year one I certainly feel like Afrigator, myself and our team have matured in a very big way.

By Web 2.0 standards Afrigator is now actually a very old product. Strange to think that something so new can be classified as old but the reality is that if you haven’t had any traction by this stage your product is dead. For us the reality is that Afrigator has only really started to show traction from when we were partly acquired in September and the growth on all fronts has been phenomenal.

See, for a long time Afrigator had a great brand outside the borders of South Africa and it was largely due to this that we were even able to negotiate a deal with MIH Print Africa. That said, I do remember crapping myself at the idea of how we were going to meet the objectives and projections detailed in the business plan and contracts yet despite this here we are, six months later and I’m blown away by the progress thus far.

While Afrigator has been somewhat of a success story I am humbled by the fact that had we not done the deal with MIH we might not even be here today. Prior to the deal with MIH I was seriously considering the viability of continuing Afrigator in its current form. Mike, Mark, Stii and myself were funding the project by ourselves and it was taking up serious amounts of our time and cutting away at family and personal life and while this great personal sacrifice was manageable in the beginning after 18 months it started to take its toll.

All I can say is thank God the deal came through in the end and thank God I decided to stick it out. I’ve honestly never been this happy with my professional life and this is largely due to the fact that I’m working full time on something that I feel 100% passionate about.

Afrigator has a long way to go to truly be successful and I have a long learning curve ahead of me but as it stands right now I wouldn’t change it for the world. My life has changed so much in the last six months, I’m interacting with some of the most influential business minds in South Africa, I have a great team at my disposal, I am working on innovative ideas and I’m being tested on all levels every day of my life.

Does it get any better?

The great part about where I am right now is that I have a clear understanding of where our company needs to be this time next year and I know exactly what I want to achieve over the next 12 months. So while I’m excited that Afrigator celebrates our second birthday with you guys I’m also humbled by the idea that we have a lot of work ahead of us to achieve the goals we’ve set for ourselves.