Despite turning 10 soon, Quirk’s directors believe the company culture hasn’t changed much from the relaxed and open one it was when they started. One of the more unnerving changes is perhaps that making tea for 50 is just not as easy as it was to make tea for 4.

This was shared with me when Quirk’s four directors; who were sitting around a table (except for Nic in London) looking proud, shy and cheeky all at the same time – relayed some stories of success and weirdness over the years at Quirk. By way of introduction (and as they described each other):

The Founder and CEO (1999) - Rob Stokes

The Ideas Man. The type who needs to be “held back” and is not good with details (both by his own admission), whose strengths lie in being an entrepreneur, salesman and “strategy guy”.

The Technical Guru and CTO (joined 2001) – Craig Raw

A “deep thinker” who provided Quirk with its first real technical direction. He prefers coding to people and endless meetings (FYI I was asked to phrase this nicely) and has a talent for sifting the good ideas from the bad. Also described as “the Ying to Rob’s Yang”.

The Mom and COO (joined 2004) – Janine Carpenter 

The lady who catches the balls others drop, Janine is a patient project manager who does it all. She was described as “the glue that holds us together” and offers a much needed support role to the Quirk Management collective.

The Service Perfectionist and UK MD (joined 2007) - Nic Ray

The man having the “high level conversations”, who wants to work somewhere that takes digital seriously and believes in the strengths of Quirk’s staff.

The Company - Quirk eMarketing:

Named after Rob’s now deceased cat (sorry Rob) which in turn was named after a psychedelic rock band, the company consists of people who at their core are: “willing to live their individuality and are fundamentally friendly”. Incidentally we were almost named RCS – Rob’s Computer Services – (Craig is certainly happy we weren’t).

Now the biggest full service eMarketing agency in Africa, with a shiny client list including BMW, Warner Bros. and Google - Quirk’s come a long way from the period when Rob was laying cables in someone’s office.

“In the beginning we used to do anything to bring in the money,” from selling computers and routers to building websites. It wasn’t until 2002 that the team decided to focus solely on eMarketing - Quirk was getting a lot of business in that direction and Rob’s marketing background made it seem a natural next step. Craig laughed a bit when re-telling this, remembering his reaction to Rob’s suggestion: “Well…alright”.

Important Moments: People, Clients and Money
A look back at the significant moments for Quirk all centre on staff and clients. With the exception, that is, of the 15 used fire extinguishers Rob bought along with the company’s first office furniture at a police auction.

His first effort to get noticed involved 110 000 fliers, which his friends spread around the peninsula by bicycle.
 
In a somewhat smarter next move, Rob won Quirk’s first make or break client – Keedo – after he printed and hand delivered 1000 letters (personalised with an Outlook Merge he tells me) to retail stores around the Western Cape. “Keedo probably don’t know what they did for us back then”, said Rob, who “will now do more for them than for most”.

They had a far road to travel still - the dot.com crash hit them hard in 2000, but making it through has proven to be more than useful today. “We’re a frugal company – not cheap, but frugal”, says Rob, “Quirk knows how to protect its business and its staff and we’re very proud to have never retrenched anyone.”

A focus on growth led to the launching of two offices in Johannesburg (in 2004) and London (in 2005). Janine lists these as some of their best decisions, highlighting that finding the right people for each city - Mary Mzumara in Johannesburg and Nic in London – was the key to the success of each venture.

More recently the Quirk textbook, eMarketing: the essential guide to online marketing, has marked an incredible evolution in Quirk’s Ministry of Education. While Quirk’s educational slant started out because Rob needed to “convince people they needed online marketing”, Quirk can now focus on helping people get it right. 

So What’s Next?
When asked where Quirk would be in another 5 – 10 years, Janine answered simply that she sees the company being “very profitable” (and Rob suggested she sees herself on a beach in the Bahamas).

Craig and Nic see Quirk playing on a more global stage and perhaps being “snapped up” by a multi-national agency group needing to improve their eMarketing offering. Rob has a more specific vision, seeing our dominant revenue stream moving slowly from client work to product revenue: “what Quirk does best is come up with ideas.” 

A multitude of ideas there certainly have been: from Quirk’s first software product – the email marketing engine, Milk (which Craig built working for three weeks solid while eating nothing but oats) to BrandsEye, (Quirk’s Reputation Management software) to Idea Bounty – Quirk’s latest innovation in crowdsourcing. Quirk, its directors and staff have been busy, and busy they’ll most likely stay.
Perhaps the best testament to this is a birthday message sent by Matthew Buckland, the GM of Publishing and Social Media at 24.com:

"Hip hip hooray quirkmeisters! Congrats on being one of the more innovative companies in the online marketing space. You've all built a company with a fine reputation, primed for world domination. (Come on admit it, that's what you're aiming for). Happy birthday to you all. Quirk's success is a success for the online medium in this country. So well done and thanks..." - Matt Buckland