Today we complete 5 years as AWSM!
The past 5 years have been a rollercoaster ride but we have enjoyed every moment of it. We had unexpected successes, learned from our mistakes and evolved as a team.
From ‘Fidiz Solutions’ to AWSM
We started our WordPress journey as Fidiz Solutions in 2010. Even in the early days, we had a clear vision of our future. We were a small team of WordPress enthusiasts who were committed to providing the best experience to our customers without compromising on our happiness and satisfaction.
We had a brief stint with CGWerks Digital Singapore which gave us more exposure to bigger projects. Finally, in 2016, we separated from CGWerks and got rebranded as Awsm Innovations after a few trial and error processes.
On this auspicious occasion, we take a path down the memory lane and look at the milestones we achieved.
WordPress core contributions
We made our mark on the international arena with Adhun Anand becoming our first core contributor with WordPress 4.9 “Tipton” in 2017. Anantajit J G, Sarath A R and Aravind Ajith soon joined the core contributors’ club with contributions to Betty, Kirk and Adderley.
WordCamps and WordPress Community
Our fascination with WordPress took us to Mumbai to attend the WordCamp of 2017. That just powered our love for WordPress and we sponsored the first-ever WordCamp in South India – WordCamp Kochi 2017.
2018 saw us taking a flight to Colombo to attend the WordCamp there. We also co-organized the 2018 Kochi WordCamp and sponsored the next one in 2019. Since then we have made it a point to sponsor and volunteer at WordCamps. We are also actively involved with the activities of the local meetup group – WordPress Trivandrum.
We have pledged resources for the “Five for the Future” initiative of Matt Mullenweg too.
Plugins and Envato Elite Author status
Our plugins have grabbed eyeballs in the WordPress repository and Envato marketplace. Our plugins are nearly installed in 90K websites with good ratings and our awesome customer support is lauded by our customers.
We achieved the Envato Elite Author badge much earlier than our expectations. In 2020, we also achieved an important milestone – 10k customers from the Envato marketplace. It is a testimony to the quality of our products and the faith our customers have in our plugins. This year we moved to Author level 9.
A new face, new ventures and a bigger team
We had grand plans for 2020 when out of the blue, Corona Virus threw them out of gear. Not to be outdone by a virus, we decided to make the best out of the situation. Locked inside our homes, we redesigned our website with WordPress and Frontity, which scored a perfect 100 score in Google PageSpeed (Desktop) without putting any extra effort into optimisations.
We followed it up with Awsm F1 Theme for Frontity – the first theme from the stable of Awsm.
With the interest around our new website, we were soon flooded with more projects – in fact, more than what we could handle. We resorted to online onboarding because there was no end to lockdown in sight and we couldn’t keep our clients waiting for long. When the companies were downsizing, we increased our team strength from 9 to 15!
We went all out with WordPress day celebrations. We started our own blog – WP-Content.co – dedicated solely to share WordPress tips and knowledge. It has already gathered a decent fan following in the WordPress community.
Off to Africa
In 2021, we got our first African project – Forbes Africa and made our presence felt in the African continent. Earlier, we had delivered projects in Australia, Europe, America and of course Asia.
The Awsm saga continues
Our team is getting bigger and our clients are satisfied. Our excitement and love for WordPress are as strong as ever and we assure you that you can expect more WordPress things from us in the days to come.