The Story So Far
Where Atab started, and how it got to where it is now.
Every week I think the same thing: surely things quieten down now. Then the next week arrives and I catch myself saying it again. Before the weekly notes begin, here is the short version of where Atab came from, and how it got to where it is now.
Where it started
In 2025, Nic and I were final-year students working out what came next. We chose the idea that kept me up at night: starting our own company, with no funding and no plan. The real idea came together on a whiteboard, a loop where every bespoke product we build can win clients, and every client can lead into more products. Bespoke software and consultancy feeding each other.
The birth of Atab
At a coffee shop in Stellenbosch, a stranger approached our table and said his company was looking for someone with my skill set. Instead of taking the job, we made a counter: let us build for you as our first client. In that moment, Atab was born.
We needed a name. I started from the word "data" spelled backwards, "atad", reflected the d into a b, and atab stuck.
How the work came in
We took our own place, started paying for everything ourselves, and the first real doubts arrived. They were squashed as fast as they came. Clients came in through the most natural channels: warm referrals and genuine conversations with other entrepreneurs. We spent nothing on marketing, and to this day that still holds true.
One build we scoped as easy turned into well over a hundred hours of work. It was an early, formative lesson in how we scope projects.
Stepping back to grow
A turning point came when I accepted that my strength was not in coding. It was in understanding businesses and selling a vision. I stepped back from development to focus on growth, which meant bringing on more hands, people who were all in on the vision from day one. For the first time, the question stopped being whether this would work and became a certainty that it would.
The counter offer
In a short period, several parties became interested in acquiring a piece of Atab, from company executives and founders to a senior figure at a private equity firm. One made a written offer. A mentor told me it was not right for us, and introduced me to his long time business partner.
Once the excitement settled, the two of them made an offer of their own: to help grow the business, open doors through their networks, and act as a sounding board, asking for very little in return. With them on board, we began phase 2 of Atab, marked by a new office in De Waterkant.
Where we are now
We have gone from two people in a shared office to a team of 8, with many active clients, far more live prospects, and real work shipping across all of it. Alongside the client work we have started building our own products, and taken our first lessons in productization.
The value we are building on
If this company stands on one principle right now, it is true customer obsession. We anchor to our customers, not to our competitors, not to the technology, not even to our own business model. Customers are, as Jeff Bezos once put it, divinely discontent. They always want more, and that permanent discontent is exactly what keeps us inventing.
That is the story so far. Knowing this company, by the time you read the next note, there will be more of it.
Signed
Ben