Outsourcify’s Evolution: Growth, Technology, and Strategic Shifts
Outsourcify did not follow a ten-year master plan. The company changed when a legal constraint, a client request or a team member showed us a better way to work. Four changes mattered most: BOI certification, broader services, stronger internal operations and a move away from fixed-price work for complex products.
And Outsourcify was born. Doesn’t look like us but I did have some hair back then.
The BOI Certification Leap
One of the most critical milestones in Outsourcify’s evolution was obtaining certification from Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI). Initially, our agency operated under the name Eklektik Web, offering standard web development services predominantly to international clients.
BOI certification brought tax incentives and made international hiring easier. It also required us to create a new legal entity. We closed Eklektik Web, moved every employee and client relationship into Outsourcify, and committed to a formal hiring plan in Thailand. The name changed; the team and the work continued.
Evolving Technologies and Service Offerings
We began with PHP web applications and WordPress websites. As projects became larger, clients needed help defining the product before development began. We hired dedicated UX and UI designers and introduced discovery workshops so that design, requirements and technical decisions could be worked out with the client before a large build started.
Mobile development followed the same pattern. We tested React Native and Flutter on real requirements before making mobile applications a regular service. The point was not to lengthen our capabilities list; it was to avoid handing one product across several unrelated suppliers.
From Small Agency to Robust Team
The team grew from the two founders to about 35 people. We have deliberately stayed around that size. It is large enough to assemble a proper product squad, but small enough that the founders and senior team still know the people and projects involved.
Over the years, we’ve cultivated a nurturing environment where team members can grow, explore new technologies, and transition between roles, such as developers moving into project management or business analysis. This flexibility has been vital in retaining talented professionals and keeping motivation high.
Training on React Native when it was still in beta was one example of how we encouraged our team to discover new technologies (it’s quite something that, even after all these years, the framework still hasn’t reached version 1!). Python and Node.js are also technologies that our team picked up specifically for large projects, and we’ve continued using them ever since.
Several developers gradually moved into management, giving us project managers who understand the work behind an estimate. One later returned to coding after discovering that management was not as simple—or as enjoyable—as it looked. We were happy to make room for that change too.
The team got quite a boost including several foreign hires
Building a Backbone: Delegating Operations to Focus on Growth
In the early years, the founders handled client work and sales alongside accounting, HR, office problems, salary discussions and late-payment reminders. We eventually built an administrative team around Nuey (Kherika), who took responsibility for finance, the office and staff administration. That delegation gave Kwan and me time to concentrate on clients, technology and the direction of the company. I am also very happy not to chase invoices anymore.
Adapting Business Models
Most early projects had a fixed scope and price. That remains appropriate for a clearly defined website, but it becomes awkward when a software product must change in response to users. For those clients, we introduced monthly “squad” arrangements: a stable group with the design, development and product skills needed to keep improving the system.
With some of our team members in Chiang Rai for a project launch
What These Changes Added Up To
None of these decisions was dramatic on its own. Together, they turned a small outsourced development team into an agency that can help define, design, build and maintain a product. The next article looks more closely at how we decide which technologies deserve a place in that work.
The Outsourcify Story #5: Staying Ahead of Technological Advancements
