With a goal to bring affordable web development services to Perthshire, Matty Souter and Paul Smith started Ryse SEO.
The Blairgowrie business specialises in search engine optimisation and web development.
Matty and Paul set up their business just over a year ago, now reaching customers across Scotland.
The pair said a passion for the subject led them into business in the middle of the pandemic.
They also want to debunk some of the myths that surround search engine optimisation and help people rank higher on Google.
How did you get to where you are today?
Matty is an experienced software developer, earning an honours degree in computer science from Abertay University.
He achieved an internship in 2013 with an advanced technology firm in Dundee, where he gained a full-time position and continued to hone his skills in programming languages.
Paul spent a lot of his early career in digital garages in London working with UX designers, scrum masters, tests & developers in multiple roles as a product owner.
We decided to join forces in August last year so we could bring a better service to the market.
Who has helped you along the way?
We have had lots of help along the way, especially from Growbiz who have helped open doors and given us a platform to share what we do.
My dad, who I lost in June, helped me so much by believing in what I was doing, and giving me the encouragement I needed when I told him I was walking away from a great career to pursue what I really wanted to do in life.
We also have a loyal customer base who have travelled with us, including Piotr Gudan from Outdoor Explore, Michelle Maddox from Clootie Mctoot Dumplings and Praveen Kumar from praveenkumar.com.
They’ve all been with us from the beginning and learned with us along the way.
What is your greatest achievement to date?
We have established a great team of two employees and five freelancers whom we work with daily.
This is something we are proud of.
We know everyone has a part to play in delivering a great product.
How has the pandemic impacted your business?
We have been one of the lucky ones, we started our business during Covid and have seen growth throughout.
We have seen a few projects get put on the back burner, but we have recovered well.
That is testament to the great team we have developed as our work speaks for itself.
What do you hope to achieve in the future?
We are a completely remote business at the moment and that has been great during Covid, but we would like to secure premises so that we can all work together from time to time.
We already have two employees and would love to see that grow.
Sometimes that’s not always possible with a startup as we are all trying to deliver for the customer.
Hopefully, we will be able to take on some more people in future and build in that bandwidth.
What’s the biggest challenge?
Time. There is never enough time in the day for everything you want to do and to make everything possible for your customers. You must be good at organising and prioritising.
Also taking on too much. When you first start out, you think you can’t say no to anything.
We have spent so much time on putting in place effective processes for the SEO and web design aspects of our business.
Each member of our team now knows what stage each project is at and exactly what is required for each stage.
That’s not the case. Be clear on what you’re good at and stick with it.
It’s too easy to just say yes.