By: Jhanae Winter
Founders, CEO Duran Humes and COO Keith Roye of Plato Alpha Design ventured into the tech industry with their joint business focusing on building business systems and automating business specific tasks and processes.
The business’ services varies as they offer custom software development, business systems integration, MVP building, product scoping as well as general web and mobile application development.
“The long-term vision of Plato Alpha Design is to be the largest software development company in the Caribbean in both headcount and profitability,” Keith said.
Standing on the quote “Go big or go bigger”, this is exactly what these two young men did. With their joint efforts both developed a software based business as another form of income.
Established in the midst of the pandemic, May 2020, some may have deemed it not a good time but it was the best for both Duran and Keith.
“The pandemic has positively impacted our business. Companies are eagerly looking for ways to meet the needs of their customers and technology has been the driving force for this. Henceforth, our skills have been in demand to assist in providing businesses the ability to serve their customers electronically when possible,” the COO said.
At a time when the world was forced to shift to digital means of accommodation Plato Alpha Design was able to join the business arena, expanding the technological field in The Bahamas.
The founder sees Plato Alpha Design as in a “lane of its own”, because of the speciality it adds to the market; it is not in competition with any other businesses, he said.
Their focus is increasing business efficacy and profitability through software.
Being in operation for a little over a year, Plato Alpha Design has already obtained success through working with big and small local companies such as Cable Bahamas, Aliv and Limeade Bahamas.
One of the career highlights for them was being able to move into their current Old Fort Bay location. They have also been considered for numerous government contracted work and for which they are honored to be a part of, the founder told Bahamaslocal.com.
They’ve experienced no scrutiny as a male millennial owned Bahamian entity, in fact “businesses have been eager to work with young Bahamian men like ourselves that are looking to make a lasting impact on their society and a country at large”, Keith said.
Passing the one year mark both founders set a goal to hire a developer to join their team to expand their vision which would total six members including themselves.
Beyond expansion, their sights are set on their first in-house product, aimed to make payroll processes more efficient, which will launch at the end of the year.
“TriblockHR will be the first Bahamian owned integrated HR & Payroll system that will automate all aspects of payroll for employers of all company sizes. Within the next 2 years we see this product enhancing the overall experience of both employers and employees when dealing with payroll,” the COO said.
While managing their full time jobs and Plato Alpha Design this has been quite the journey for the founders, experiencing many learning curves along the way.
“The journey has been a rollercoaster but one that I would ride again if we can turn back the hands of time. Learning what the market actually wants has been more difficult than expected. However, this is necessary when looking to find product market fit,” Keith said.
Through learning the consumer market, Plato Alpha Design provided customer satisfied results evident through clients they received based on referrals. Keith called this “some of the best ‘I can’t believe it’ moments”.
When asked about handling negativity, Keith’s response was “when you develop ‘haters’ in business it's usually because you are doing something right. Therefore, negativity is usually ignored when possible”.
As Plato Alpha Design is aiming to conquer new territory in the Bahamas, the founders realize that running a business is no easy task. But Keith believes the easier aspect is having more control over one's time.
His words of advice to other millennials seeking to find their footing in the business world is to not only simply have a business but to find profitable niche skills that one can montinize, he said. This is more valuable.
“Waiting until the right time will always be too late. The most important aspect is learning as the business grows. Most successful business go through many rounds of failure before reaching a product market fit that can be profitable,” Keith said.
You can connect with Duran Humes and Keith Roye on Facebook at Plato Alpha Design.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/platoalpha
Website: https://platoalpha.com/
Plato Alpha Design, We increase business efficiency and profitability through software
