About us
With our eye on innovation, we continuously improve the solutions and services we provide to our clients.
Some of the great brands we work with:
Company Overview
We’re passionate about helping businesses make an impact online by putting control in the hands of our clients.
2003
LightSpeed opened its doors as a network support specialist and computer hardware sales business.
2007
Pivoted to a WordPress Design & Development Agency.
2009
We started providing hosting services.
2012
Started working with WooCommerce.
2015
We became WooExperts and Mailchimp experts.
Founded in 2003 by Ashley Shaw, LightSpeed WordPress Development has progressed from a start as a WordPress website solutions company that catered to a spread of client requirements (with a focus on the tourism sector) on to becoming a leading WP specialist development company.
In 2020, the company now features valuable credentials gained via endorsements and associations with both the focal WordPress community and organisation. These have been earned over many years through engagement and participation in WordCamp and WP MeetUp conferences across the globe. At this time, the company now stands tall in its field as a result of the significant gains made since its founding, and is now a proud member of the elite few companies in the world that are both WooExperts and Mailchimp Experts.
Our Vision
We aim to keep an eye on the future, as we continuously improve the solutions and services we provide to our clients.
Our Mission
Our mission is to develop excellent WordPress websites for our clients that get great visibility in search engines while generating solid traffic and sales.
Our Work
Sharp mind and expert tools, used to deliver high-performance websites.
We apply the experience gained through our development of several software applications and products to enhancing the performance of WordPress websites. From startups to large-scale digital publishing platforms and on to educational or tour operator websites, we pride ourselves on work that helps our clients find and keep their target market.
Our Culture & Team
Collaborative, nimble, experienced and always with one eye on innovation.
We’re proud of being a nimble team able to meet the demands of an ever-changing digital landscape. The working culture that helps us achieve this is increasingly being adopted across the globe and relies on collaborative tools that keep team members connected, informed and able to deliver on their area of operations.
Meet Our Team
An experienced team of thinkers, innovators and creators.
We’re a tight, self-motivated and collaborative team of individuals that contribute unique skills to every project we work on.
Ash Shaw
CEO
Barbara Kerr
CFO
Warwick Booth
Lead Developer
Chris Vancoillie
Sysadmin
Justin Abrahamse
Developer
Adam Wale
Designer
Lourens Visser
Support
Our Tried & Trusted Approach
Using Lean Thinking and clear communication, we partner with you to deliver innovation.
Partnership
We’re here to listen and understand your needs, so that our team acts efficiently and effectively in delivering what you need, when you need.
Innovation
Our eye is always on the latest and best-in-class solutions that can provide you with cutting-edge innovation that helps you stand out and succeed.
Clear Communication
By presenting our tactical and technical solutions in a clear manner that invites your input, we keep channels open and build your trust in us.
Lean Thinking
With an approach that’s informed by data and analysis, we’re able to ensure our focus is always on the task at hand, whilst being agile and responsive.
Our services follow essential phases of the web design & development process.
Our Experience
It’s our experience in website design and development, with a focus on WooCommerce, that has seen us improve the visibility and traffic for a number of clients in the Tour Operator and eCommerce industries. In the process, our team has accumulated skills that enable us to continue to deliver high-performance websites for tour operators that are targeted at travel packages in relevant markets, whether student, luxury or educational in nature.
Our Speciality
We pride ourselves on helping our clients find and keep their target market – and we achieve this by specialising in enhancing the performance of WordPress websites. To make this happen for you, our team can help set your WooCommerce up to boost sales whether yours is a subscription business, selling physical products or digital courses. Once your sales engine is running smoothly, we’re then able to assist you with marketing yourself online by making use of Mailchimp – and this includes training your team to make the most of automation and email marketing.
Our Partnerships
We’re proud members of an elite global set of Partners that share advances in development which provide us with the ability to super-boost your website. We apply the experience gained through our development of several software applications and products to enhancing the performance of WordPress websites. From startups to large-scale digital publishing platforms and on to educational or tour operator websites, we pride ourselves on work that helps our clients find and keep their target market.
Verified Experts on Invite-Only Professional Networks
We’re proud members of an elite global set of Partners that share advances in development which provide us with the ability to super-boost your website.
Our certifications and verifications for a range of cutting-edge technologies rank us amongst the world’s leading WordPress, WooCommerce and Mailchimp experts – and it’s through our Partner network that we’re able to pass on the benefit of best practices to you, and your online business.
Among our achievements, we’re proud to list the following leading technologies in our field:
WooCommerce Expert
(and listed on WooExperts Directory)
MailChimp Partner
(and listed on Mailchimp Experts Directory)
Wetu
(our custom plugin allows Tour Operators to import Tour Itineraries, Destinations and Accommodation from the Wetu Content API)
Open Source Products
We are committed to keeping our products Open Source.
Our promise to you is to deliver secure and reliable development – and we keep our promise through our commitment open source, with all of our products released and published under the GNU Public License v.3 (and you can view all of our published products over on Github). In line with our committed approach to keeping our LSX theme and extensions free Open Source, we recently released all our extensions and core software on wp.org.
Interested in our Open Source Products? You’ll find them all here.
Open Source Tools
Our team are sponsored the world’s leading development tools:
BrowserStack
(and listed on WooExperts Directory)
GitHub Team
(and listed on Mailchimp Experts Directory)
Our Process
Using over 10 years’ experience, we follow a tried and trusted process to take your online business from where you are, to where you want to be – at LightSpeed.
Assess
We analyse your needs, and then develop concepts which match your requirements, and test these in a round of experiments.
Plan
Once a solution has been decided on, we accelerate the process by developing a detailed spec that includes wireframe design and an implementation plan.
Deploy
Execution now proceeds according to the design and plan, through the migration and expansion of your customised website.
Optimise
Our goal is to review existing processes and technologies with a view to enhancement that will enable your business to stand out from the crowd and meet your targets.
Our Awards
While we consistently hold our work to the highest standards, we’re also very proud that our work has gained recognition and acknowledgement that’s reflected in the range of awards that we’ve earned over the years.
Velociti Programme Winner 2009
LightSpeed Blog – LightSpeed wins the 2009 Velociti Enterprise Development Programme
Future 100 Award 2011
- LightSpeed Blog – Ashley Shaw: Future 100 Platinum award Winner
- Sowetan Live – Platinum award for young entrepreneur
- Vuk’uzenzele produced by Government Communications – Future 100 – the new generation of business leaders crowned
Our Community
Proud Member of the WordPress Community
South Africa Community
With a focus on WordPress development our founder and CEO, Ashley Shaw, has been instrumental in spearheading WordPress gatherings in Cape Town, and organised a WordPress meetup in 2008 specifically on WordPress CEO Matt Mullenweg’s request. Ashley was also one of the organisers of WordCamp in both 2011 and 2012 and since then he and the rest of our team have attended local WordCamps in Cape Town annually.
International Community
As a highly engaged member of the global WordPress community, Ashley has also attended a range of WordPress meetups around the world, including Nijmegen, Munich, and two in Cape Town. In the US, he has attended WordCamp San Francisco 2014 as well as the 2014 WooConf and has also attended WordCamp Europe in Seville (2015), in Vienna (2016) and in Paris (2017), Belgrade (2018), Berlin (2019).
Want A Free Consultation?
Consultations last around 30 minutes and are designed to understand your needs.
Our free 20 to 30-minute consultations assist us in understanding your needs, and can be followed by a paid discovery phase. This might take a week or longer, after which we’re able to cost a discovery phase or, if we are clear enough, we’re able to quote on a proposed solution.