Our story
Our story came about a long time ago in 2010, in a cramped office above a pirate radio station on Balham Station Road SW12, Socially Bright began.
To start with we created Facebook content for brands that wanted to enter the brave new world of social – we helped them adapt to new ways of reaching their audiences; building games, inviting friends, sharing experiences and incentivising behaviour with personalisation.
We were invited into the first wave of Facebook’s Preferred Marketing Partners program which exposed us to new clients, best practice guidelines, collaboration with other dev teams and loads of lovely Facebook swag.
The buzzword on social platforms back then was ‘viral’, soon replaced by ‘organic’ as the marketing euphemism for ‘unpaid-for advertising’. So we built tools to facilitate the sharing of good content, but the fundamentals hadn’t shifted: word of mouth is as old as the hills and users will always want to tell others about anything entertaining or useful. Brands came to us with an overarching creative idea which we’d adapt and enhance for digital and then we’d help amplify it with (‘non-organic’) paid ads.
As other platforms like Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Snapchat increasingly allowed for more user authentication and various degrees of platform integration (such as Snapchat’s location filters) we started to build standalone content that required less customisation and specialist knowledge to develop (by then we had enough swag) but could still thrive in social channels.
By 2015 we had also started building native apps for, amongst others, Toyota and The Woodland Trust. These projects have allowed us to gain experience of the full life cycle of product development from early concepts, through MVPs to mature applications. We have discovered the joys of UX research, delivered penetration testing and implemented responsive designs to fit thousands of screen sizes.
More recently, through working with SOVA Assessment and building up their suite of recruitment tools, we have focussed on Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), which are cheaper, faster and more flexible than native app builds… and may yet come to completely eclipse them. Find out about why this is starting to happen in our White Paper: The End of Native Apps – download it here.
Check out our white paper
People
Tom is our founder,
CEO and
creative head of Socially Bright.
He established the company in 2010 to help organisations develop applications in a much simpler way,
by combining the best of available technologies with a ruthless approach to cutting out unnecessary
features to get the app into users' hands quickly.
He is a patient Arsenal fan, amateur gardener, keen trail runner and trainee kite-surfer.
Tom Gueterbock
Managing Director
Adrian is a senior developer with over 10 years
experience developing front-end UIs on
desktop and mobile, he will find a way to add
his own magic dust to any user experience.
Adrian is unflappable, resilient and highly productive.
He currently spends his coffee breaks
teaching Romanian to the team.
Sperăm că vom fi în curând fluent…
Adrian Stanca
Senior Developer
Sam is a versatile developer and fast learner. Since joining in 2014 he has worked
on dozens of projects writing code in python, PHP, Unity, VueJS and many more.
Coming from a gaming background,
Sam spends his time on Steam
when he’s not coding with us.
Sam Ha
Developer
Marta is a web developer at Socially Bright.
Jill of all trades, whether you need a website,
animation or 3D model made -
she’s your go-to gal.
She is developing her skills in HTML, CSS,
JavaScript, jQuery, After Effects and Blender.
In her spare time she enjoys playing video games on PS4.
Marta Mendonca
Developer
Christine is our Financial Controller, resident
Feng Shui and interior design guru.
She counts out loud, likes jazz flute
(who doesn’t?) has the longest
Starbucks order and most importantly
reconciles everything to the penny.
Basically, she’s got your number.
Christine Roberts
Financial Controller
Stu is an experienced technical lead and brings a pragmatic and reassuring influence to all projects.
He is both a client-side and server-side programmer skilled in JavaScript, Node.js, Vue, PHP, Laravel, Craft CMS, Wordpress, Zend Framework and AWS.
According to Adrian, he only pronounces two words correctly: 'bus' and 'pub'.
Stu McAlpine
Technical Lead
Ali asks the fundamental questions right at the start - the who, why and what.
She challenges assumptions, pokes received wisdoms and asks questions...and only then will
she start to think about an app's design. From this point, the sketches, UX and interface
work will start to flow.
Ali loves painting abstracts, bikes and black tea.
https://mrspeate.dunked.com
https://mrspeate.dunked.com
Ali Peate
UX/UI Designer
Rachel does all of our marketing and lead generation with a great deal of professional precision and personal charm. She teaches yoga and consequently operates from a standing desk all day long, comfortably out-lasting everyone else.
Rachel Ellis
Marketing Manager
Tom is our founder,
Managing Director and the
creative head of Socially Bright.
He established the company in 2010 to help organisations develop applications in a much simpler way,
by combining the best of available technologies with a ruthless approach to cutting out unnecessary
features that allows an app to get into the hands of its users quickly.
He is a patient Arsenal fan, amateur gardener, keen trail runner and trainee kite-surfer.
Tom Gueterbock
Managing Director
Adrian is a senior developer with over 10 years
experience developing front-end UIs on
desktop and mobile, he will find a way to add
his own magic dust to any user experience.
Adrian is unflappable, resilient and highly productive.
He currently spends his coffee breaks
teaching Romanian to the team.
Sperăm că vom fi în curând fluent…
Adrian Stanca
Senior Developer
Sam is a versatile developer and fast learner. Since joining in 2014 he has worked
on dozens of projects writing code in python, PHP, Unity, VueJS and many more.
Coming from a gaming background,
Sam spends his time on Steam
when he’s not coding with us.
Sam Ha
Developer
Marta is a web developer at Socially Bright.
Jack of all trades, whether you need a website,
animation or 3D model made -
she’s your go-to gal.
She is developing her skills in HTML, CSS,
JavaScript, jQuery, After Effects and Blender.
In her spare time she enjoys playing video games on PS4.
Marta Mendonca
Developer
Christine is our Financial Controller, resident
Feng Shui and interior design guru.
She counts out loud, likes jazz flute
(who doesn’t?) has the longest
Starbucks order and most importantly
reconciles everything to the penny.
Basically, she’s got your number.
Christine Roberts
Financial Controller
Stu is an experienced technical lead and brings a pragmatic and reassuring influence to all projects.
He is both a client-side and server-side programmer skilled in JavaScript, Node.js, Vue, PHP, Laravel, Craft CMS, Wordpress, Zend Framework and AWS.
According to Adrian, he only pronounces two words correctly: 'bus' and 'pub'.
Stu McAlpine
Contractor
Ali asks the fundamental questions right at the start - the who, why and what.
She challenges assumptions, pokes received wisdoms and asks questions...and only then will
she start to think about an app's design. From this point, the sketches, UX and interface
work will start to flow.
Ali loves painting abstracts, bikes and black tea.
https://mrspeate.dunked.com
https://mrspeate.dunked.com
Ali Peate
Graphic Designer
Rachel does all of our marketing and lead generation with a great deal of professional precision and personal charm. She teaches yoga and consequently operates from a standing desk all day long, comfortably out-lasting everyone else.
Rachel Ellis
Marketing Manager
Become a part of our growing creative team
Tom is our founder,
Managing Director and the
creative head of Socially Bright.
He established the company in 2010 to help organisations develop applications in a much simpler way,
by combining the best of available technologies with a ruthless approach to cutting out unnecessary
features that allows an app to get into the hands of its users quickly.
He is a patient Arsenal fan, amateur gardener, keen trail runner and trainee kite-surfer.
Tom Gueterbock
Managing Director
Adrian is a senior developer with over 10 years
experience developing front-end UIs on
desktop and mobile, he will find a way to add
his own magic dust to any user experience.
Adrian is unflappable, resilient and highly productive.
He currently spends his coffee breaks
teaching Romanian to the team.
Sperăm că vom fi în curând fluent…
Adrian Stanca
Senior Developer
Sam is a versatile developer and fast learner. Since joining in 2014 he has worked
on dozens of projects writing code in python, PHP, Unity, VueJS and many more.
Coming from a gaming background,
Sam spends his time on Steam
when he’s not coding with us.
Sam Ha
Developer
Marta is a web developer at Socially Bright.
Jack of all trades, whether you need a website,
animation or 3D model made -
she’s your go-to gal.
She is developing her skills in HTML, CSS,
JavaScript, jQuery, After Effects and Blender.
In her spare time she enjoys playing video games on PS4.
Marta Mendonca
Developer
Christine is our Financial Controller, resident
Feng Shui and interior design guru.
She counts out loud, likes jazz flute
(who doesn’t?) has the longest
Starbucks order and most importantly
reconciles everything to the penny.
Basically, she’s got your number.
Christine Roberts
Financial Controller
Stu is an experienced technical lead and brings a pragmatic and reassuring influence to all projects.
He is both a client-side and server-side programmer skilled in JavaScript, Node.js, Vue, PHP, Laravel, Craft CMS, Wordpress, Zend Framework and AWS.
According to Adrian, he only pronounces two words correctly: 'bus' and 'pub'.
Stu McAlpine
Contractor
Ali asks the fundamental questions right at the start - the who, why and what.
She challenges assumptions, pokes received wisdoms and asks questions...and only then will
she start to think about an app's design. From this point, the sketches, UX and interface
work will start to flow.
Ali loves painting abstracts, bikes and black tea.
https://mrspeate.dunked.com
Ali Peate
Graphic Designer
Rachel does all of our marketing and lead generation with a great deal of professional precision and personal charm. She teaches yoga and consequently operates from a standing desk all day long, comfortably out-lasting everyone else.
Rachel Ellis
Marketing Manager
Tom is our founder,
Managing Director and the
creative head of Socially Bright.
He established the company in 2010 to help organisations develop applications in a much simpler way,
by combining the best of available technologies with a ruthless approach to cutting out unnecessary
features that allows an app to get into the hands of its users quickly.
He is a patient Arsenal fan, amateur gardener, keen trail runner and trainee kite-surfer.
Tom Gueterbock
Managing Director
Adrian is a senior developer with over 10 years
experience developing front-end UIs on
desktop and mobile, he will find a way to add
his own magic dust to any user experience.
Adrian is unflappable, resilient and highly productive.
He currently spends his coffee breaks
teaching Romanian to the team.
Sperăm că vom fi în curând fluent…
Adrian Stanca
Senior Developer
Sam is a versatile developer and fast learner. Since joining in 2014 he has worked
on dozens of projects writing code in python, PHP, Unity, VueJS and many more.
Coming from a gaming background,
Sam spends his time on Steam
when he’s not coding with us.
Sam Ha
Developer
Marta is a web developer at Socially Bright.
Jack of all trades, whether you need a website,
animation or 3D model made -
she’s your go-to gal.
She is developing her skills in HTML, CSS,
JavaScript, jQuery, After Effects and Blender.
In her spare time she enjoys playing video games on PS4.
Marta Mendonca
Developer
Christine is our Financial Controller, resident
Feng Shui and interior design guru.
She counts out loud, likes jazz flute
(who doesn’t?) has the longest
Starbucks order and most importantly
reconciles everything to the penny.
Basically, she’s got your number.
Christine Roberts
Financial Controller
Stu is an experienced technical lead and brings a pragmatic and reassuring influence to all projects.
He is both a client-side and server-side programmer skilled in JavaScript, Node.js, Vue, PHP, Laravel, Craft CMS, Wordpress, Zend Framework and AWS.
According to Adrian, he only pronounces two words correctly: 'bus' and 'pub'.
Stu McAlpine
Contractor
Ali asks the fundamental questions right at the start - the who, why and what.
She challenges assumptions, pokes received wisdoms and asks questions...and only then will
she start to think about an app's design. From this point, the sketches, UX and interface
work will start to flow.
Ali loves painting abstracts, bikes and black tea.
https://mrspeate.dunked.com
Ali Peate
Graphic Designer
Rachel does all of our marketing and lead generation with a great deal of professional precision and personal charm. She teaches yoga and consequently operates from a standing desk all day long, comfortably out-lasting everyone else.