We do this by creating elegant and sophisticated custom software that people love. Our passion is to foster genuine relationships while “making valuable stuff”.
Nearing the end of his undergraduate degree, Ben discovers contract programming beats
working at McDonalds.
Alliance chosen as the name because long term partnerships are important.
Based originally in rural Victoria, we take on our first staff member and first “serious” client.
Ben & Levi meet at Melbourne University. Levi’s finishing a double degree in Law & Software Engineering, Ben is doing a Masters degree in Software Engineering part time.
Ben receives a compelling offer to join Accenture and Levi is in line for roles with Google or Microsoft. It’s time to get serious or get out. Levi becomes a business partner and the decision is made to grow a “real” business. A huge thanks to our wives who supported us!
Within two years of turning down corporate jobs, the business grows to nine staff. Ben and Levi soon learn the value of highly skilled staff and the need for management and leadership skills. Significant effort is made to refine a highly effective recruitment platform.
In partnership with our former general manager, Eugene Ware, we launch Noble Samurai. We
discover how challenging and expensive a startup can be.
Our flagship product
Market Samurai will in time be downloaded over 1,600,000 times and sell over 90,000
copies.
In partnership with a key client, Aged Care Online, we develop Web2TV; an in house TV platform for the Aged Care industry. In time we grow to reach over 10,000 residents.
After a series of successful collaborations, Alliance Software acquires the digital design agency Web Elements. New staff Daniel and Luke patiently teach the very technically minded Alliance staff the value of User Experience design and open doors to key new client relationships.
We build our first commercial mobile app. Over the coming years we develop a series of apps, often to integrate with larger web platforms.
As experience and reputation in delivering complex custom software grows, the strategic decision is made to stop offering web design and online marketing services and focus exclusively on software development and supporting services; including User Experience consulting.
After a series of successful projects, the strategic decision is made to use Python as our default server side programming language.
Our startup journey goes full circle as we sell our Aged Care platform to a public company.
With Web2TV sold and a clear technical direction, Alliance nearly doubles in size over a four year period.
Values are clarified and become core to all we do. A serious investment is made to formalise systems and processes across the company from project delivery, finance, hiring and more. Ben can take an 8 week holiday and the business performs well.
The strategic decision is made to develop a specialisation in Artificial Intelligence (or
Machine Learning).
Expertise grows through both hiring and internal staff
training. Excitement builds as early projects are completed.
Successful completion of three projects in the 500K - 1.5 million dollar range.
Ben founded Alliance in 1999 during his final year of University. Despite topping his
entire graduating year and receiving a variety of enticing offers, Ben opted to build
the Alliance business.
Ben is a passionate entrepreneur with a deep interest in both tech startups and business
process optimisation. To this day, Ben continues to take a hands on role in a number of
startups; including serving as both a board member and key strategic advisor.
In 2004, Levi Cameron became a business partner and the technical lead of the firm. Levi
is a world class engineer and technologist and has been the catalyst for Alliance
identifying and attracting its team of high calibre developers.
The partnership has proved to be very successful, with Ben providing the passion, energy
and strategy; balanced by Levi’s stable and consistent technical leadership. This union
has allowed Alliance to grow whilst also funding and incubating two successful tech
startups.
We hire, reward and regularly review everyone here by our “GOAT” values.
We know someone is great to work with when they:
1. Are positive and considerate - nice to work with
2. Encourage peer success - actively help those they work with be their best
3. Teach and learn - are always learning and look for opportunities to teach others
As an individual, I live the ownership value when:
1. I do what I say - go the extra mile to keep my commitments, big or small
2. I actively communicate - regularly keep my team informed - no surprises
3. I’m invested - care about the technical and business outcomes of my work
We place a high value on intelligence and have refined our recruitment processes over many years
to help us find highly capable staff. We define ability as the balance of:
1. Speed - how quickly I produce my work
2. Quality - the calibre of the work I do
3. Insight - the broader thinking I bring to my work
We’re actively open in our work together. Ideas & processes can be challenged by anyone (not
just our most senior staff). We live this in three ways.
1. Open by default - we tell the truth, good or bad. Our only secrets are “other
people’s” secrets, e.g. confidential staff or client information
2. Direct conversations - no politics, instead we raise problems kindly and directly with
those involved
3. Acknowledge my mistakes - we make it easy for others to have a direct conversation
with us by openly acknowledging our mistakes
Kristie Davis (Project Management), Naser Soueid (Project Management), Andrea Stickland (Legal & Finance), Levi Cameron (Tech Lead & Director), Sarah Peeke (Account Management), Ben Stickland (Founder & CEO), David Coates (CTO), Alex Green (General Manager)
Need an elegant, robust and fully tailored solution? We’re easy to understand, and focus on your key business outcomes.
Taking a new idea to market? We’ve funded & built two of our own highly successful startups & we’d love to help you through the process.
Discover the many ways AI can help grow and streamline your business right now. Talk to one of our AI specialists today.
Some clients like to work side by side with the team delivering their project. We’ve setup dedicated workspaces for this purpose and you’re welcome anytime.
With 35+ staff, quality prebuilt modules and “can-do” pragmatism, we’re geared up to create your “Minimum Lovable Product” and get your revenue flowing ASAP.
We’ve made mistakes, learned key lessons and launched two successful startups of our own. Our first startup went all the way to a successful trade sale and our second now earns 1.5 million in recurring revenue. We’d love to help you too.
We genuinely care about your commercial success. Whether it’s helping you with fast, low cost techniques to test and refine your concept or strategic guidance as you progress, we’re focused on what matters to you.
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