Today we’re talking to Gaga Darsalia, Founder & CEO of Redberry; and we discuss why the country of Georgia is becoming a tech talent hub; why developers will fall in love with Laravel; and why genuinely caring for your employees is both fulfilling and pragmatic.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

Check out more of Gaga and Redberry at https://redberry.international/!

About Gaga Darsalia:

I got interested in digital marketing and tech early on in my life – when I was still in high school. I read tons of threads about SEO on various forums and built my first SEO-optimized website back in 2009. So to join the two passions, I took computer science as a minor while studying at Free University’s ESM business school.

I am a builder by nature, and since I was a kid, I have always had an urge to start a company. While at university, my friends and I created one of Georgia’s first e-commerce websites. We were also building interactive books for kids as mobile applications. However, we saw these ventures as a playground to learn and experiment rather than businesses at that time.

Soon after graduating from business school, my classmate and I co-founded Redberry in 2014. At that time, there was just one digital agency in Georgia. However, with the rise of internet consumption, many Georgian companies shifted their attention toward building their own digital platforms and using digital channels for growth. So, despite our young age, we soon managed to acquire many of Georgia’s top brands as our clients in various categories like banking, real estate, retail, insurance, telecom, healthcare, etc. From the beginning, we were focused on bringing business value to our clients. We were striving to bring growth to Georgian businesses through the digital transformation of their consumer touchpoints. That paid off in a big way. As our clients saw growth and our work started to get international recognition (we earned 150+ international awards), Redberry grew into Georgia’s biggest digital agency over the next few years.

In 2019 we raised $3.2mln from an LSE-listed investment company – Georgia Capital, to create our startup studio – the first of its kind in Georgia. We funded several startups and provided human capital for product development and growth. However, after the Covid pandemic hit, we realized that the world shifted to different forms of remote/hybrid work for good, which would further accelerate the demand for outsourcing, especially for product design and software development services. So we decided to shift our focus to transforming our agency and startup studio experience into outsourced service offerings, and thus Redberry International was born in late 2021.

Within the past two years, Redberry shifted 100% of product design and software development services to exports. At present, we have clients and partners in more than 10 countries of the EU, the US, Australia, Singapore, etc. With the rise of tech talent in Georgia and our local brand awareness, we are perfectly positioned to attract the country’s best talent. That lets us provide an excellent opportunity for our clients to partner up with a top-grade software and growth agency with very affordable pricing due to our location and Georgia’s huge tax benefits for IT outsourcing.

About Redberry:

We are a 100+ award-winning, official Vue and Laravel partner software design, development, and creative growth agency in Tbilisi, Georgia. Starting as a 4-person boutique in 2014, we are now more than 150 and represent the biggest agency in the country.

We’ve worked with local and international industry leaders like Bank of Georgia, KFC, Wolt, Zara, Aldagi, M2 Real Estate, Elit Electronics, and others. We grow our clients’ businesses by transforming consumer journeys through innovative design and robust tech solutions, crafting powerful brands, and aggressive growth marketing.

We currently help EU and US-based startups, agencies, and enterprises extend their product design and development teams to create future-proof digital products.

We have made some influential partners along our journey; Redberry is an official Google, Facebook Marketing, amoCRM, Semrush, Vue, and Laravel partner. And we’ve been named Agency of the Year in 2019 and 2021.