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It was a mission to eliminate the complicated and inefficient nature of building websites for B2B enterprises. The company is looking for people who care about communication, achieving targets, and focus on the company’s growth. Hooked on Code is a website agency with business and working organizations globally.
Today Hooked on Code continuously brings women into the tech industry through their HOC University Mentorship program.
Their refined no-bull process has been delivering 5-star customer satisfaction since 2014. In addition, they are proficient in creating and redesigning websites using modern and flexible tools like WordPress.
EXCLUSIVE: We got into a conversation with Torre Capistran, the Chief Executive Officer of Hooked on Code to learn more about the company and how its sensing solutions serve its customers better!
1. Please give an overview of your company. Describe your Core – offering that addresses the needs of your customers.
Hooked on Code is a clarity-focused website agency working with businesses and organizations globally. We are skilled at creating mesmerizing, functional, and easy- to edit websites. With the help of our refined process, we have been delivering five-star customer satisfaction since 2014.
Our company specializes in making premium and responsive websites like WordPress websites. Our services include website design development, website redesign, website consulting, search engine optimization consulting, branding consulting, email marketing and campaign consulting, digital marketing, and the creation of E-commerce websites.
Our core value discovery started over a year ago when we began to work through traction by Gino Wickman ( which is highly recommended to all the business owners). We have five core values-
● Simplicity
● Authenticity
● Relentless forward Motion
● Excitement
● Delight The knot between our agency’s purpose and our final core value reinforces the importance of both, making it easier for us to act in a way that aligns with our values and fulfills our purpose.
2. What kind of Clients do you serve? What makes your company a preferred choice among your clients over other companies?
We primarily serve B2B companies.
Some of our features which differentiate us from others are:-
● We are female-owned and run. We approach design and development differently. Our design and development all happen in the same breath.
● Our Workshop Reviews cut out the feedback loop.
● We are obsessed with efficiency
● We strive to bring delight to projects and client relationships.
● Our team is weird, and they rock.
3. What is the role of your staff in the success of your firm?
Our team embodies our mission and core values which is essential since they are the ones who essentially keep our promises to our clients. Likewise, as I said before, the company is looking for people who care about communication, achieving targets, and focusing on growth.
The backbone of our company is the idea that we don’t have to have different people for each task. We also have identified client-friendly processes and concrete tools that we rely on, as we keep asking ourselves during development and in tool selection.
4. What would you like to say when it comes to the straight question, why you should be hired for the service?
So, answering that I would love to tell you that we believe in our innovation that is why people should hire us. Our innovation in the process of this old school segmented, fractured process is what sets us apart.
This creates trust and builds a partner-style relationship. “We treat our clients the way we expect our vendors to treat us—Open, honest, bullfree communication. “We treat our clients the way we expect our vendors to treat us. Open, honest, bull-free communication.”
5. Tell us something about yourself!
With a prime focus on mentorship and a passion for creating space for more women in the tech field, I led the team at Hooked On Code to develop and launch the Hooked On Code University. While unofficially started in 2015, the mentorship program celebrated its first official mentee was established in 2021 when a young mother was able to pursue her dream of entering the development industry.
After participating in the HOC University, she was hired by a global technology company and given a clear career path that will lead her to become the backend developer she has worked very hard to become.
In addition to launching the HOC University Mentorship Program, I tried to regularly make myself available to anyone interested in the industry and brainstorms how they might carve out their own space in the tech industry via virtual coffee dates/chats. Since 2015 I have scheduled 40+ such meetings with women and men from all walks of life. Many have gone on to pursue a career in the tech industry.
6. Do you have any plans for 2022 and beyond that? You would like to share with our readers?
Hooked On Code is consistently streamlining its operations with other simplified processes to create transformative shifts in the industry and improve the experience for our clients. In addition, our goal continues to be to bring women into the tech industry through our HOC University Mentorship Program.
My desire and efforts to grow and positively impact the tech industry have resulted in many initiatives. She has sought out mentorship from her peers via conferences, an EO group, business podcasts, and books. Her tremendous love of learning has resulted in a Bitchin’ Books For Business YouTube series. However, I knows it’s not enough to learn. Implementation and practice are essential. Implementing what she has learned resulted in the following initiatives:
● Creating a Proven Process eliminates time and resource waste and has allowed the team to adjust as the industry experiences shifts or the client’s needs change.
● Cross-training teams have enabled members to step into various roles, offer support as needed, and keep projects on schedule and under budget.
● Flexibility is surprisingly uncommon in the tech industry. I am actively striving to foster a workplace culture that allows her team to be autonomous, valued for their expertise and contributions and challenged in their roles. This is done by encouraging round table style collaboration, holding space to experiment and make mistakes, and encouraging individual ownership of tasks and initiatives.
● Already implemented or in progress are the competitive pay, flexible schedules, take what you need vacation policy, open door/open book policies, ongoing training and paid to learn program.
Hooked on Code is also recognized as the top women-owned -business for 2022. On April 17,2022Hooked on Code was also awarded a Silver Stevie to achieve continuous customer satisfaction.
Can you detail any specific industry-based challenges you are facing and may do shortly? By extension, if applicable, what impact has COVID-19 had on your industry or operations? Were there any unexpected benefits or advantages to the situation you found yourself in? In 2020, we saw project work virtually disappear with the pandemic.
Our team dedicated ourselves to the happiness of our current client base, which would if retained, support our team’s salaries through the decline. We launched a Customer Appreciation Program, including Client Appreciation Week when clients were publicly recognized on social media, and a team member personally called each client. We refreshed training for the support team, compiled a new manual for working on client tickets, and started tracking client compliments and complaints so we could address any issues early on.
A bootstrapped company that started with no marketing budget, we have seen organic growth year over year entirely from referrals: $72K in 2015 to $306k in 2019.
We are most proud of one statistic: We have never missed a project launch date. Ever.
What Are You Focused On In The Next Year?
Graduating another participant and mentee from our Hooked On Code University. We are very focused on launching another woman into the tech industry, specifically website development. With a focus on mentorship and a passion for creating space for more women in the tech field, Torre led the team at Hooked On Code to develop and launch the Hooked On Code University.
While started in 2015, the mentorship program celebrated its first official mentee launch in 2021 when a young mother was able to pursue her dream of entering the development industry. After participating in the HOC University, she was hired by a global technology company and given a clear career path that will lead her to become the backend developer she has worked so hard to become.
Why Do People Want To Work With your company?
We have usually been through a redesign or rebuild or creation for a website project. And It was a harrowing experience. And when we dig in with all of these potential clients, or new clients at why it felt so bad, they all say the same thing. We repeatedly hear things that go back to the standard web development process, which can be traced back to methods that were developed out of necessity when the web was new. And there weren’t the tools that are available today.
And the process is to have a designer design a website. These static files are pictures, Photoshop files or sketch files that show what the site could be once it’s built. The client signs off on the design, which is then handed to a developer, and the developer’s job is to take that picture and turn it into a functional website. There are check-ins (hopefully), Q&A and check out the final results.
This segmentation of the process is that designers design in a silo and developers develop in the silo. And first of all, with this process, the end product is inferior for not having these smart people collaborating and troubleshooting together. There is a solution to this out there. I think it’s called collaborative design. That’s not exactly what we do because that requires multiple, specialized team members to work together.
What do we have to say?
Torre and her whole team continuously strive to bring women in the tech industry. They organize various Mentorship programs and various training as it will also increase their company growth and help bring women into their team.
Torre and her team were up for the challenge and even added the guarantee clause to all project contracts in 2021. One of the secrets to the success of this initiative is clear, open communication with clients and within the team itself. Torre has empowered her team to own their areas of responsibility and focuses on always keeping clients in the loop regardless of the news being delivered.
Hooked on Code is a growing website agency that helps companies build fantastic and impactful websites. This company has many unique features which differentiate them from other companies. They provide quality service.
They are doing a great job of encouraging and empowering women. The whole team of this company is proficient and hardworking. Their mentorship programs are beneficial. Anyone who wants to redesign or rebuild their website should choose Hooked on Code company. For more information,
you may visit Services Page: https://youtu.be/KH7kM1pelNQ
Press Page: https://hookedoncode.com/press/
“I don’t know where we’d be today without having firm core values - they inform literally everything we do. Our core values have evolved quite a bit over the past few years. we’ve gone through 3 revisions and will probably experience more as they settle.”
