Okupter

Okupter's History

From a Blog to an Agency: The Journey

By Justin Ahinon, Founding Engineer at Okupter

Okupter began as a humble blog in early 2022. Initially, my intention was to share technical insights on frontend and full stack web development, emphasizing web performance and accessibility.

The Discovery of Svelte

A few years back, I delved into the world of static site generators. I experimented with tools like Astro, 11ty, Jekyll, among others. That journey led me to discover Svelte.

Despite not being a static site generator, Svelte shifted my focus. Coming from a React background, I was instantly captivated by the simplicity of Svelte . Its ability to enable writing highly interactive code, combined with a declarative syntax and features like stores and fine-grained reactivity, was exhilarating.

Building with Svelte

I immersed myself in learning Svelte, creating hobby apps along the way. My advocacy for Svelte at the agency I worked for resulted in the implementation of Svelte components in various NBA and WNBA websites .

Parallel to this, I continued writing technical content on my blog, now focused on Svelte and SvelteKit. The blog, initially a passion project, started gaining significant traffic after a few months.

Transitioning into Services

With increased dedication, the blog grew, and reader inquiries for help with their Svelte and SvelteKit projects began to flow in. To address these requests, I introduced structured services on the website, such as:

  • Hour-based mentoring sessions on Svelte and SvelteKit

  • Svelte and SvelteKit development services

  • Support services for Svelte and SvelteKit

  • And more...

Simultaneously, I worked as a freelance contractor on projects centered around the Svelte (Kit) stack.

A Turning Point

Balancing my role as a Senior Frontend Engineer at a leading WordPress agency, where I worked on projects for the NBA, WNBA, and G League, became challenging.

The high expectations in both roles led to my departure from the full-time job due to performance issues.

Embracing Opportunity

Though a tough setback, I viewed it as a chance to fully commit to Okupter as an agency.

My initial plan was to devote four months to this endeavor, after which I would decide whether to continue or return to full-time employment based on my experience and the revenue generated.

Those four months have now extended to over a year, with Okupter thriving. I’ve had the privilege with an amazing team, on significant, niche, and impactful projects.

Today's Okupter

Currently, Okupter comprises a small yet highly skilled team of two, specializing in Svelte and SvelteKit development. Our focus has narrowed to providing a unique, efficient, sprint-based development service in Svelte and SvelteKit.

Our Core Values

The values that guide us today remain unchanged from those I held when I started the blog: building and teaching others to create highly efficient, performant, and accessible web experiences using Svelte and SvelteKit.