There can’t be many internet marketing companies with over ten years’ experience. The dot com cleanout took care of many of them at the turn of the century. But Quirk eMarketing, founded in 1999 by Rob Stokes when he was at university, is still around and thriving. As well as offering a digital media marketing service, Quirk’s accumulated experience in the field is available for free as an online textbook that’s now used around the world. Stokes says the early years were slow.

“I was at UCT doing a business science and marketing degree when I founded Quirk,” he recalls. “The company didn’t grow all that quickly, a factor that contributed to it surviving the dot com crash. I was originally inspired by Mark Shuttleworth.