An interview with Power Elite, AA-Team
Based in Romania, AA-Team are one of our newest Power Elite Authors. We decided to ask them some questions about how they got started and how they built a business out of doing what they love. These answers have been lightly edited for clarity. Enjoy!
Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from, what do you do for a living?
Our team started with the two of us – my husband Andrew and myself, Alexandra – that’s how AA-Team was born. In 2010 we started developing small projects on CodeCanyon, and afterwards we moved towards developing WordPress Plugins & Themes. Since then our team has grown to 10 members: Eros, Victor, Andrew B, Catalin, Bogdan, Liviu, Alex & George.
Tell us one thing about you no one else knows?
We work out of passion, trying to create products that will ease the life of our clients, and ourselves.
Is there anything unusual or special about how you work?
We try to be relaxed, we don’t wish to become a corporation, we just want to do what we love.
Is there anything unusual or noteworthy about your life experience?
Yes and no. Experience taught us that ideas are everywhere, you just need to catch a good one and put it into practice. If you won’t do it, someone else will surely do.
Why are you doing what you are doing? What do you love about it?
We love design and our colleagues are passionate about programming. We like to develop unique and complicated things. And don’t forget, each product has to solve some need.
What’s your most memorable client/customer story on Envato?
In three years we had a customer that submitted over 120 tickets on our support system. It became a celebration when he stopped submitting tickets! We almost miss him!
What’s the most challenging thing about your work?
People sharing common ideas/thoughts. We found ourselves many times in the situation in which we were only days away from launching a big project only to find out someone else just made a similar project, based on the same idea, and launching it before us. So, the challenge is to always be the first.
Name a few people who inspire you and why?
We’re a team and we inspire each other! 😀
What is your advice to other authors regarding how to create a successful portfolio?
Be serious and consistent about what you do. If you start from the idea that you will make one very popular product and that this will make you rich, you’d probably be better off playing the lottery, you’d have better chances there! Listen to your customers and don’t throw yourself head-first into the game. Work hard and be patient, results will eventually show.
Is where you live a good place to be a creative professional? Why?
Where you live doesn’t matter so much. If you want to do something in your life you can easily do it on a small dark room with no windows, a computer and a chair. Not saying you should do so – that would be no life – but the takeaway here is: all you need are dreams, and the ambition to fulfil them!
What do you do to market your files?
Nothing special, only good copy writing. A few years ago I learned that copy writing is important for digital products, and decided to learn how to do it well. Other than that, a small amount of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Dribble, Behance) also helps.
Apart from yourself, who is your favourite marketplace author, and why do you like them?
I’m gonna say wpbakery. Visual Composer is a very serious product, very well made, as concept, functionality & coding and it deserves everyone’s admiration.
What do you do in your spare time?
Most of my colleagues have similar hobbies like watching movie shows, swimming, hiking, playing guitar etc. But we also have colleagues passionate about developing apps, 3d printing and robotics.
How do you feel about your achievement?
We’re proud to have managed something this big at this age! But to grow further, we must work hard to reach our next targets!
Congratulate AA-Team in the forums, and check out their portfolio of items on CodeCanyon, ThemeForest and GraphicRiver!
