We wanted to develop something which would do the tedious work for you while you focus on what really matters, Gilbert Camilleri, founder and CEO at Ellp, says.
When did you set up Ellp Ltd and with what aims?
Ellp was set-up early last year with a very ambitious target of launching a minimum viable product by September 2016. At the time, we even had a different idea of what Ellp would look like. Our mantra, however, was always very clear – that of shaking up the Windows space with a product that significantly improves people’s device experience. Together with the amazing talent we have on board we kept on iterating on our own idea until we finally launched the Ellp you’ll find today.
You are pitching Ellp as an automation tool that helps users regain precious little moments in their daily lives. What efficiency gains would Ellp users expect to make?
While not many can afford to hire a butler at home, we dreamt of introducing this concept in people’s digital life. How cool would it be to have someone – or something – to do the tedious work for you while you focus on what really matters?
With Ellp, we want to provide as many automation options as possible – we’re counting 40 so far – to help PC users get more productive, less stressed, and just a little bit happier.
What are Ellp’s main functionalities? And are these aimed at individuals or corporate users?
Ellp is a free PC platform available to everyone whereby you’ll find a series of options – we call them ‘cards’ – that you can simply choose from, edit and activate. Ellp is a sort of app store where you can simply pick the things that make sense to you the most. We are constantly updating Ellp with new automation cards that will allow users to boost their productivity, keep their PC performance in check, safeguard their online security and ease entertainment. What if you get a ping when you spend too much time on Facebook? Or what if you get alerted if your online accounts have been compromised? Or get Youtube loaded whenever you plug in your headphones? Or else have duplicate files deleted each time you download attachments more than once? With Ellp you can do this and much much more.
With over 200,000 Ellp cards activated, Ellp assisted users more than one million times over the past year
When did you launch Ellp and how was it received?
The Beta version of Ellp was launched in October 2016 and here we are a year later with over 100,000 downloads from over 180 countries worldwide. With over 200,000 Ellp cards activated, Ellp assisted users more than one million times over the past year. The product is available to download for free but we plan to introduce some premium features in the next two quarters. It’s not that we can benchmark ourselves to any other similar software on Windows right now but experience suggests that we’re on to a good start.
What I’m proud of the most is that we got feedback from over 3,800 users so far, congratulating us and contributing to improving our product.
Were downloads mostly local or have you also managed to tap into other markets?
Through our industry network, we managed to get visibility and features on the top PC sites worldwide. These gave us a massive push organically and allowed us to gain traction in our early days. Most of our users reside in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France and Germany. We are also seeing a lot of local support which is awesome! Other than that, we focus a lot on our inbound marketing and customer success strategies making sure that we rope in the right type of users and that we nurture them along their journey with Ellp.
Do you plan to introduce any upgrades? And will you be developing Ellp for other platforms such as tablets and smartphones?
I would love to have Ellp already available on Mac. In reality, being a startup you have to be very careful not to bite more than you can chew and that your efforts are focused and not dispersed. We still have a long way to go to really nail our Windows presence and developing a cross-platform product is not on our priority list right now.
Are you currently developing other products?
We look at Ellp cards as being a sort of mini-products that we’re constantly adding to the platform. You can pretty much say that Ellp comes with 40 features already and that number will keep on growing every month. I sincerely encourage all PC users who look to have more time on their hands to visit www.ellp.com and give this software a try. It’s worth it and it’s free!
Man on a mission
Gilbert Camilleri, 32, graduated in computing and read for a postgraduate degree in management. Although he spends most of his hours working in and around technology, he does not consider himself to be a tech geek and says that his biggest passion is sports. “My flair is for leading teams, which came about from my first attempt in startups – a football club which is still going strong today.”