Why Saying No Helped Them Scale From Freelancers to Global Clients

In this episode of The Founder Files, we’re joined by Angelo Zanetti, co-founder of Elemental, a custom software development agency that’s quietly grown into a global force serving clients across South Africa, Europe, and the UK. Angelo takes us through the 20-year journey from two self-taught devs to a 25-person team, navigating everything from messy pivots to failed products and bold repositioning. But beneath the surface is a rare founder philosophy: simplify complexity, serve with excellence, and grow by focus; not by fluff.

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We dive into:

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• How Elemental grew from freelancers to a full agency

• Their bold move from subcontractors to owning the client journey

• Defining their ideal clients and niching down

• Why they shut down a growing marketing division to focus

• Winning international clients without meetings

• How AI is shifting dev work—and how they’re adapting

• What founders should know before building their own product

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This episode is packed with real founder insight, from one of the most grounded voices in the dev world.