Wise Pirates is a digital business partner, not just a service provider, unlike agencies. As a partner, it aims to contribute to the company’s improvement as a whole where the team works as an extension of the company’s team, deep diving into their business and guiding them through the world of digital. 

In 2017, Pedro Barbosa started Wise Pirates in a small garage, with a dream and 0 clients. Ever since, the company has been growing more than 70% per year 5 years in a row, with innovation and automation at the core. Now, 5 years later, it has grown to a team of more than 120 people and has worked with more than 500 brands in different markets, in areas such as retail, finance, education, health, and so on. “If I could ever have imagined that we would be here today? Absolutely not. But I know part of it is because we were able to build a hard-working, smart and curious team throughout these years,” says Pedro who currently leads Wise Pirates at the forefront as the Chief Executive Officer and immensely contributes to its success. 

Uniqueness of Digital Independency

Wise Pirates reflects the uniqueness of a digital independent boutique that has a unique value proposition in the mix of consultancy, operation, data specialist and tech integrator in one. It also demonstrates the beauty of making it happen from scratch, with a startup ramp-up curve, but without financing or investors, just pure stamina towards action orientation, acting in a totally different way in a crowded market. Most importantly, it portrays that innovation comes in a structured way permanently, because of the cellular system inside that stimulates innovation by design at the very core, every day, by everyone. 

The company’s main digital marketing service is the one it has been betting on since the beginning: performance marketing. Wise Pirates designs, operationalizes and executes multichannel digital communication strategies, which include, in addition to leading expertise in areas such as social networks and Google. Besides this, it has been focusing on areas such as marketing automation, e-commerce end-to-end, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Customer Data Platform (CDP), Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM), data projects and production of e-commerce sites in Shopify, in addition to a broad offer of GMP and Cloud. 

Garnering an experience with more than 500 brands, Wise Pirates identified a lot of companies that need support in a range of these areas and, more than just helping companies in digital, it aims to use the best of digital to help companies in all areas of their business. Therefore, its compensation model is different from the competition: besides its base fee, Wise Pirates works with a performance fee, based on KPIs defined by the client. This allows the company to share the risks and rewards, and it believes this is the model that allows the company and the client to work closely and grow together. 

Working with Mature Markets Globally

Although Wise Pirates already works with markets like Switzerland, USA and Brazil, for example, its main clients are SMEs and enterprise-level companies in the home market of Portugal, one of the vibrant European tech valleys today. With Portugal developing fast in the digital sphere, and talent being one of its greater assets, the company is getting more and more ready to work in mature markets across the world. Over the last few years, Wise Pirates has been helping companies grow in more than 100 markets, making it the unique Google official growth partner in the domestic market. 

Focused on Happiness of Collaborators and Stakeholders

Wise Pirates is truly focused on the happiness of its collaborators. It strives to deliver better results while keeping the team satisfied and fulfilled. It does so by constantly listening to the collaborators and giving them feedback. The company has developed a structured framework that will allow people from its team receive feedback frequently so that they can constantly evolve and also feel valued. 

Additionally, Wise Pirates remains constantly attentive to the trends and best practices being implemented by the big corporates. The intersection between these 3 data collections results in actionable initiatives to improve its employee’s work-life balance. For example, the company implemented a hybrid model more than a year ago, where people can choose which days they go to the office, according to what’s best for them, it created a model where some of the employees can receive shares of the companies according to their performance and time inside the company. Moreover, the company has become a pet-friendly office recently. 

Scaling Prolific Success in Future

To date, Wise Pirates has successfully catered to the evolving requirements and expectations of its collaborators. The company aims to keep doing so and become a trusted partner in the industry. It has, therefore, ideated various plans to scale growth in the future. In 2023, it plans to focus on consolidation and getting deeper into its acquisition and retention strategy. Wise Pirates also wants the team to focus on what it is already good at and take it to the next level. The company has a portfolio of services that represents a mix of a digital agency, consultancy agency, and tech integrator, and hence, it wants to consolidate those services and offer them in an integrated way to all of our clients. 

Wise Pirates is issuing in 2023 one of the most advanced datafeed automated products in the European market. The company is already using it across 8 clients, with a 15% ROI increase and 5% CLTV boost, but will expand it from Google to Meta and TikTok pretty soon.

“Although we believe our focus should be maintained on our consolidation as a company, this consolidation must come with growth, but not with the asymmetrical pace of growth that we have been growing so far,” concludes Pedro. 

“We are focused on permanent teamwork, loving the challenge, enjoying every single second, passionate about our commitment, amused by our partners and colleagues, and thrilled by the barriers and goals.”