Willie Theron is the founder of Cyberdevs, a web development company that offer a range of web services to clients worldwide.
He also founded 4 other web based platforms:
- Web DB, a web design company directory.
- Nova Token DB, a Crypto gaming community website.
- Upclass, A blog documenting and testing various ways people claim to make money online.
- WillieTheron.com, A personal branding website that helps entrepreneurs get the most of their online businesses.
Outside of these projects, Willie Theron is also the lead programmer behind a number of client and partner projects.
Some of these projects include:
- Freshgrab, A fresh produce distribution website that aims to bridge the gap between producers and consumers
- Trinity Sports (Client), A online event management system where athletes can manage event registrations.
- Petbridge – Partnership, an online platform that aims to help re-home animals, educate owners and support businesses in the pet industry.
Willie was born in Knysna South Africa. He is his parent’s oldest child with brothers whose 16 years younger. Being an only child for this long also drove curiosity, curiosity that would be priceless later on in life.
Willie got his first computer around the age of 8. It was an IBM computer still running DOS. In his household technology was never really a priority. This meant that He had to look after the computer that he had, even if it broke. The computer ran dos which forced him to learn command line at a very young age in order to play games. This formed the basis of his software skills.
Willie also had a way of always opening tech up in order to see how they worked. This was further aided by the fact that his father is a Master Tech mechanic for Mercedes, Ford and Mazda. Willie often went to the Workshop with his father, but he never took interest. When Willie was around 10 years old he started opening up the technology he had to see how they worked. He also managed to get old broken computers which he stripped for parts to upgrade his own computer.
In his early teens Willie took a large interest in breaking computer systems. He was always searching for vulnerabilities and exploits. This was never done cause harm but rather for the satisfaction of beating the system. It was around this time that he set his sights on becoming a programmer. He knew that some people built software for computers and he wanted to be one of them.
Willie never really took school too seriously. He managed to maintain an average of 70, but he spent most afternoons playing computer games which he occasionally altered by changing its code.
Willie started studying for his Bachelor of Science in Information Systems through Unisa after school. He stopped studying in his second year when he relocated for a better job. He never continued the degree but do plan on finishing in the near future.
Willie’s first job was managing data for a distance education institute. During this time he handled the IT infrastructure of the office and aided with the distribution of subject audio and video data.
Willie’s second job was as a Deed Clerk at a law firm. During this time he handled property transfers. It was a great job with a lot of benefits. But after a few months he walked out in pursuit of a career in the IT industry. Advancing himself in the legal field was never a long term goal. This did form a basis for the Legal aspects of the websites.
Willie’s third job was as a Web Developer for a company called Connectweb. He joined them as a Junior PHP programmer and was the head developer and lead support agent shortly after joining.
He spent three years working for the company and made an arrangement to take the company over after 3 years. He then rebranded into Cyberdevs which he has been building since 2015.
Willie is grading for his green belt in Karate later this year. He took up Karate to keep better track of his health. Especially since he spends more than half of his day behind a computer screen.
Willie also has an interest in Artificial Intelligence where it applies to games. He has been one of the finalists of the Entelect Challenge for the last 3 years. The Entelect Challenge is a Artificial Intelligence Competition where users build bots that play games against each other to see which bots are better. Over the last 3 years the themes were Bomberman, Battleship and Tower Defense.The challenge is hosted by Entelect, one of South Africa’s largest Software development companies. He is however against any scenario where AI replaces humans.
