The Rapid apps Group was created by Steve Creedon & Ben Emson.

We'd spent the last few years building smart intranet applications for large corporates in the City of London and, frankly, needed a break. Web technology has changed a lot and we realised that using new technologies such as Ruby on Rails we could bring the same kind of advantage to small and medium businesses that we were giving to large enterprises.

As a business, we're more like the new wave of American web 2.0 firms such as 37 Signals. We don't spend your money on Sales Reps, Account Managers and all kinds of Analysts then use whatever's left over to buy the cheapest programmers on the planet, we prefer to minimize the grey layers, stick to good practice and use technically excellent programmers that can make good things happen quickly. It seems to work because about half our revenue last year came from fixing applications built by much larger firms often at staggering cost.

Working for smaller, ethical firms brings its own challenges but they're really satisfying ones. We've long believed the internet to be a great leveler that can give smaller firms a fair chance against bigger ones and web 2.0 has made that a reality. It's good to see our work making a difference that's really appreciated.

Recently we've been working with Scamper, a branding firm that specialises in ethical and sustainable business. Web 2.0 really is about honesty and telling people just who you are so we're hoping that by working together we can be a platform that gives SMEs a fighting chance against corporate competition.