It all started in 1977, when the founder built his first computer from circuit board plans bought through Popular Mechanics magazine. That grew into a small home business making controllers for disco lights. It was the 70’s after all. Rudimentary scientific calculators were added to the offerings, and the founder became known in the neighbourhood as “the genie“.
In 1983 the founder began work as a mainframe computer operator, and used midnight shift oil to write basic accounting applications in DIBOL and later COBOL on a DEC PDP 11/44. Managing a computer bureau servicing clients over 1200 baud modems. Printing several thousand statements per month on dot matrix printers, at just 80 characters per second.
Importing the first IBM personal computers into South Africa circa 1984, the primary business became setting up Internet bulleting board installations for hobbyists, using acoustic couplers. This was when all the visionary lights were turned on regarding the Internet. That sparked an interest to see the wider world for real, and “the genie” left South Africa in 1986.
Herby arrived in Ferney-Voltaire, just outside Geneva, Switzerland, in early 1989. Working as a contractor for Digital Equipment Corporation, a progressive company that was already using the Internet in a big way. It was on Usenet in alt.hypertext that he saw the first announcement by Tim Berners Lee regarding the World Wide Web, in August 1991.
Quickly boarding the online bandwagon and creating websites for clients since 1992, Herby established an Internet Café in the ICC Movenpick building at Geneva Airport in 1994. With 20 workstations buzzing happily on just one 56K modem, it was enough to teach clients how to buy and sell stuff on eBay. Shining a light on the commercial potential of the Internet.
By 1996 the concept of affiliate marketing was catching on quickly, with Amazon adopting the pay-for-performance sales channel. In 1998 Herby left Europe in favour of the faster moving Internet market in the United States. That was a hectic ride from Dot Com to Dot Bomb in the year 2000. It took about three years to lick wounds and limp back to South Africa.
Herby started an IT company called AmbiTech Solutions in 2004, and ZaGenie became the official brand name for the Managed Services Provider division. ZA is the ISO code for South Africa, and Genie comes from the childhood nickname. ZaGenie grew throughout Africa as a remote maintenance and support application, installed on thousands of computers.
Herby retired from the IT industry in 2012 and spent the next years dedicated to nature conservation in Limpopo, South Africa. After three years of bashing through bushes, the travel urge returned, and another globe trot began, this time at the ripe young age of 53. With backpack, laptop and smartphone for connectivity, ZaGenie was back as a Digital Nomad.
Been there, done that… doing it all over again, Herby has re-invented the ZaGenie brand, now a unique MSP for a very select suite of initiatives, with a data centre in the United Kingdom. Providing a powerful technical platform, promoting the philosophy of Ubuntu Synergy, and teaching The Art of Living Freely – using technology to attain financial independence.
ZaGenie lives on the bleeding edge of technology, and constantly researches the latest technical tools with which to equip our clients. Helping to navigate through the maze of large language models in the LLM deluge of 2025. Making sense of it all, as we forge through the fog into the AI future. Coming a long way since 1977, ZaGenie AI is always a step ahead.
