Phoenix Online Studio is a fresh (Pty) Ltd company created by three of the four East Rand Trading founders to take over ERT's software business and commercialise it under a dedicated brand, structure, and capital base.
Every company is unique. Almost none share exactly the same blueprint. In the rare cases where they do, their workflows and tech deployment might be the silver bullet to outpace the competition.
PXO is the delivery platform that makes that possible. A 20-year codebase library. An AI-development methodology proven on private-client work. Founder-led delivery on every project. The result: nine products across seven verticals, shipped by a small team with real engineering discipline.
The software arm has always been artisanal. Products ship because a client asked for them. PXO needs a dedicated marketing and sales layer to convert a portfolio of proven products into a subscription business.
Organic client-revenue funds one product at a time. Capitalising the marketing engine, hiring sales, and running paid acquisition needs a round of growth capital that ERT's balance sheet was never structured to hold.
Four founders with different priorities is a governance drag. Three founders aligned on software + one aligned on trading is the cleaner outcome. ERT continues its trading work; PXO takes the software.
We don't sell you a mythical utopia in broken-promise-land. We partner with you — to rapidly prototype, or to build the bombproof foundation that passes every compliance gate you can throw at it. Or both.
ERT founding partner. Twenty-plus years shipping production software on Windows, PHP/Laravel, MariaDB stacks. Curator of the ERT codebase library — 30+ completed projects preserved as reference substrate for PXO's delivery platform. Author of the platform's AI-development methodology.
andre@pxo.co.za →ERT founding partner. Product-led designer with a track record spanning consumer-facing UX, brand identity, and go-to-market execution across ERT's client portfolio. Owns customer research, brand identity, UX flows, and launch design across the PXO portfolio.
heinrich@pxo.co.za →ERT founding partner. Provides strategic direction, network access, capital-raising support, and board-level oversight. Non-operational: draws no cash salary; equity-only role. Focus areas: attorney and enterprise partnerships, commercial deal-making, board governance.
anton@pxo.co.za →Project management and infrastructure capacity is provided through a joint-venture partnership with Essential Tech, specialists in exactly those functions for growth-stage software companies. Cost is applied per-project against the appropriate budget line only when needed, not carried as permanent PXO overhead.