Building Smarter E-Commerce with Laravel: The Artisan of the Day Is Emma De Silva.
When Emma De Silva started freelancing as a frontend developer at just 13, she probably didn’t expect the path would take her from founding startups in the U.S. to working on high-scale e-commerce systems in the Nordics. But every step along the way built toward the role she holds today: backend developer at Grebban, one of the leading agencies in headless e-commerce.
“I started freelancing when I was about 13 as a frontend developer. Then I founded some companies in the U.S. We were in a bootstrapped startup, and I wore many hats. I did everything from operations to R&D to cybersecurity and, of course, development, and we started using Laravel there. And that's when I fell in love with it.”
That was four years ago. Today, Emma works with major brands like Filippa K, Björn Borg, and J. Lindeberg, helping them deliver better customer experiences through Grebban’s consulting-led approach.
Laravel at the Core
At Grebban, Laravel is central to the agency’s work. “We use Laravel for the core part of our APIs, and then we heavily use Horizon for our queues. I can't imagine how things would be at work without Horizon.”
The focus goes beyond writing code. The team dives into the strategy of e-commerce itself, asking what clients need to provide value for their customers.
Building and Sharing Tools & Knowledge
Alongside her agency work, Emma also built HydePHP, a Laravel-powered static site generator for building documentation, blogs, and websites using Markdown and Blade.
She has spoken at meetups before, but her first “big Laravel conference," Laravel Live Denmark 2025, left an impression. “It is just incredible. The venue is amazing. I am blown away by the food trucks here. The speakers are just beyond words, fantastic. Super cool topics and the people you finally get to meet after having followed them for so many years on Twitter! Getting to meet them and talk to them and have lunch with them is just incredible.”
Advice for New Developers
Emma’s advice is direct and practical: “Always learn the fundamentals. If you're new to programming, learn the fundamentals of computer science. That will help you in the long run so much. And if you're new to Laravel or any framework, go for it. Read the docs, learn the terminology, because that will make it so much easier for you to know what to Google when you get stuck, or ask ChatGPT.”
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