15 years ago, Roman Rammelt and Stefan Otto founded e-pixler together. A perfect time for an entertaining look back.

The two company founders look back on the key milestones from a project company to a full-thinking digital agency that provides holistic support for its clients and acts with future-oriented vision through its startup incubator.

Enjoy reading!

15 Years of e-pixler | From a Small Quick Office to a Spacious Loft

You met in the sandbox, right? 

Yes, although our daughters were the ones digging there. Back then, Stefan was working at a publishing house and had the idea of having a company profile platform burned onto CD for a Berlin business brochure, which was to be enclosed with 30,000 brochures. Roman agreed as a freelancer to take care of the design and technical implementation. We still remember very clearly how, until the very last minute—the courier was already at reception—we finalized, tested, and burned the master version.

Let me guess: The thrill bonded you forever? 

Almost. The insert was a complete success and something new in the publisher's program. It wasn't long before our paths continued together. We started as a project company, but very quickly grew into a civil-law partnership. For our first projects, we moved into a "quick office"—today a coworking space—opened our laptops, and that was how e-pixler was born.

What were the first years at e-pixler like? 

We had an office, clients, and projects, because at that point Roman had already been self-employed for six years and had already built up a client base. It quickly became clear that we had work for more than two people. So we started to grow as a team. To this day, three people from that founding period are still part of the team.

Our order situation developed steadily. There were phases when we poured every minute into completing client projects, but also phases when we were able to invest additional time in developing new products. All in all, we were pleased to see revenue growth every year. In this way, we were able to steadily continue our success story and establish ourselves as a reliable internet agency for small and medium-sized businesses.

Still in the quick office? 

No, that soon became too small. We then moved into a retail space. Our clients wanted services from a single source. So we kept reinvesting a large share of our profits into the further development of our portfolio, our organization, and our technology.

More employees also mean more responsibility and the constant rethinking of established processes. We were almost always on the same wavelength when it came to where the potential and necessary changes lay.

When did you become a TYPO3 agency? 

We took the next big step in 2011 with the founding of e-pixler NEW MEDIA GmbH. We wanted to become more professional and also make it clear that we could handle larger projects. During this time, we steadily expanded our expertise in the TYPO3 CMS area and developed into specialists in this field. The result was greater visibility, which in turn led to rising demand and larger project volumes. But expectations also increased.

Our goal has always been to think holistically and to be able to offer holistic solutions. However, there are topics such as hosting, app development, and online marketing that require specialized knowledge. So we looked for specialists (freelancers) with whom we had already successfully completed projects and founded these specialist divisions together with our partners as independent subsidiaries (GmbHs). This allowed us to offer our clients the best possible range of services without overwhelming e-pixler organizationally.

How was the "everything from one source" model received by clients? 

The model worked very well and was understood and accepted by clients, so our projects continued to grow in size and duration. Already in 2015—our team had grown to 23 employees—we had to move again. But we stayed in the neighborhood and moved into a brick building in the Old Slaughterhouse. This is also where the success story of SUCHMEISTEREI GmbH began, our partner in online marketing, which has since developed into highly specialized teams of around 35 people in total.

Even back then, we were often in contact with startups that wanted to draw on the full digital expertise of e-pixler. Step by step, we evolved from a classic internet agency into a full-service digital agency.

And then the next move followed ... 

Yes, a real stroke of luck. In January 2019, we moved into our current premises in the LEUCHTENFABRIK in Berlin-Oberschöneweide. In the spacious loft with a roof terrace and a view over Berlin to the Spree, we have plenty of room for new ideas, projects, and employees, who by the way have backgrounds that, in their cultural, age-related, and gender-related diversity, lead to fantastic team spirit and creativity.

Because we dive very deeply into client projects, we have developed the ability to provide holistic consulting. An advantage that clients value. Often our specialists coordinate directly with the clients' specialists (e.g. in system administration) and quickly find solutions. This has also enabled us to win numerous tenders in recent years, which in turn gave us planning security. 

Was every step, every decision a hit, or did you sometimes have to backtrack? 

Of course, we also reached the point where we questioned existing structures. For example, we brought our first spin-off, e-pixler HOSTING GmbH, back into e-pixler GmbH. In the process, we rebuilt the entire IT infrastructure and put it on a future-proof footing. That was above all a decision made by the team.

Are you primarily interested in financially strong companies, or do companies with smaller budgets or startups also have a chance? 

We have built up a client base that also gives us the occasional opportunity to take on projects that are not so well paid, provided they are interesting to us in terms of topic or technology.

In order to be able to support companies with smaller budgets as well, we have, among other things, been authorized as a "go-digital" consultant. This allows us to help eligible companies invest more heavily in digital technologies and further develop their business models.

And of course we also want to mention our startup incubator, which makes us a point of contact for founders. We act as mentors and early-stage investors to support founders in turning their ideas and opportunities into reality. The advantage for us: as e-pixler, we also gain insight into new ideas, teams, and markets that we would not have through our day-to-day client project business. That is why we also see ourselves as a Full-Thinking Digital Agency. 

How did the e-pixler academy come about? 

We noticed that training was increasingly being requested as part of our all-round support for clients. We started with training for editors on the TYPO3 CMS. Quickly, other topics also became relevant; so we responded, and the idea of an e-pixler academy was born. Today, our workshops range from web basics to accessibility, online marketing, innovation and ideation, all the way to stress management. We have built up a permanent pool of experts for the various areas who respond very individually to our clients' wishes.

Now a leap into the future. Where do you see yourselves in five years? 

Our agency and team profile offers very great potential to continue growing as a Full-Thinking Digital Agency. Topics such as consulting, communication, and creation will continue to be expanded alongside technology, development, IT infrastructure, online marketing, and company building, so that we can deepen our client relationships and create real added value.

We will continue to expand, strengthen, and develop our team, entrust it with exciting tasks that broaden horizons and leave room for personal development.  

In addition to our classic agency business, our startup incubator will take on great importance in order to connect with new sources of inspiration and teams and to support the future big players as an early company builder. 

We rely on a strong network and high resilience in times of polycrises. 

Almost a closing word, but something is still missing ... 

Exactly. We are grateful for 15 years of e-pixler and very proud of what we have achieved together with our team during this time.

The questions were asked by rera.