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This is about
Culture
Reading time 5 minutes
Published date 06 Oct 2022
This is about
Culture
Reading time 5 minutes
Published date 06 Oct 2022
Lessons learned running an agency for 10 years
Hjörtur Hilmarsson CEO
In our ten years tenure as a studio, we've learned a lot about building a world-class company.
In the beginning, we were three developers that loved to code. Today, we're a team of multi-talented people designing and developing brands, apps, and experiences every day.
Starting with “why?”
When starting a company, the first question to ask is why? What‘s the reason for the company to exist in the first place. You’ll need a reason that gets you out of bed in the morning and keeps you going when the odds stack against you.
We had a passion for building exceptional websites and it didn’t feel there was enough of them on the internet. Too many sites were unusable, poorly designed or didn't consider user needs enough. Even sites that were well designed were often poorly built; slow or badly adapted for mobile devices.
We wanted to fix it and make something better for ourselves and others. We envisioned experiences that were practical, fun and inspiring to use. For us, it was a cause worth waking up for every day.
Making a difference
There was this thing we wanted to prove to the world.
The three of us founders met while working at a global agency in Stockholm. It was a fantastic place in many ways. The team was amazing, the clients were ambitious, and we got to push boundaries of what was possible to make on the web at the time — a win-win for everyone involved.
But as with many agencies, the pressure was high, deadlines unreasonable and stress at levels to burn people out. The side-effects showed in the fast turn-over of staff. It seemed as if someone left the company every week. What we felt was lacking was a balance between work and life. The Scandinavian lifestyle if you will. To encourage people to take care of themselves, take time off, and then do exceptional work at work.
The industry was full of companies burning the midnight oil and it didn’t feel sustainable. We wanted to create a healthy culture. It wasn’t the norm for agencies at the time. Later, this approach became a key ingredient for getting talents to join us.
Bringing in the work
Agencies are relationship businesses.
In the beginning, all our projects came through friends and former colleagues. It was how we got our first clients. Our goal was to expand organically from there.
We wanted word of mouth to carry us forward. And word of mouth is created by doing remarkable work that people talk about. To do quality creative work has always been the essential piece for us keeping the wheels running and clients coming.
Our marketing efforts slowly grew to a mix of channels: Talks, blog posts, side projects, case studies, social media and meeting people in person. These things create a flywheel that spreads the word further. In 2020, we shipped a new 14islands.com（https://14islands.com/） that turned out to be a huge boost for the studio. It was amazing to see something we preach, having a stellar site, make such a significant impact on our own business.