Interview with Bartłomiej Matlęga - PROJETS company's co-founder

PROJETS -  software development for e-commerce business

                     Interviewer: Cyprian Liske

                   Entrepreneur: Bartłomiej Matlęga

"Projets" is a company providing full cycle tailored software development of e-commerce online stores or web apps with focus on functionality & intuitive design. I asked Bartłomiej Matlęga, the co-founder of the company, a few questions about his work and the evolution of his undertaking.

1. Bartek, you provide software and branding services for your clients dealing in e-commerce business. This branch seems to be fairly competitive. How is your company different from others? Are there any special processes or solutions which you would like to share?

Yes it's true. Competition in this industry is intense. In our company, we try not only to be a software house that do the job ordered by the client. We strive to be a technology partner for the client. We thoroughly analyse the client's needs and then develop and maintain dedicated systems integrated with other client's systems that are to improve the work and processes inside the company.

2. What is the reason for starting your own business instead of working for an already established enterprise?

For me, it is a desire to build and a possibility of having a big influence on the direction of the company's development. On the one hand, running your own business is a big responsibility and you need to deal with everyday challenges, but on the other hand it gives also a lot of job satisfaction.

3. Do you cooperate with many people or prefer to work alone? How is your work organised?

I cooperate a lot with people in my work. As a CTO, on the one hand, I try to be in constant contact with clients, analyse problems with them and look for the best solutions, and on the other hand, pass on the relevant information to the team and control work on projects. I try to organise my work by scheduling the day and meetings in advance. It really helps and makes us work more efficiently. When it comes to organising work in the team, agile approach is what helps us. We also focus on smooth and good communication between people in the team through frequent meetings and joint analysis of problems. We try to maintain transparency in communication with clients.

4. What inspires you to work and to constantly build up your own business? What is the most important reason for you to keep going? Apart from money. :)

Building. It is extremely rewarding when we notice the results of our work. When we see the

results in the client's company.

5. What is your typical day as a co-founder of your business? Do you maintain work & life

balance?

I really like to start the day with morning tennis or squash. So far, I try to play once a week or once every two weeks. I have to do it more often :) The day is much longer, and the work begins with much more energy. At the office, I start the day with coffee and then I welcome all people working in our company. It is very important to maintain good contact with the people we work with. Then we meet on short (up to 15 minutes for the project) meetings with teams. We talk about what we are working on and the emerging problems. After a stand-up I start my work. Most often it is a conversation with clients, with whom we try to be in frequent contact so that they have a big impact on the systems created for them. We plan and analyse future work. We analyse problems that occur. In the meantime I check pull requests (changes in the code published by the team). In several projects, I am the architect and constantly monitor whether the project is going in the right direction. I try to leave the office at 5 PM. Of course, later I do not put the computer in a corner and I do not turn off the phone, but if it is not required, I try not to work after this hour. I often finish the day with a sauna (about 3 - 4 times a week). I highly recommend it. It can really calm you down before sleep.

6. What do you think about IT studies – are they important & needed to start a career in

your branch of business? What do you think about universities in general?

IT studies are important but not required to work in this branch. In my opinion, studies should broaden horizons. During the studies we should not discuss all technologies in so much detail. The IT branch is so big, there are so many technologies and you can not be an expert in everything. You have to choose your path and concentrate mainly on it. I believe that you need to deepen your knowledge yourself on topics that interest you. I can not imagine my work as a programmer based only on knowledge that has been passed on to me during my studies. During recruitment for a programmer's position, studies are not a required condition for me. They are a big plus, but I know and work with people who are great at what they do, and have not graduated from university. Bootcamps are helpful here. Intensive training for people who want to start working as programmers. The scope of material for such training is often narrow but discussed in details, with a focus on practice.

7. How long did it take to set up your business? How much time did you need to start

making a profit?

Our case was quite specific. A friend of mine who needed a dedicated system contacted my future partner. We quickly decided that together we have sufficient competence to create such a system and open a company. Next customers appeared to us through the references. We have been running the company since the end of 2016. Due to the fact that we initially worked alone and did not have a lot of costs, the company was profitable from the beginning.

8. How did it go with the process of scaling-up in your company, was it very difficult?

The origins of the company's scaling were quite hard. I run the company with a partner. We managed to separate the responsibility in the company fairly well. Artur is responsible for graphic work, I am responsible for programming. Due to the fact that at the beginning there were only the two of  us, we did all the work in person. In the IT industry, I understand scaling mainly as a growing team and starting new projects. In our company, we hired the first people at the moment when we noticed that we have too much work to do it in person. The beginnings were the hardest because in my case, as a programmer working on one project, I had to move to the role of a person controlling work on several projects by several people. Currently, we are planning to expand the team in advance, estimating the clients' demand for our work.

9. How does it look when it comes to your competitors – are they a big challenge? 

We do not focus much on competition. We look at the largest companies in our industry in Poland and try to get an inspiration from what they do. The technologies they use, the experience they share.

10. How would you describe your typical client? Is this a big or rather small-sized company? Are their expectations very specific?

In our company, we focused on building dedicated systems for companies operating in the e-commerce industry. Our typical client is a small or a medium-sized company that begins to feel the scale of its operations and wants to automate and improve processes in the company. I believe in establishing a cooperation through pre-established trust. I often try to attend conferences, fairs in the e-commerce and IT industry and get to know people who sometimes become our clients. We want to work for clients who are dynamically developing and who understand how important it is to invest in the development of their systems and to automate work in the enterprise.

Thank you for your answers!