The Stories That Shaped Us: A 25-year long journey
Last week, we celebrated 25 years of digital excellence as a 100% independent Romanian company. Reaching this milestone without international backing is no small feat, but we did it!
To mark this significant chapter in Grapefruit’s journey, we hosted a public event that brought together former colleagues, clients, and our local community to celebrate with us.
Curious how it went? Here are the highlights:
Grapefruit: The Journey
We began the event on an emotional note with heartfelt speeches by Georgiana and Anca. Their words beautifully encapsulated 25 years of transformation, initiatives, partnerships, and growth—an incredible journey we’re immensely proud of.
Their speeches highlighted the three core dimensions of a thriving business: the company as a system, our clients, and our team. Let’s dive into how each of these shaped Grapefruit
Grapefruit: The Operating System
From an internationally awarded branding agency to pivoting towards a new niche in 2012. While initially a branding agency, Grapefruit saw the great potential that UI/UX would have - at a time when this field was still emerging in Romania - and decided to shift its direction towards it fully. This decision wasn’t easy. We lost clients, half our team, and faced some financial challenges.
Did we backtrack on our decision? No. We knew this was the right path to take. There was untapped potential within this industry. We truly believed it to be the best decision and managed to be the first UI/UX agency in Romania.
Fast-forward to 2017, our company was growing fast—too fast for our processes to handle. Our internal systems became obstacles instead of assets. After months of consulting and experimenting, we implemented a new operating system (Grapefruit 1.7) that helped us scale sustainably. One of the changes we implemented was establishing a Leadership Team.
A handful of people, best at what they do, are responsible for different dimensions of our company - financial, culture, security, way of working, new business, and overall company decisions. They all play an important part in sailing this ship towards new horizons.
What did we achieve after these changes?
In just one year, we hit €1M in revenue.In 2020, we saw an 85% revenue growth.
After a long break, we returned to competing for awards, including international ones, just as we did in the 2000s.
This year, we launched our first AI product, Povelia, designed to assist parents and teachers worldwide. (Psst… the English version is coming soon. Stay tuned!)
Grapefruit: Client’s Reliable Partner
What sets us apart? Two words: long-term partnerships.
From the start, we’ve seen clients not as mere revenue sources but as partners in growth. This approach built a foundation of trust and collaboration that has been the essence of our success.
Trust is at the heart of every partnership we build. We invest significant time and energy to truly understand our partners’ industries, their end-customers, and their unique challenges. This allows us to provide cost-efficient, tailored solutions that address their specific needs and drive innovation. Without this trust, the amazing partnerships that enable us to break barriers simply wouldn’t exist.
Without these partnerships, we wouldn’t be here celebrating 25 years. Together, we’ve achieved incredible milestones, like developing Romania’s first AR project, the first e-commerce platform for the automotive industry, executing e-commerce platform for the automotive industry, executing complex migrations, loyalty platforms, digital strategies for a European University, and many more.
But what does “long-term” mean to us? Not just two, three, or even five years - our partnerships often span decades. We immerse ourselves in our clients’ industries, anticipate trends, and solve complex problems together. We begin our journey with them by listening, researching, and crafting holistic solutions. For us, it’s simple: Our clients are not our masters; they are our partners. They know their industries best; we know digital. Together, we create groundbreaking solutions.
Grapefruit: A People’s Company
The third dimension, and the core of our company, is our team. Yes, it might sound cliché but in actuality, it is not. We deeply care for our team, and this is how we’ve proved it:
Trust & Transparency are the main ingredients of our culture. We do not see our team as implementers, without an environment for them. We gave a context by creating an authentic culture and a safe environment. This culture doesn’t just lure people in—it keeps them here, and it is something that we have been working on continuously for over 10 years.
For performance, we have yearly reviews. For productivity, we have monthly reports. But what do we have for happiness? One way we answered this question was by developing a quarterly initiative, named “Team Happiness & Engagement”. Through this initiative, we establish quarterly 1-to-1 calls with every team member and we honestly ask them: Are you happy here?
Why do we do it? Well, we haven’t had yet the chance to meet someone who can sustain performance or passion - years on end - without them being happy at their workplace. Of course, this is one example out of many other initiatives, but time is short and our initiatives list is long, so we’ll make a separate article on that later.
Curtain Call: Concluding thoughts
What did this event mean to us? Simple: proof that Romania can do it.
Since 1999, we’ve overcome countless obstacles, delivered results under challenging circumstances, brought results no matter the context and resources, kept our clients close and our employees closer.
Romanian companies can be an incredible source of talent, expertise, and skill - we can provide high-quality services and products internationally just like any other large enterprise. We focus on the quality of our work, and we tackle each client’s challenges with attention, creativity, and collaboration.
Looking ahead, we’re committed to maintaining our performance-driven mindset, tackling challenges with creativity and precision, and expanding our international footprint. We’ll create AI products that will make people’s lives easier, just like we do it with our digital services and we will strive to innovate and set an example on all three core business dimensions.
The next 25 years are full of potential, and if you want to be part of our story, let’s grab a virtual coffee!
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