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About Us

The history of Webrunners

Foundation and growth: Started in 2005 as a sole proprietorship by Adrien Simon, Webrunners has quickly evolved from freelance projects to an established software development and system administration company. Our beginnings were characterized by flexibility and a clear vision that enabled us to realize larger projects under the Webrunners umbrella.

Transition to a GmbH: A new era began with the change of name to a GmbH in 2010. The first permanent employees, many of them former freelancers, contributed to harmonious team growth and strengthened internal expertise.

Commitment to apprenticeships and learning: From the very beginning, Webrunners has invested in the training of IT specialists in application development and system integrators and was also involved in the IHK examination board from 2005-2022, including 13 years as chairman of the examination board for IT Management Assistant. With this commitment, we wanted to make our contribution to the development of skilled workers and our responsibility in the industry.

Project history: As a technical partner for advertising agencies, Webrunners realized numerous medium and large projects for prestigious clients before shifting focus to direct and long-term client relationships to ensure more immediate and professional project implementations.

Innovative strength and technology: A milestone was the development of an innovative platform for film festivals, which set new standards in the industry and which we managed for over 10 years. This experience strengthened our know-how in individual platform development and infrastructure management.

Focus and specialization: Over the years, we have utilized a variety of technologies and frameworks to meet our clients' needs and evolve. Our current focus is on Python-based backend applications, modern frontend technologies such as React and content management application development.

Our location and remote working practices

Webrunners does not offer a traditional office anymore. Instead, there is an integrated workshop for makers and woodworking. Our Creative Space is located in the north of Cologne in Köln-Niehl, at Merkenicher Straße 79. It's easy to each by car, bicycle or directly from the main train station on line 16, Niehl-Sebastianstraße stop. The stop is a five-minute walk away.

We have always made remote working possible and have consistently designed our infrastructure accordingly, which is why it is currently the standard rather than the exception for us. This is also due to the fact that we have had full-time remote employees in the team for over ten years and try to support hybrid and remote working in the best possible way. This creates opportunities and challenges for the team, which we are constantly reviewing and adapting.

Every employee can work from home. We like to meet regularly in the Creative Space whenever possible and usually do this at least once a week.

Organizational overview

The following is a brief overview of the different areas of the company. In our team, roles and responsibilities are often flexible, so responsibilities can vary depending on the capacity or wishes of the employees.

The following assignment of employees is therefore not entirely accurate, but should help to find out who can provide information or help in certain areas if required and is in alphabetical order.

  • Software development
    • Alexandros, Anatoly, Johannes, Paul
  • CMS development
    • Finja (Wordrpess), Goddart (Typo3)
  • System administration
    • Adrien, Johannes, Paul
  • Project management
    • Adrien, Finja, Johannes
  • Quality assurance
    • Alexandros, Johannes (+ developer writing tests)
  • Customer service and support
    • Adrien, Finja, Goddart, Paul
  • Continuous improvement and Research and development (R&D)
    • Adrien, Alexandros, Anatoly, Finja, Goddart, Johannes, Paul
  • Acquisition
    • Adrien, Finja, Johannes, Paul
  • HR
    • Adrien, Finja
  • Marketing
    • Adrien, Finja

The employees of Webrunners

An overview of our team and the individual employees can be found in the Team section. Here you will find tabs with contact details, employee roles, SSH key, GPG key and a list of skills and competencies.

Team and culture at Webrunners

Our values: At Webrunners, we place great value on self-determination, ambition, professionalism and commitment. We are driven by curiosity and variety, while a sense of purpose and the adventure of discovery enrich our daily work.

Competence, openness, responsibility and reliability are the foundation of our team, complemented by a desire for structure, scalability and efficiency.

Error culture and feedback: An open and constructive error culture is important to us. We encourage everyone to openly address their own mistakes and value candid mutual feedback. Through regular team retrospectives, we continuously work on our improvement.

Commitment and responsibility: We want all team members to get involved, take responsibility and tackle tasks independently. A passion for the work and enjoyment of one's own work are important to us.

Rituals and events: Our team life is strengthened by regular rituals such as the daily coffee party and meetings. Weekly gatherings, from Monday meetings to Friday formats such as Tech Talks and Getting Things Done meetings, promote communication and collaboration. Special events such as hackathons and team outings provide space for joint developments and celebrating successes.

Regular rituals and events

Our team has regular rituals and meetings that start at 11 a.m. every day. The first meeting is the optional coffee party, where we discuss private topics from 11 to 11:15. Although participation is voluntary, this meeting strengthens team bonding and mutual understanding.

We then have our weekly meeting on Monday at 11:15 a.m., which lasts around 30 to 45 minutes and in which everyone is expected to take part. Here we discuss the current project landscape, our plans for the coming week and overarching topics. Our mandatory Daily Stand-Up takes place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11:15 to 11:30. We briefly discuss upcoming activities and the support we need. Important news, successes or challenges are also shared.

We don't have regular dailies on Fridays, but alternate formats at 11 a.m. Once a month, there is a mandatory retrospective for the entire team regarding the company in order to identify potential for improvement. Alternately, there is the optional Getting Things Done meeting, in which we complete internal company tasks together, such as system upgrades or changes that are relevant for everyone, such as changing the password manager. Our optional Techtalk takes place every Friday at 11:00 a.m. on an alternating basis. Either a team member presents a prepared topic to the team or we browse through the new and active projects in GitHub together to discover interesting developments in the market.

We also organize hackathons with the whole team at longer intervals. Here we take a whole day to work together on topics such as hardware experiments, new technologies or joint projects. This helps us to develop together as a company and for each individual.

We also hold team events at longer intervals, where we undertake various activities such as excursions, escape rooms or other adventures and eat and celebrate successes together. We either try to bring all remote employees together in Cologne or find a format in which they can also take part.

Day Time Event Commitment Description
Daily 11:00 - 11:15 Coffee party Optional Exchange on private topics, promotes team cohesion and mutual understanding.
Monday 11:15 - 12:00 Weekly Meeting Mandatory Discussion of the current project landscape, plans for the coming week and overarching topics.
Tuesday 11:15 - 11:30 Daily Stand-Up Mandatory Brief exchange about upcoming activities and support needed, sharing important news, successes or challenges.
Wednesday 11:15 - 11:30 Daily Stand-Up Mandatory Short exchange about upcoming activities and required support, sharing of important news, successes or challenges.
Friday (alt.) 11:00 - 12:00 Getting Things Done Optional Joint completion of internal company tasks such as system upgrades or changes of general interest.
Friday (alt.) 11:00 - 12:00 Techtalk Optional Presentation of a topic by a team member or joint discovery of new and active projects on GitHub to explore market novelties.
At longer intervals All day Hackathons - Joint work on hardware experiments, new technologies or projects for the further development of the team and the company.
At longer intervals All day Team events - Organizing various activities such as excursions, escape rooms, eating together and celebrating successes, with efforts to involve remote employees.