Contentserv: A Lookback
20+ years of inspiration-filled story of triumphs, pitfalls, wins, struggles, and family. “Sometimes, it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about the destination.” Anon. If you’re going to look at Contentserv today, you’ll see this well-established company with a great portfolio of clients and partners. You would never guess that it resulted from a struggling student’s journey to finance her study and a father’s love and discipline that propelled her to forge her own path. Sounds melodramatic, right? But I think most start-up companies can relate to this story. And my path to building Contentserv couldn’t be any more different. Let me take you back to how it all began. When I was young, my father told me many times that as soon as I turned 18, I would no longer receive any financial support from him. So, after I graduated from high school, I financed myself by planning and hosting large-scale parties until I completed my primary studies in Regensburg. There was a scarcity of part-time jobs in competitive companies at that time. And so, I decided to learn website programming. It wasn’t too difficult to understand with the support of my long-time friend and physicist Alexander Wörl. In a matter of days, I had my first customers. This “hustle” helped finance my studies. From side hustle to something big (1998 – 2002) What’s meant to be a way to finance my studies became a small company with excellent growth potential. From a one-man company called Internet-Haus Kastner, it became a web agency with 6 employees. In 2000, we won the contract to design the entire website of the Bavarian State Parliament and make its online presence known to everyone. Today, it’s known as a digitization project, but it was simply called a website launch back then. The website launch, although successful, was challenging, and the technology constraints of that time were so huge and highly limiting. For example, their used CMS system had many technical gaps that we jumped through hoops to make it work. Inspired by this experience, Alexander Wörl and I came up with the idea of finding a better process, a superior solution. And so Contentserv was born. The first version of Contentserv was created during a vacation in Thailand. Fueled by the experience with the Bavarian State Parliament contract and driven by our vision and strategy, Alexander Wörl began the initial developments of the Contentserv solution. It aims to be a Content Management System to edit and change easily content for websites. In that time I hired my first two Contentserv employees: Elmar Rzany and Philip Juchert. Both are still with Contentserv after 22 years, as is Alexander Wörl – that’s what I call loyalty to the company! While winning game-changing contracts and developing forward-thinking solutions, I finished my main studies at the LMU Munich. Incidentally, I forgot to get my certificate and only picked it up after more than 15 years. Now I don’t even remember where I placed it. Development of a groundbreaking solution (2003 – 2005) The development of Contentserv may have been a bit too late for the state parliament, but it was just the right time for many other companies in the Bavarian region. In the first few years, Contentserv was implemented to different companies such as the MVHS, a Munich Adult Education Center and the Bavarian Employers’ Association – all with no start-up funding. I was completely on my own and had to expand using our own cash flow. In 2003, Alexander Wörl became part of the company full-time, and quickly we had more than 15 employees. With him helping at the helm, the company’s developments went upwards very quickly. We kept growing and with it our product portfolio because we put everything into the product without compromise and were very strategic and economical. It paid off. Like many business owners who developed a product, or a service based on a need or a demand of our customers, we developed our solution based on what’s lacking in the market then. In our case, we were the wild youngsters who shook up the content management market and worked our way into the product information management market bit by bit. Game-changing milestones: unlocked (2006 – 2010) 2006 was a pivotal year when Contentserv signed a significant company and its international subsidiaries that opted for Contentserv’s software. Miele well-known company with amazing products and 5000 employees became our customer. Miele’s requirements were the driving force behind the massive and quick changes we implemented to adapt our company processes and keep up with this critical developmental stage. Soon, we found ourselves operating an office with 100 employees and establishing our first sales office in Bielefeld. At that time, Klaus Hofmann supported the company as a business angel through a potential mutual customer. With his C-level background at companies such as Deutsche Börse, Bertelsmann Verlag and R&V, Contentserv gained more structure and foresight. That same year, we acquired The English Book Club, which brought our company to be international. From 2007 onwards, we focused on growing our partner portfolio to be more strategic. I believe a functioning partner network that could independently implement projects based on the Contentserv software is a bold move that would further expand our fast-growing company. Suffice it to say, I was right, especially when we won our first significant implementation partner, SDZeCOM and Franz Schwarz. That was the starting point of a great partnership that brought both sides forward, one that is still alive today. Partnerships and an operational partner ecosystem have always been important to Contentserv and anchored in the company’s DNA since day one. We also had numerous interfaces with adjacent systems and managed marketing and sales with technology partners like Adobe and InBetween. Overcoming roadblocks and seizing creative opportunities (2011 – 2015) A common issue for fast-growing companies would be the shortage of skilled workers that fit the company’s culture. Thinking of ways to keep our workforce strong,
