Practically before it all began, Miha was already doing some business in the field of website development and search engine optimization. The greatest achievement was the sale of a domain for € 2,000 due to very good rankings on search engines.

As you have probably already guessed from the name of the company, our story began with search engine optimization for various websites. After a few years of experience on his own projects and a steady job in a competitive company, our CEO Miha Lavtar decided it was time for an independent path.

We cooperated excellently with existing customers, so Miha embarked on a mission to find some new customers with the help of his first employee Luka. Although we mainly dealt with search engine optimization back in that time, we also started to work on a little larger projects – so we launched our first online store called Majice.net at the end of 2009.

We started to cooperate with Knauf Insulation in 2010. Knauf Insulation is a well renowned company known worldwide for its Insulation solutions. The scope of our cooperation with them increases year by year, and we’re very pleased with that.

Our primary field of expertise until now was search engine optimization, but in 2010 we also started with web development pretty seriously. The head of website development at the time was Urban; he developed websites based on his own CMS system. That decision didn’t turn out so well later on, but we’ve learned our lesson. The year 2010 was also the year when we made our first web application, which was an edge bandings comparator; the app launched in November of 2010 and is still used today in a slightly upgraded form.

In the middle of 2010, we also launched a new application called PositionSpider. The app is used to monitor the positions of our client’s websites in search engines on a daily basis. With the data provided, we can orientate our work much better and also send reports about specific keyword rankings to our clients at the start of each month.

This was proved when we did a massive leap in search engine rankings for the keyword “optimizacija spletnih strani” (website optimization in Slovene). As you can imagine, there’s a real struggle going on in the web for these types of keywords between those who are engaged in website optimization business. Up to the present, we’re still amongst the first results in search engines for this keyword.

Since our business and income grew, our company became liable to pay taxes.

The year 2011 was the year when we first appeared in a newspaper called Finance (Slovene’s leading finances newspaper); interviews became more frequent as time passed, and we also started to write a lot of articles for various web portals. You can read the article below; unfortunately it’s only available in the Slovene language.

• Boj spletnih strani za klike na iskalnikih
• MP intervju: Miha Lavtar - Optiweb

Our interest in internet domain names became greater day by day, so we became registrars for Slovene domain suffixes. Just in the first year, we registered over 300 domain names.

In February of 2011, we purchased business premises two floors higher. The premises needed to be renovated so we rolled up our sleeves and used a lot of elbow grease – we moved into our renovated offices by the end of 2011.

The year 2011 was a milestone year in many different areas. We developed our first online shop for a major client. The online shop was developed on the platform Magento; even though the design and functionality has changed throughout the years, the shop is still on the web today, accompanied by phenomenal search engine rankings.

We constantly acquire new skills and knowledge, so we started with Google AdWords, development of Facebook applications and whole-graphic designs for webpages.

Not only had we moved to bigger and nicer offices, we also refurbished our company logo and whole graphic design of our web page.

We first started to give out socks with our logo back in 2012; because the response was excellent, we still delight the small and large feet of our customers with our custom made socks.

Google organized its first educational course in Slovenia back in April of 2012; it was called Google Engage. Of course, we were there and we also attended four smaller and a little bit more business orientated courses later that year.

Google’s search algorithms are constantly changing, and we follow them on a regular basis.

Our team grew bigger and bigger, so we rented more offices on our floor.

St. Nicholas gifted Miha and David with Google AdWords certificates after successfully completing an online course; he also brought a full time job contract for our designer Barbara.

• Plačilo odvisno od mesta na iskalniku
• Nasvet: Kako vas najhitreje najdejo na spletu

Our big goal for 2014 was to further improve the quality of our websites. This trend was already started with our revamped website. And we are pleased that the site also received a lot of your commendations. This gave us an additional impetus for the development of new websites and stores for our clients. But we didn’t stop there; by the end of the year, we also finished two of our biggest projects so far: rls.si and pricaraj.si.

Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithms make us work very hard, but we’re successful at taming those little beasts. Both algorithms require constant monitoring of optimization trends, result analysis and error correction. So far we’ve domesticated them well; this also shows in very good rankings of our clients’ webpages on Google even for keywords that have a lot of competition in SEO fields. For example, the Slovene keyword “prevajanje” (translations) is always amongst the top five search results on Google.

Miha joined the network of BNI (Business Network International), which brought him new skills, interesting acquaintances and some exciting new projects. He has also lectured at the annual seminar on website optimization, organized by well-known Slovene company Nasvet. We regularly participate in the Google events and Magento and Wordpress meet-ups.

After we renovated the graphic design of our website, it was time to finish the image. We got new business cards and a new display ad outside the building our offices are located at.

Tuesday, 26/8/2014 was the D-Day when a public auction for the second floor of the building we work at currently took place. With a little bit of luck, we bought the entire second floor of the building in conjunction with a partner company. With this step, we moved one step closer to the goal, which is to provide a superior working environment for our employees. Of course, when the deal was made, champagne was obligatory :-).

BNI is a network in which entrepreneurs help each other to create more business with the help of recommendations. Our CEO Miha helped to acquire new deals for quite a few fellow co-members, and in October he earned the title of Marketer of the month, thus further displaying that Optiweb and its employees not only care for themselves but are also happy to help others.

• Gašenje požara po škodljivih zapisih na spletu
• Podblegoške novice - intervju (strani 16, 17 in 18)

If we sum up the year 2014, it was very successful in all areas of work and we significantly raised the quality of our services, which is reflected in our latest projects. In addition, we hired 4 new employees for full time and bought huge premises a floor higher than the present one.

Networking and supporting other BNI Carnium members paid off. Our CEO Miha earned the title of The Networker Of The Year 2014.

On June 2nd, 2015, the website Goolets Cruising received a CSS Awards nomination - a superb acknowledgment for all our hard work on developing this website.

After more than six months of extensive renovations, the opening day of our new offices finally arrived. We arranged the last details, invited our friends, Optiweb business partners and supporters. The vibe was great, and we all had an amazing time. The turnout exceeded our wildest expectations. We were delighted to hear that our guests were genuinely excited about our new workplace. Thanks again everyone! Thanks again everyone! You can read more about the opening (or just check the video or browse the pics) in our blog post Our new offices rock!

• Zaposleni se mora veseliti jutranje kave s sodelavci (Delo, 4.9.2015)
• Vse večja ekipa Optiweba v nove, inovativne prostore (Zavod Mladi Podjetnik, 9.9.2015)
• Optimizacija spletnih strani - Intervju z Mihom Lavtarjem (Najst, 11.9.2015)
• Odbite pisarne od Googla do škofjeloškega Optiweba (Časnik Finance, 17.9.2015)

We put our employees before everything else and we're the first Slovenian microenterprise to obtain the Family Friendly Enterprise Certificate.

To prove our expertise in opensource system Magento, which is perfect for larger/high volume e-shops we sent our 3 experienced developers to Ljubljana in order to test their knowledge. We're proud to say that they all successfully passed the test and earned the Magento certificates.

• Rok Meglič - Solution Specialist
• Janez Alič - Developer
• Anže Harej - Front End Developer

Thus we became the company with the most Magento certified individuals.

The year 2016 truly was extraordinary. From 17 team members our numbers grew to 27. Our offices consequently became too small, so the marketing team got a new office. A lot also changed when it came to optimizing the processes, which resulted in improving the quality and range of our services.

• Fajn prostori + fajn ekipa = pozitivna energija (Ambient Dizajn, 7.1.2016)
• Intervju s podjetnikom - Miha Lavtar, Optiweb (GR8, 6.4.2016)
• Denar že dolgo ni več merilo za izbiro delodajalca (Siol NET 14. 9. 2016)
• Milenijci – drugačni časi, drugačni ljudje, drugačno delo (Finance, 2.10.2016)
• En človek ne sme nositi bremena celotnega podjetja (Delo, 15.11.2016)

We are keenly acquiring new knowledge across the entire Europe. So far, we’ve visited some of the most prominent conferences abroad and some smaller ones at home.

• Magento: Magento Paradise Opatija , Gostovanje in izobraževanje v Inchooju
• Wordpress: Wordcamp Dunaj , Wordpress meetup Lj.
• Marketing: Inorbit, Web Summit, Slovenska marketinška konferenca, Salesforce
• Design: UX delavnica London, UX experience Ljubljana

At Optiweb, we like to share our knowledge, because we believe that is the key to success. We gladly respond to the invitations to various lectures, workshops, conferences, etc.

• The school of business
• Val 202
• Faculty of management Celje
• Radio Sora
• Faculty of organizational sciences Kranj
• TŠC Kranj
• Conference Mladi Plus
• A conference about ethical business
• Association Manager: The effect of space on business efficiency

When we’re not at work, we’re recharging our batteries.

A few times a year, the Optiweb team joins their forces at teambuildings, where we can additionally bond as a team.

We joined in on the virtual joke and made a very fun video. #mannequinchallenge

One of the people who really helped us grow last year was our Rok.

• Uspelo se mi je odpustiti iz podjetja Optiweb, Finance.si (Startaj.si) 15. 12. 2016

Our knowledge is often shared at various lectures, conferences and educational institutions.

• Medgeneracijski center Idrija: From idea to breakthrough – succeeding is possible
• Zavod 404: Entrepreneurship instead of college
• FDV: 3P: Ready for an entrepreneurial path
• Public institution Sotočje Medvode: Entrepreneurial night – Young and successful: interview with Miha Lavtar
• UP, Faculty of management: Digital marketing as the key element for a successful business
• VSŠ ŠC Kranj: Strokovna ekskurzija v podjetje Optiweb
• Zavod Ypsilon: Ekosistem izkušenj
• Podjetniški inkubator Perspektiva Postojna: Facebook Tunning
• RTM Konferenca
• Karierni dan za FF, Prihodnosti brez humanistov ni
• Zaposlitvena akademija
• 6. kongres podjetnikov Slovenije
• Mediade: We’ll be engineers
• Seminars Nasvet: Unconventional methods of agile companies
• Moja zaposlitev: Attracting and managing talents
• Socialna Akademija: 51st Nikodem Evenings: Who will I be? - Choosing the right career

• Metinalista.si: Naj vam starši in babica ne urejajo življenja
• Dnevnik.si (Zlata nit 2016): Med malimi podjetji je finalist tudi Optiweb
• 24ur.com: V milenijskem podjetju
• Gorenjskiglas.si: V službi kot doma
• Delo.si: Zaposlena, da skrbi za srečo v podjetju
• Skavt.net: Miha Lavtar – skavt podjetnik
• Finance.si: S sestanki Wazzup do skupnega ritma
• Ko imajo sodelavci svojo sr(e)čno skrbnico
• Nekateri stavijo na mlade, drugi na aktivacijo starejših
• Motiviran.si: There’s no such thing as an overnight success
• Psihologija dela: Kam nas vodi prihodnost selekcijskih postopkov
• Siol: Slovenians need to learn how to brag about themselves
• Dnevnik: Interns should not be in charge of filing and making coffee

The boys from the Magento team have proven their knowledge at the beginning of March with new certificates – the team now has the highest number of certified individuals for Magento in Slovenia.

• Tilen Habjan – Developer (2017)
• Janez Alič – Developer (2015), Developer Plus (2016), Solution Specialist (2017)
• Rok Meglič – Solution Specialist (2015)
• Aleš Sušnik – Developer (2017)
• Anže Harej – Front End Developer (2015), Solution Specialist (2017)
• Aleš Cankar – Front End Developer (2017)
• Simon Potočnik – Solution Specialist (2017)
• Klemen Lapanja – Developer (2017)

Since our recently bought offices became too small and we had to move to additional 3 offices, we’ve decided to build our very own building somewhere in the near future.
However, this will be far from an ordinary building; this will a business incubator of the Y generation. There, we wish to connect with other companies with similar cultures and thus create an even better working environment.

You can follow the progress here.

We regularly gain new knowledge at lectures and conferences. Besides the formal ones, we at Optiweb also organize our own internal lectures. With this, the employees broaden their horizons and get acquainted with other areas of work in the company.

• Magento: We were the proud bronze sponsors of the conference Meet Magento Croatia 2017, under the organization of the company Inchoo.
• General: Webcamp Ljubljana 2017
• One Day Experience: New knowledge and experiences are gained with one-day visits of professionals from different fields.
• ABC: We’re proud to have been able to contribute to the organization of the Growth hacking Slovenia Meetup #2.

This year, we’ve successfully started with our new internship program “Let’s boost”, offering students practical knowledge, diligent mentoring and the development of their potential in the digital world.

We like to expand our knowledge at different seminars and conferences and in educational institutions.

• Seminars Nasvet: How to maximize the effect of Facebook and Instagram posts?
• 12th Sales Summit, sales conference: How to use content to attract new customers and to position companies on the market
• Nefiks: Career day – professions of the future
• Diggit’s round table: How to be happy in digital marketing
• National school for leadership in education: Modern leadership
• Young entrepreneur: Taking time for a strong team spirit pays off
• Y.business: Success story: Employment done right
• Kovačnica: Upscale your business
• Postojna Entrepreneurial incubator Perspektiva: Online presence
• Finance – Gorenjski forum: About my success story
• 21. SKOJ: Happiness management
• Optiweb Academy: Modern digital trends
• Slovenski kadrovski kongres 2018: Good practice: From employment to gaining experience
• Finance: 9th Entrepreneurial forum
• SMK: 24. Slovenian marketing conference

• Divante: As partners, we proudly help in creating the best PWA experience.
• Pimcore: We are proud to be Pimcore’s official Silver partner.

• Zakulisje: How to create the best work environment for your employees
• Produktiven.si: Miha Lavtar – Boss, coworker, entrepreneur
• Talentiran.si: There are 11 new chief happines officers in Ljubljana
• Al Jazeera Business: In search of a better life
• HR&M, nu. 18, october/november 2018, year 4: 5 milestones: my road to 40 employees
• HR&M revija: Onboarding: The key is to monitor and give feedback
• Finance.si: Optiweb from Škofja Loka: working for microcompanies and multinationals
• Marketing Magazin: How are digital agencies like as employers?
• Delo: Payed for five days while only working four
• Delo: LinkedIn isn’t just for employment purposes, the company can also use it to improve its reputation.
• Siol.NET: These are the Slovenians who quit their jobs and followed thier dreams instead

There’s always room for an upgrade in our Magento team! This year, we got new certificates:

• Anže Harej: Magento 2 Solution Specialist
• Simon Potočnik: Magento 2 Solution Specialist

• AmCham Slovenia: Best of the Best competition winners
• Zlata nit: Winners best golden practice 2017
• Zlata nit: Top 3 finalists of Zlata nit’s best employer 2017
• Ekvilib: A family-friendly company
• HR&M: 2018 Project: Let’s boost
• Websi: 1st place – Business website (Optiweb website)
• Websi: Best design (Optiweb website)
• AmCham Slovenia: Finalists of best business practice Best of the Best

This year, we welcomed even more Let’s boost interns - among them was an international student Christina from Romania who was sharpening her skills with our design team.

This year, we decided to spice up our Mondays with Monday Bluzz, a 3pm get-together where we talk through various themes - strictly unrelated to our work.

As a part of the Let’s boost internship, this year’s students successfully finished a pro bono project: in exchange for practical experience, they helped a non-profit organisation by designing a new website for them and by providing them with a long-term marketing plan.

In the year 2019, we also changed the graphic design of our company. We said our farewells to rounded letters and lines, added a new color palette and introduced triangular elements.

In April, we’ve blown our 10th birthday candle and marked 10 years of hard work and successful projects of our Optiweb team. Since we can’t seem to stop growing, we’ve had another important turning point – moving into new bigger and more modern offices. The new office space really boosts our motivation and productivity and makes sure we’re even more connected as a team.

We’ve successfully finished our “Let’s boost” internship, with which we offer students our expertise, a vigilant mentor and development of their potential in the digital world. In 2019, we had 6 interns; three of them continue to work with us and one being fully employed.

Just recently, Miha became a proud member of the association Slovenian Business Club!

At Optiweb, we like to share our knowledge, because we believe that is the key to success. We gladly respond to the invitations to various lectures, workshops, conferences, etc. and we make sure we help transfer our knowledge to others.

• WordPress: Lecture on project management at the forum of the Slovenian association for project management. WP meetup – Presentation of the use of hooks in WooCommerce Presentation of the process of developing a website and our way of work to the students of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences. DMS – E-commerce: How to take a step forward from an online shop? Lecture at the association of “Spletni trgovci”: How to (really) sell on Amazon DMS – Go-to market strategies
• Design: Career day SPID at NTF Ljubljana GovJam 2019 co-organization
• Marketing: Growth hacking B2B workshop at Tehnološki park Product of the year Business incubator Perspektiva Postojna SMK – Slovenian Marketing Conference
• Magento: Diggit

Val 202

• WordPress: WordCamp Europe in Berlin Mastermind with Matej Bešter, Popolna Postava
• Magento: We are Developers in Berlin PHP Meetup WordPress Meetup Ljubljana
• Design: Look Around 360 (VR/AR conference) Design Sprint Slovenia Meetups UX Slovenia Meetups ProductTank Meetups Service Design Meetups
• Marketing: Google Automation Workshop in Zagreb BrightonSEO in England Inorbit Mikrocop conference Mastermind with Simon Belak Google Retail Academy E-commerce mastermind with Matej Bešter SOF SMK – Slovenian marketing conference
• Administration: Accounting and tax return for the year 2018 Tax deduction Protection of personal data (GDPR)

Magento: Janez Alič, Klemen Lapanja, Urban Kovač and Tilen Habjan become certified Pimcore developers
Marketing: Nina Zupančič: Facebook Blueprint Planner certificate

Another change is reflected in our Wazzup meetings. Since our old way was getting kind of monotonous, we took our weekly meetings to a new level. The routine of every Wazzup meeting (team leads report, what’s new, miscellaneous) got rejuvenated with interesting project presentations. Despite the big number of employees, we are therefore up-to-date with all the achievements and can celebrate new successes together.

Our project #polnaškatla or #fullbox left a very special mark on the year 2019, because with it we got to help those less fortunate than us. We collected food and newspapers, we helped with various donations and – to our great joy – we also got our business partners to join in. Together, we gave back to the community and proven the old saying “there’s strength in numbers”.

Our successful Pimcore cooperation from the year 2018 was taken to a completely new level in 2019. We are proud to be the company with the only Pimcore Gold Certificate in Slovenia!

In the year 2019, we also changed the graphic design of our company. We said our farewells to rounded letters and lines, added a new color palette and introduced triangular elements.

To honor the opening of our new offices, we made our very own video game: The Legend Of Miha.

After the first quarantine, there was an intrusion into one of our largest online stores, and then an intrusion into our Facebook business account. The first involved credit card fraud, while the second caused spending millions of Euros of our clients’ advertising money. After helping our clients get their money back and conducting an investigation of our own processes, we designed and implemented advanced preventive measures in cooperation with external partners, thus strengthening our security to an extremely high level.

In 2020, our teams grew by the largest number of senior personnel to date. Welcome:

• Peter Novak, Head of the Magento Development Team
• Žiga Brodnik, Business Development & Client Success Manager
• Mitja Rep, Marketing Team Lead
• Sabina Bevc, SEO Team Lead

We adopted the so-called “open-book management” approach, whereby we present financial data to everyone in the company every few months. In order for this sharing to be useful, we also educate our colleagues about what the data means.

As the first quarantine hit, we immediately switched to fully remote work and merely adjusted it a bit during “calmer” times to work in the office for 2 days and then switch to working remotely for the rest of the week. For the first time, remote work was also joined by other remote activities, such as internships, onboarding, and team building.

Another product of remote work is Miha’s CEO address to his colleagues. At the end of each week, he puts together a video about what’s been going on, to introduce new colleagues and projects, make announcements, give praise, etc.

With our skill assessment tasks renewed and applicant pool adjusted, our selection of new employees is easier than ever. We also improved our onboarding process by updating our to-do lists, thus making sure newcomers are ready to take on their first challenges.

We finished writing Optiweb’s 2030 vision.

• We implemented our PIM (product information management) service on nearly all of our new, substantial webshops and even turned it into an individual product.
• We’re getting more familiar with event sourcing using Kafka, which helps us with the integrating of information systems from different sources that occur with all of our bigger clients.
• We were among the first in Slovenia to set up an e-commerce site using the Shopware platform.
• Following our goal of even faster and more user-friendly websites, we switched to a new way of developing our websites using the Gutenberg tool.
• Google Data Studio became our number-one tool to measure the results of a new website. It gives us exact data about which channels generate sales and potential customers.

With our help, quite a few notable websites came to life: Mass, SAM, Pikapolonica, Mali Zakladi, Inotherm, Renault, Sparkasse and Kras.

• With one of our clients, we reached our personal record of monthly online sales: 1 million € on the Slovenian and Croatian market.
• With some of our clients, we charged for our marketing services in % of their online sales. By doing so, we reached over 100.000 € of annual provisions.
• We achieved outstanding advertising and SEO results on 10 different markets: Germany, Austria, UK, Poland, The Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Slovenia.
• At the beginning of quarantine, our clients needed to transfer their business online ASAP. To meet their needs, we set up 6 Shopify webshops and started marketing them in less than 3 weeks.

• 4 Websi awards for our clients’ projects
• 2 nominations for the DonatMg project from Digital Communication Awards (DCA);
• A nomination of our CEO, Miha Lavtar, for the “Vitez Dela” award from the SBC organization
• A nomination for “best corona project” (Domača trgOWinca).

• ~2.700.000 € of income
• +15 full-time employees—with a grand total of 57!
• –7 full-time employees
• +5 babies
• ~800 new LinkedIn followers
• A new record of 4200 Slack messages in a day
• 100+ Let’s boost internship applicants and 4 chosen candidates
• 700+ applicants for job openings
• 940+ service inquiries
• 1 TB of memory, 1.2 THz of processor power, and 10 TB of server space for our clients
• 140 days of empty offices
• 3.000+ € donated to charities of our employees’ choice
• 160 surprise packages delivered to doorsteps