Javra Software, 25 years and still going strong! I can’t believe it! I never planned to start my own company, but here we are, with close to 140 people in three countries for Javra! It's been an incredible journey!
When I left my current job, I was excited to have the opportunity to start my own company! I was just not happy with my current position, so I decided to take the plunge and start my own company. When I told the IT director about my plans, he was really interested and asked me all about them. I told him I had no idea what I was doing, but I was excited to find out!
He was blown away by that answer and asked if he could hire me for a little while. Since I had no plans anyway, I said yes, and that was the beginning of my first company – the best decision I ever made! It was called Anyline, and it all began on 1 May 1990. In 1997, I was thrilled to welcome two other amazing colleagues who had already achieved incredible success with their previous company. But that combination just didn't work out, and after precisely nine years, I left that company to start Javra Software on the first of May 1999.
I started with a few customers of my previous company because they wanted to work with something other than the programming language I was using then. I started out of my home, and then I moved to a little office in Druten, which is a lovely little city close to my house.
Javra started off slowly, with just two people and then three (who are still going strong for Javra) people. By 2005, we had around 12 people on board. At that time, there weren't many skilled people available in the Netherlands, and outsourcing was a new trend. One of my biggest customers came to me and told me that they were going to outsource a lot of work. He told me that I had two options: either prepare myself for less work from them or start an outsourcing company!
After a little bit of hesitation, I decided to start a company in Bulgaria, in eastern Europe. It was a bold move, but I was excited to take on the challenge of doing business in a new country. They weren't quite part of the European Union yet, which presented some unique opportunities. While it made me have some doubts, as finding people there was already very difficult, I was eager to overcome these challenges and make my mark in this new market.
On a Tuesday evening, I got some incredible news! I found out about an incredible opportunity to go on a study trip to Nepal to explore IT opportunities there! On the same Thursday, I popped by the Nepalese consulate in Amsterdam to get more information and to get my hopes up even more! And on Sunday, we were off to Nepal!
After three weeks, we started the process of setting up a company in Nepal. It was such a great time, despite all the difficulties. Our lawyer was a real star! He went to all kinds of government departments to get our licence. Nepal had a King in those days, but not everybody was happy, so there were lots of demonstrations going on. But I’ll tell you more about that in another blog!
We're so grateful to have started with eight people, and now we're around 100!
The secret of our survival is our ability to adapt to all kinds of situations. We started with just one language and then gradually added more and more others.
One of the best things we ever did was to start our own R&D department. This gave us the chance to explore different fields and technologies and show them to our lovely customers, which was the basis of many of our projects.
In 2022, we were delighted to open another office in the beautiful city of Lisbon. It's one of my favourite European cities! There, we have been focused on PHP with Laravel and PimCore. And we are constantly growing! In fact, we're on our way to be a team with twenty people!
I am so proud of our amazing team, made up of people from 12 different countries, practising all kinds of religions and representing a huge range of skin colours. I truly believe that our diverse workforce is one of our greatest strengths. It brings a whole bunch of different perspectives, experiences and ideas that help us to innovate and grow. Javra is all about maintaining an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their best work, no matter their nationality, religion, or skin colour.
Javra Software is so much more than just a company. We're a socially responsible organisation that believes in giving back to the community. We're really proud of our commitment to social responsibility, and we think you'll be really impressed by what we've done in Nepal.
We're so happy to say that our efforts have reached approximately 1000 children, who now have the opportunity to attend school. This initiative is not just about sharing knowledge, but also about giving these young minds, especially the girls, the tools they need to succeed.
Our work in Nepal is a wonderful example of our belief in ‘Business with a Purpose’. It shows how much we care about making a positive impact on society, and I'm really proud of this aspect of our work.
This gives Javra Software an exceptional working environment.
By Frank Mollers CEO, Javra Software