While most major tech projects started in garages, Britenet aimed much higher from the very beginning – taking its first steps in a small attic apartment in Warsaw's Ursynów district. Twenty years have passed since then – two decades of successes, changes, relocations, and numerous technological challenges.
Some have been part of this journey since the company's inception. To mark our 20th anniversary, we asked them what they remember most fondly, how much the organization has changed over the years, and what has remained the same.
What did Britenet's organization and back-office look like when you started your journey, and what does it look like today? Do you still remember the atmosphere of the old office and the challenges that seem almost unbelievable today?
First of all, I started working here over 15 years ago – at the age of 23, so as a student, a bachelor, with no kids or even a dog. At that time, our Britenet crew consisted of many young people in their twenties and early thirties (the Management Board itself was just over thirty back then). We formed a group of young people who wanted to conquer the IT world.
Moving from a small office on Hamlet Street in Lublin – or rather, a single-family house – to an office building on Wojciechowska Street shows how far we've come together over the years, and how many glass ceilings we've shattered. It also shows that we have built a very strong team capable of achieving even more. The sky is the limit.
We may have traded a „house” for an „office building”, but it's the people who are here every day that create what matters most – the atmosphere.
Daniel Wójcikowski – Site Manager
I started in a cozy office on Hamlet Street in Lublin. The team back then was small, and the atmosphere was almost familial. Work had a unique vibe in those days. Today, Britenet is a completely different world. Moving to modern offices and dynamic growth sealed our entry to a new level. Although the old atmosphere has given way to corporate standards, it's nice to look back. The challenges from the days of the Hamlet Street office perfectly illustrate the massive journey we've made as a company.
Anita Skóra – Administration & Payroll Manager
When I began my adventure with Britenet in 2006, the entire company consisted of fewer than 10 people – including Michał Borny (CEO) and Tomasz Krajewski, who was the president at the time. Our first office was located in a small attic apartment in Warsaw's Ursynów. We didn't have back-office structures then, recruitment was done exclusively through our network of contacts, and invoices were issued personally by Michał. What's more, at that time, we were all actively working on projects, including the Management Board.
The first move took place in 2007. We relocated to a terraced house in Mokotów. We transported all the furniture in the president's car and assembled it ourselves on site.
There's one more symbolic story I associate with Britenet's beginnings. Back then, our operations were supported by an external accounting firm located in a skyscraper that has since been demolished (Universal). In its place, a new one was built (Widok Towers), which is now the headquarters of our Warsaw branch.
Łukasz Łukaszewski – Finance Department Director
You have over a decade of observing the company's life from the inside under your belt. Which shared success, event, or team-building party has stuck in your memory the most and best showcases the spirit of Britenet?
During my time at Britenet, we've had many occasions to celebrate together, starting from intimate barbecue gatherings in the garden of the Hamlet Street office, through Brite ChillOuts, to team-building trips where we could strengthen ties with colleagues from other offices. The one that stuck in my mind the most was the trip to Olsztyn for the company's 10th anniversary and the regatta on Lake Ukiel. It was an amazing adventure, catching the wind in our sails and playing as a team despite the competition. I remember that energy to this day, and I believe we operate exactly the same way at work every day: we sail in the same direction and can always count on each other.
Katarzyna Małyska – HR Administration Leader
For me, as an amateur athlete, it's obviously the President's Cups during team-building trips. But I think an even greater sporting success was winning the IT Football Championship for 6-a-side teams... three years in a row.
No other IT company had ever done something like that, so to me, it's something incredible. Being the captain of our team, I often reminisce about those tournaments and I am super proud of our squad. The icing on this sporting cake was Britenet's participation in the Just Join Games Olympics organized by Just Join IT in 2023. I managed to win a bronze medal there in the 'Jump over the Firewall' category, and a gold in the 'Laptop sprint'.
It was a truly massive event at the stadium in Gdańsk, with hundreds of participants taking part.
Your development in the company ran parallel to its incredible growth. How has your role changed – from working on operational processes to managing a key area of the organization?
At Britenet, my career path developed along with the company – from operational roles, through HR & Delivery, to Sales and the strategic development of client relationships. Each of these stages allowed me to better understand the business from different perspectives – from operations and people to client needs and partnership development. Today, I focus on delivering real value to clients by translating their business goals into technological solutions that allow them to achieve those goals effectively.
Monika Roszkowska – Senior Business Manager
I started working at Britenet 16 years ago as an assistant, when the Lublin office had about 20 employees. Over the years, I have changed, my role in the organization has changed, and the entire company has changed. Systems evolved, we improved processes and built a brand, but one thing has remained constant – the feeling that we are creating this place together. I am proud to be part of this organization and to be surrounded by wonderful, ambitious people.
My role in the organization changed along with the company's growth and the challenges the market threw at us. I started as a Java programmer, and after two years I landed at a new client's site as an API tester. Next, I started building a testing team, only to later move on to resource management together with Ireneusz Codello – which was the seed of our current Allocation Center. After that, our paths in the company diverged – Irek focused on resources and matching them to projects, while I went towards numbers, reports, and invoices, until I reached the role of Financial Director.
Over a decade in one company is a time during which our entire private life also changes. How has Britenet evolved over this time in terms of simply being a human, understanding workplace at different stages of life (growing a family, changing priorities)?
More than ten years in one organization means not only professional development but also many important changes and experiences in private life. I appreciate the fact that as I went through successive stages of my life, I was able to develop professionally while maintaining space for myself and my loved ones. Britenet's strength is its ability to grow the organization together with the people who create it.
Do you remember the technical world you stepped into at Britenet over a decade ago? What tools, challenges, or simply the IT work climate from a decade ago do you sometimes miss?
When I joined Britenet in 2014, I had a background of working in a small agency where you could count the team on the fingers of one hand, and the tester was whoever happened to have a free moment. At Britenet, I discovered that not only do testers and analysts exist, but even Java, so it was quite an intensive educational phase for me. I don't miss the tools of that time; technology has moved forward, and thankfully so. Today we have proper security and a whole Internal IT department, and I say this somewhat from the other side of the barricade. What I miss more is the close-knit vibe of those days: the small office on Morwowa Street in Lublin, the fact that pretty much everyone knew each other, and the atmosphere where there was more room for jokes and spontaneity.
Małgorzata Kmieć – Project Manager
I started out as a Java Developer. In one of my first projects, we worked in Java, with Spring, which was still quite fresh back then, and we did the frontend in Adobe Flex. Today, that technology practically no longer exists. Add SVN to that – so technologically, it was a completely different world. I don't know if I miss specific tools. I miss more the point in my career when everything was new and it was very easy to notice my development. I had to learn a lot back then.
In hindsight, I also strongly reaffirmed my belief that it's not worth getting attached to a single technology. Tools come and go, so it's best to invest in the fundamentals. They stay with you and make learning new things much easier later on.
The work climate itself hasn't changed all that much. Even back then we were already working Agile, and I was lucky to end up with engaged people who took responsibility and made sensible decisions.
Adam Siwek – Salesforce Manager
20 years have passed... If you don't miss WAP standard apps, Visual Basic for Applications, ColdFusion, or WebSphere on AIX, then... I completely understand you.
On my first day at Britenet, I found out that – from the client's point of view – I was two weeks late. That project was my leap into big business, but it was also a crazy, or at least grotesque, endeavor, like many big-budget projects.
From today's perspective, you could miss the funny consequences of the „custom approach” of those days, and literally everything else. Back then, you didn't just get a laptop with standard tools and security features; you had to submit a request for... internet access. While waiting for it to be fulfilled, I bought internet access via premium SMS messages.
In those days, the bulk of a corporation's money was spent on technology, which is why an analyst or designer had to be practically infallible, and the PDCA cycle was considered a fad. The threat of entering a paid change request mode taught me humility: algorithmic thinking, formulating unambiguous theses, setting falsification conditions for them, empirical verification, and carefully separating wishes from facts and assumptions from knowledge.
This habit has stayed with me to this day because it works, even though it strips many great visionaries of their sense of omnipotence.
Tomasz Senduła – Business Analyst
When you compare your first project at Britenet with current deployments – what has changed the most in the approach to technology and team management, and what has remained the same?
What has changed the most is probably the scale and my perspective. I started as a Web Developer, then UX, and today I'm a PM, so I went through the natural progression from „what should I do?” to „when will it be ready?”.
The tools have changed, the projects are bigger, the company structure is incomparably more expanded, and the responsibility has definitely increased. The deployments themselves, however, can still look much like they did over a decade ago: a bit of tension, some surprises, and a huge sense of relief when everything works. The difference is that back in the day, a night deployment was followed by an epic party, whereas now it's followed by another call.
Today I work as a Salesforce Architect and Technical Manager, so I look at projects from a broader perspective than at the beginning of my career. In the past, the biggest challenge for me was primarily catching up on technological knowledge. I still learn all the time today, but it's easier because I already have a solid foundation and experience.
The biggest change is the scale and complexity of the systems. There are significantly more applications, integrations, automations, and dependencies. Add AI to the mix, which changes not only the systems themselves but also the daily work of developers – creating documentation, analyzing bugs, or looking for solutions.
What has changed much less is team management. A good leader should always give people space for development, independence, and taking responsibility. That's not a matter of a trend or a specific methodology.
Technologies have changed immensely, but the foundations of a good project are still the same: good people, responsibility, sensible decisions, and above all, an understanding of business needs.
Dozens of people have passed through the company over the years, but you've been working with many of them for years. What is the most important "glue" for you that makes Britenet still a space where you want to spend time?
The most important factor building the durability and stability of an organization is interpersonal relationships. From the perspective of working in the HR department, the ability to have direct contact with employees and openness to other people constitute the foundation of everyday functioning. Dialogue and human capital is the most important „glue” connecting business goals with a friendly work atmosphere. It's simply a space where, apart from doing a good job, it's just humanly pleasant to be around each other.
Interpersonal relationships really do work, which is perfectly visible from the perspective of people who joined the company a bit later.
I think good team management does a lot, which is proven by our administrative team under the care of Anita, who perfectly demonstrates how important trust, openness, and maintaining a good atmosphere are – not only when everything is going well, but especially in harder times. Thanks to this, even when crises or major changes occur, the team is able to unite, support each other, and simply get through it together. And I guess it's exactly this awareness that we work with people we can count on that makes you want to stay here longer.
Aleksandra Czajkowska – Administration Specialist
20 years on the market means a lot of stories, projects, and experiences. Do members of our team with slightly shorter tenures benefit from the knowledge of their older, battle-hardened colleagues? And what does it feel like to work with the people who built Britenet from the very beginning?
You joined Britenet relatively recently compared to the people from the 10+ Club. What makes the maturity of this company and its 20 years of experience an asset in your daily work, rather than a "corporate burden"?
Definitely the openness of my colleagues who, as you rightly noted, already have a longer tenure at Britenet. This is very important, especially in the initial onboarding phase, when you feel welcome in a new place, and people who have worked here longer gladly help you acclimatize to the new environment and share their experience with you. However, this maturity pays off on a daily basis as well – a relaxed atmosphere within individual teams and between them allows for effective communication and knowledge flow.
Jakub Grzywacz – Key Account Manager
When talking to clients and partners, you represent a company with a 20-year history. What element of Britenet's two decades of experience is personally the "strongest argument" for you when opening new business doors?
Our impressive experience in cooperating with large and recognizable organizations. The scale of successfully delivered projects and solutions over 20 years allows us to build credibility with new clients as well. In today's dynamic IT realities, two decades on the market also signify extremely crucial stability. These aspects make it easier to present Britenet as a trusted and predictable technology partner.
Working in administration, you have constant contact with the people who have been building this company for over a decade. From your perspective, what does this collaboration look like – what is it in the approach of Britenet's "dinosaurs" that makes your daily process management easier?
Collaborating with the „dinosaurs” means, above all, the opportunity for me to tap into their experience and their knowledge of the company „from the inside”. As an example, I would like to mention my manager, Anita (Administration & Payroll Manager). After over 10 years at Britenet, she knows the people, the processes, and the various situations that can arise in our daily work inside out. Thanks to this, she can often anticipate what might go wrong and alert our team in advance.
I also highly appreciate her thoughtful and transparent approach to the administration team, because it gives us a sense that even in crisis situations, we know what we are doing and why. I think that such „dinosaurs” really help people with less seniority find their footing in different situations faster, and they teach us things you won't find in any procedure.
From a small attic in Ursynów, through buying internet via SMS, all the way to modern offices and advanced projects for international clients. Two decades in the IT industry is an intense journey, during which technologies have changed beyond recognition. However, the memories of our team prove that even though the scale, tools, and addresses have changed, the most important foundation of the company has remained intact. It's the people who, thanks to their openness, trust, and a relaxed vibe, make us constantly want to keep going. We thank our entire crew for creating the unique history of Britenet.
