Chapter 9: Rolling Along

When opportunity knocks, adaptability answers. Follow Signavio’s leap into new markets, including the launch of its Singapore office, as the team learns to navigate uncharted waters with trust and spontaneity.

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Transcript

Daniel Furtwängler came to me, looking a bit uneasy.

“Gero, you know I always wanted to return to Singapore. Now is the time. I found a job with another company. I will be gone in two months.” He seemed uncomfortable when he broke the news.

Over the last months, he did a phenomenal job of signing on new customers. AOK and United Internet were still On-Premise deals, but Daniel signed on all of those cloud customers with true subscription contracts.

Now, he wanted to leave and return to his dream land. I had completely forgotten that this was his goal all the time. I thought he would stick around on our sales team in Berlin forever.

For the lack of a better response, I said: “Daniel, this is very bad timing actually. You know why?” Daniel didn’t know. “Just this morning, we decided that we are ready to expand again and launch a new office in Singapore. And I was already wondering who could best lead that new location.”

“Really?”, Daniel replied, totally surprised. “Did you think of me running that?”

“Well, now that you want to leave, I guess this is not an option any more for you”, I suggested.

“No, no, no, of course I would love to stay with Signavio and do that, if you let me.” Daniel was enthusiastic.

We didn’t have any plans to expand to Singapore; the idea was spontaneous, born out of the moment and Daniel’s sudden announcement. It wasn’t an obvious choice for us. There were other countries that made more sense for expansion, and none of us had ever been to Singapore. All we knew was that it was often mentioned as a good launchpad for reaching other Asian markets.

Daniel canceled his other job offer and chose to stay with Signavio. Over the next six months, he became a key driver in turning this vague idea into a reality. Together, we tackled the numerous challenges of launching in a completely new region - navigating legal and business requirements, building connections, and learning about the local culture.

What started as a desperate bid to keep a valuable team member became an important step in our growth. It captured the essence of our journey: seizing opportunities, adapting quickly, and committing fully, even when the path wasn’t clear.

We also expanded in another dimension: the product. We were still deeply focused on building and selling our process modeling product, which was gaining solid traction, and there were still significant opportunities for improvement. Each day brought new insights from customer feedback and evolving market needs. It was a challenging yet rewarding grind that reinforced our commitment to refining our core offering.

In Silicon Valley, I often heard a common belief: you can reach $100 million dollars in revenue with a single product. Only when you achieve this milestone should you consider developing a second product. This guidance wasn’t just theoretical; it reflected the harsh reality that introducing a second product to the market is a notoriously difficult feat. Many companies attempt it and fail, struggling to allocate the resources, focus, and strategy required to succeed with a diversified portfolio.

At that time, Signavio was generating less than €2 million euros in annual revenue - far below the Silicon Valley benchmark for product expansion. According to conventional wisdom, we were far too small to branch out. But rules have their exceptions, and creativity often thrives outside established norms. Despite our size, we saw an opportunity to expand into an adjacent domain: cloud-based workflow automation. This was driven by a critical observation - while our process modeling product had built momentum, there was no suitable product on the market that offered comprehensive workflow capabilities in the cloud.

Conceptually, process modeling and workflow automation were two halves of a whole. Process modeling allows you to design how work should flow - mapping out each step and defining who does what. But workflow automation takes that vision and makes it operational. With workflow tools, you specify all the forms that need to be completed, establish decision rules that guide paths forward, and integrate with various systems to pull and push data. Together, these capabilities bring processes to life.

At the time, the market was populated with heavyweight workflow solutions - complex systems aimed at large-scale, enterprise needs. There were also developer-centric tools like Camunda, designed with a focus on process automation for technically skilled users. What was missing, however, was a solution tailored to non-technical users - a tool that allowed everyday business people to create and automate workflows without deep technical expertise. This would later become known as “no code” automation. But in 2013, this vision was still largely unrealized.

Torben and I spent countless hours conceptualizing what such a tool might look like. We imagined something as approachable as an Excel spreadsheet but with the flexibility to layer in process logic over time. Our goal was to create a product that allowed users to start simple and gradually build complexity as their needs evolved. Over the years, products like Smartsheet and Airtable emerged with similar "no code" intentions, but our interest was always in a more workflow-centric approach - something that could translate intricate business processes into automated, user-friendly flows.

In the year prior, our ambition nearly took a tangible form when we met two Berlin-based entrepreneurs interested in collaborating with us on a company called “Releveo.” The idea was to develop a solution that merged the familiar ease of spreadsheets with powerful, no-code workflow capabilities. Torben and I would have taken on advisory and shareholder roles while the operational responsibilities would have rested with the two founders. However, for various reasons - timing, market dynamics, and perhaps a lack of readiness - the venture never materialized, and we decided to set the idea aside.

Even so, the concept stayed with us, fueling future initiatives and keeping us motivated to explore how we could push boundaries and make complex processes accessible to all. This experience, like so many others, served as a reminder that innovation often emerges through persistence, adaptation, and a willingness to rebel against industry norms.

In 2013, Tom Baeyens reached out and presented his new project to Torben and myself. Tom was a well-respected figure in the open source community, known for launching both the jBPM project and the Activiti project - two powerful and widely-used process automation engines. For us, this was significant. Here was someone with a proven track record, deeply passionate about process automation, and he had a concept that aligned almost perfectly with what we had envisioned for Releveo.

Tom’s idea was to create a no-code workflow tool, which he named “Effektif.” It was the embodiment of what we had hoped to achieve - bringing process automation to a broader audience without requiring deep technical expertise. This was our chance to bring that vision to life with a partner who had unparalleled experience. We quickly saw the potential in collaborating and agreed that Signavio would invest in Effektif. This wasn’t a trivial decision; we committed €1.2 million euros - a sum that represented almost everything we could afford at the time - and lent some of our developers to assist with the project. In exchange, Signavio gained a 70% stake in the newly created company.

Our partnership with Effektif quickly became central to our strategy. We needed a robust governance workflow capability integrated within our own tools, and Effektif was a natural fit. It allowed us to accelerate our product’s capabilities, creating a more comprehensive offering for our customers.

Tom was a self-described “geek” who thrived on solving complex problems and developing innovative solutions. However, he was far less interested in the Go-To-Market side of things. Sales pitches and market strategies held little appeal for him, and he preferred to stay away from those conversations entirely. As Effektif grew and reached a stage where it required its own dedicated sales team, Tom began to reflect on whether running an entire company - from development to sales - was truly what he wanted.

Two years later, we agreed that Signavio would acquire Tom’s remaining shares in Effektif and fully integrate the company into our operations. This move allowed us to streamline efforts, reuse and expand our existing teams, and bring everything under the Signavio umbrella. It was a reasonable deal for Tom, who agreed to stay on board for another year to ensure a smooth transition. Over time, Effektif migrated into Signavio, first becoming Signavio Workflow Accelerator and later known as Signavio Process Governance.

Meanwhile, business in the United States kept me busy. I often traveled with Will to meet clients and push forward our expansion. One particularly significant opportunity was with Goldman Sachs. The sales effort had started a year prior, back at Code Camp in 2012, discussing the transformation challenges of one of the most sophisticated financial institutions in the world from a dimly lit room on the hippie farm. They were one of the few major investment banks to remain independent post-financial crisis, and now faced increased regulatory pressure under the Obama administration. They needed to rethink their operating model entirely, and were in the midst of becoming more of a tech-driven organization, focusing on software and automation - a movement they called the “industrialization of investment banking,” using a design-led approach to reshape their processes. 

The sales opportunity had progressed well, and we were approaching the close of a major deal. Will had skillfully negotiated multiple adoption tiers, and to our delight, Goldman’s adoption of our product outpaced even our most optimistic expectations.

In record time, Goldman reached the stage where they required a site license - an arrangement that translated to more than a million dollars in revenue for us. When closing the deal in NYC, Will and Torben sent home a selfie with the Goldman building behind them, briefly stating “Goldman = closed!” This was monumental, considering that with United Internet, our largest deal to date, we had broken the €250,000 euros barrier. Goldman represented a leap of an entirely different magnitude. 

While it was an On-Premise license deal again rather than a cloud subscription the immediate financial impact was substantial. The million dollars was only due in the first year, with ongoing revenue for maintenance fees in subsequent years. Even so, the partnership with Goldman significantly boosted our credibility and validated our potential on a global stage.

A year later, during a visit to Goldman Sachs’ New York office, I couldn’t resist revisiting a question that had been on my mind. 

I asked candidly, “Either I don’t understand your use case, or Will just ripped you off. What is it? If you had to quantify the value of Signavio, how much would it be?”

In response, my Goldman colleague chuckled and invited me to follow him to another floor of the building. We walked through an expansive open space, filled with the buzz of activity. The sight was striking - hundreds of people, seemingly everywhere. 

He turned to me and asked, “Gero, do you know who all of these people are?” 

I had no idea.

“They are all external consultants,” he explained. “There are hundreds on this floor and just as many on the floor above. They work permanently for Goldman.”

As the realization sank in, it became clear just how enormous Goldman’s operational change efforts were. These consultants were tasked with implementing a never-ending stream of changes driven by regulatory updates and other complexities of a global operation. The scale spanned multiple countries, from the United States to the United Kingdom, Singapore, and beyond - essentially touching every part of their vast enterprise.

For Goldman, change was not a choice; it was a necessity. With their heavy reliance on full-time consultants and the associated costs, it was evident that the challenges of adapting quickly and maintaining compliance were immense. This context gave me a new appreciation for the role Signavio played in the ecosystem of large organizations. By providing tools that accelerated change initiatives, streamlined processes, and enhanced collaboration, Signavio could drastically reduce both the time and cost associated with these massive projects.

The million dollars they had invested in our software suddenly seemed like a drop in the ocean compared to the value it unlocked. My colleague at Goldman estimated that their use of Signavio was creating more than $100 million dollars in enterprise value. It wasn’t just about improving efficiency; it was about transforming how they managed and responded to change, making their investments in full-time consultants and operational adaptation more targeted and effective.

Damn. I thought. We sold our software too cheaply, again.

This moment underscored the potential impact of our work and served as a powerful validation of what we were building. The true value of Signavio extended far beyond the technology itself; it lay in how we enabled organizations like Goldman to adapt, innovate, and thrive in a rapidly changing landscape.

The United States was an endless source of inspiration for us. Working with customers like Goldman broadened our understanding of what business process software could truly achieve. Their ambitious projects and complex needs opened our eyes to the many extensions that existed for our product. It was an invaluable education in scaling, adapting, and evolving our solutions to meet the demands of large, sophisticated enterprises.

Goldman was particularly interested in automating everything. They leveraged open source frameworks extensively and positioned themselves as one of the early adopters of what would later be known as “Robotic Process Automation” (RPA). Their use of AI tools was equally impressive, allowing them to reimagine core business decisions and processes from the ground up. This forward-thinking approach to automation pushed us to consider new angles for our own offering, constantly challenging us to stay ahead of the curve.

What I loved about the U.S. was that customers were much more willing to give new technology a try. They embraced innovation with a level of enthusiasm that was truly energizing. American customers loved to hear entrepreneurial stories and often saw partnerships with startups as a way to propel themselves to the next level. While their European counterparts - especially in Germany - often demanded detailed customer references, case studies, and tangible proof points before making a decision, U.S. clients wanted to know the people and vision behind the product. The Americans were more captivated by the founder’s story and the journey that led to Signavio.

This cultural difference extended to technology adoption as well. American companies were far more receptive to cloud-based solutions, while many German customers at the time remained steadfastly attached to On-Premise deployments. This willingness to adopt cloud technology made the U.S. an attractive market for our innovation-driven approach, even if it came with its own challenges.

Ironically, despite their appetite for innovation, many U.S. customers were initially hesitant to embrace the term “process.” To them, “process” often evoked images of bureaucracy and stifled creativity - anathema to their entrepreneurial culture. We found ourselves rethinking our messaging, experimenting with phrases like “promoting best practices” and “reinventing ways of working” to better connect with this market’s mindset. Over time, as digital transformation gained momentum and organizations came to see repeatable processes as enablers of innovation rather than barriers, the perception shifted. Eventually, “process” became not just acceptable but desirable, recognized as a critical lever for competitive advantage.

Another key insight we gained was the importance of offering comprehensive solutions. Unlike some markets where modularity was favored, U.S. customers appreciated when a single vendor could cover a broad spectrum of needs. The idea of using one provider for process modeling and another for process automation often seemed counterintuitive to them. They sought end-to-end solutions that spanned the entire lifecycle, from designing processes to executing and optimizing them. This expectation shaped our strategy, driving us to expand our capabilities and develop an integrated, cohesive offering that delivered value from start to finish.

One effect of our growing success in Germany and the major new deals we secured in the United States was the need to expand our team significantly. With more business to manage, we brought on more full-time employees. This rapid growth quickly made our original office on Goethestraße in Berlin feel cramped. Despite our efforts to rent additional space in the same building, it wasn’t possible. I actually had my eye on the ground floor space, but the landlord opted for a tenant from the art world instead. Ironically, years later, when I developed a passion for contemporary art, I discovered that the space had been taken by one of Germany’s leading galleries and I frequently came back to our old home to indulge in inspiration.

Torben found us a new office in Nürnberger Straße 8 in Berlin, on the backside of the Europa Center. Now, we had two floors and ample space for different teams. We made the move on a Saturday, with everyone pitching in. The day was filled with setting up desks, arranging plants, and settling in - followed, of course, by a celebratory party that night. Initially, the new office seemed almost too spacious, with desks scattered far apart.

We converted one of our meeting rooms into a guest room. Alongside the usual table and chairs, we placed a sofa that could be converted into a bed. Tom Baeyens, who frequently traveled from Belgium to Berlin, loved using this room. He enjoyed the convenience of living at the office and didn’t mind encountering colleagues while heading to the shower in the morning.

Shortly after settling into the new space, we had a significant visitor: the team from SAP. Signing them up as a customer had been a long-standing goal, but it was a challenging prospect. Like many other big companies in Germany, they had a big ARIS installation and signing up with Signavio would mean a big switch for them. However, SAP’s relationship with ARIS had weakened, creating an opportunity for us.

Our main competitor for this deal was an internal tool SAP had acquired through Sybase. It was clunky, difficult to use, and offered limited process support. The process team at SAP preferred our solution for its user-friendly design and scalability. However, they came with a daunting list of requirements, ranging from integrations and configurability to a smooth migration path for their existing ARIS content.

For the next nine months, SAP drove about 75% of all our incoming feature requests. Their needs were massive, as they aimed to roll out our solution to all 90,000 employees. At peak usage, we saw over 20,000 monthly active users. Unlike other major customers such as AOK, United Internet, and Goldman, SAP was focused on a pure cloud subscription deal. Securing this contract would make it our largest recurring customer agreement by far and would produce the strongest possible customer reference for the German market. We poured everything we had into convincing SAP, and eventually, we succeeded.

For the first time in Signavio’s history, I felt like things were really in order. Our customers appreciated our product, and our organization was running smoothly. Teams were solidifying, guided by capable leaders who had grown alongside the company. Torben had returned to the level of performance and reliability we needed from him and sustained it consistently over the following years. There was a palpable sense of stability and momentum - a rare and precious feeling in the relentless world of startups.

With the weight of daily firefighting eased, I could finally allow myself something I hadn’t dared for years - a real break. For the first time in half a decade, I took a true vacation. I ignored emails, disconnected from work, and gave myself permission to relax completely.

The trip was perfectly timed. The time zone difference made it easier to step away, and Karolina, Jakub, and I spent nearly a month in Hawaii. It was more than just a getaway; it was a moment of reconnection. For the first time, I could focus entirely on my son Jakub without distraction, witnessing milestones like his first steps. The warmth of December under palm trees was a stark and welcome contrast to Berlin’s winter chill. We celebrated Jakub’s first birthday surrounded by sand and sea - a memory that remains etched in my heart. When I returned to Germany, I felt recharged in a way I hadn’t experienced in years.

And yes, it was another successful year. We closed with €3 million euros in revenue and a team of 40 dedicated employees. It was a testament to everything we had built together - a moment of triumph and a reminder of why we started this journey in the first place. The future felt bright, and we were ready for whatever came next.