Optiweb no longer just an agency

Come 2030, Optiweb is no longer just an agency but a corporate group. The darling of Slovenia’s digital scene is joined by other companies with the same mission and the same values: paving the way toward a better tomorrow.

Optiweb Group is the name of a newly established group of companies committed to the sustainable development of society and the environment. At the head of the group is Optiweb, a Škofja Loka-based agency that’s considered by many to be a trendsetter when it comes to socially responsible business practices in Slovenia. The rest of the group consists of its partially-owned subsidiaries.

These include various start-ups, Optiweb’s spinoffs, companies that Optiweb has helped achieve stable growth, and mature companies with which Optiweb has established a partnership. Among them, three companies are currently key: the first in the field of cyber security, the second in the field of e-mobility and the third in the field of codeless web solutions. Per CEO Miha Lavtar, the group will soon be joined by companies from other industries, such as environmental protection.

Financial projections indicate that the capital of Optiweb Group will reach 12 million euros this year. With it, the group intends to continue investing in promising Slovenian businesses – ones with added value for not only the domestic but also the global market.

Optiweb with an outstanding 2030

At Optiweb, the only constant seems to be growth – and not just in terms of server capacity. In 2011, the company developed its first ecommerce website; in 2015, it became the first family-friendly micro-enterprise in Slovenia; in 2018, it carried out its first internship … And in 2030?

This year, the Škofja Loka-based agency celebrated not only its twenty-first anniversary but also an important turning point that CEO Miha Lavtar had been preparing for since 2020. Back then, Lavtar and the rest of management formed an ambitious vision for Optiweb in the year 2030. Has it come true?

According to the numbers, the answer is a resounding yes. In 2030, Optiweb managed to exceed:

• 70.000 EUR of added value per employee,
• 14 million EUR in revenue,
• 1.8 million EUR in annual profits,
• 12 million EUR in capital,
• 140+ employees, and
• 30 % of turnover coming from its Optiweb Group co-members.

Numbers, however, don’t tell the whole story. What makes Lavtar proud is the fact that Optiweb attracts only the best staff, the best partners, and the best clients – both inside and outside Slovenia – with shared values. As he says, much of the credit goes to a unit within the company’s marketing team that specializes in employer branding in the media (including, of course, social media).

Optiweb only works with clients who offer products or services with great added value for the international market.

As for its clients, Optiweb only works with companies that offer products or services with great added value for the international market, explains Lavtar. Most of them are among industry leaders – and the rest will get there soon with Optiweb’s help, he claims confidently. His confidence is justified: the annual revenue growth of the company’s clients goes as high as 40 %.

“Mentorship is a privilege,” says Optiweb CEO

In recent years, Optiweb has welcomed some of the biggest digital experts in Europe. This has presented a unique challenge: how to ensure the growth of employees who seem to have peaked? The answer, according to the company, is mentorship.

Škofja Loka’s Optiweb has always paid special attention to the mentorship process, even upgrading it year after year. The way the company sees it, a mentor does more than familiarize a new hire with co-workers, internal processes, and tasks. A mentor also meets with their mentee regularly over a six-month period, providing invaluable feedback.

Owing to an upgraded mentoring system, Optiweb’s key employees now dedicate as much as 20 % of their time to mentoring, for which they are duly rewarded. Lavtar considers this their biggest contribution to the company.

Optiweb introduces OptiCoin

Optiweb founder CEO Miha Lavtar has long wanted to extend his agency’s culture beyond the confines of its office. His wish now comes true owing to a unique trading model.

Optiweb Group has officially launched its own trading model based on blockchain technology, modelled after decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Thus, CEO Miha Lavtar has achieved the goal he set in his vision ten years ago. “Employees and everyone else who believes in the success of Optiweb Group can now invest their money in it and help it grow. With this money, the group can invest in further projects and expand,” he announced on this momentous occasion.

“Our co-owners follow us with enthusiasm and cheer for our success because they feel like they’re part of this story,” says Lavtar proudly.

Optiweb Group founds charitable foundation

With its additional vacation day for voluntary work and pro bono projects for non-profit organizations, Optiweb has been walking – and leading – the path of charity for years. Now, as part of Optiweb Group, it’s taking its greatest leap yet.

Charity starts with small, routine steps. This opinion, shared by CEO Miha Lavtar, led Optiweb Group’s companies to take part in daily actions that contribute to a better local environment and thus a better world for future generations. “We try our best to play a role in creating a clean, peaceful, sustainable world,” Lavtar explains.

To support the foundation in the long term, Optiweb Group intends to grant it a minimum of 2 % of its profit annually, Lavtar promises. The goal, however, isn’t for the foundation to become part of the Optiweb brand but rather evolve into its own brand, he explains.

Back to school – Optiweb Academy now in session

Optiweb’s renowned Let’s Boost internship was born in 2017 and has since gone from strength to strength due to continuous improvements. Next month, the internship will officially be upgraded to Optiweb Academy. But there’s a lot more to it than a simple name change …

CEO Miha Lavtar is incredibly proud of Optiweb’s Let’s Boost internship, which he, together with the company’s HR department and its team leads, developed more than a decade ago. The program enables interns to gain practical experience in their chosen field, which is something formal education usually doesn’t offer – or at least doesn’t offer enough of. Since its inception, the internship has been successfully carried out twenty-five times, but there’s one even more impressive fact: more than half of all interns wish to stay at the company after the internship ends.

While the internship was only available to university students, Optiweb Academy will welcome people of all ages – young interns longing for practical experience, middle-aged job seekers aiming to retrain as IT professionals, elderly people wishing to acquire digital literacy …

All in all, Lavtar emphasizes that Optiweb Academy will represent “an important contribution to society.”

Optiweb Campus – Slovenia’s own Silicon Valley

The Škofja Loka-based web specialists used to spend most of their time behind computer screens. In 2030, this is no longer the case as we’ve just witnessed the grand opening of the eagerly awaited Optiweb Campus, described by CEO Miha Lavtar as “something Slovenia has never seen before.”

After a decade of preparations, Optiweb has officially opened its zero-energy campus in the suburbs of Ljubljana. Founder CEO Miha Lavtar aims to use the campus as an additional source of company income. Beside the office spaces (which Optiweb shares with other sustainable businesses), the campus includes:

• a kindergarten,
• a fitness studio,
• a recording studio,
• a solar power plant, 
• an indoor hydroponic garden,
• a motor museum,
• a charging station for electric vehicles,
• an apartment complex,
• a separate conference hall,
• a restaurant with a rooftop terrace,
• a park for relaxation or work in the open,
• a football, basketball, and volleyball field,
• an after-work center with a dedicated gaming room.

In addition to the campus, Optiweb has built a network of energy-efficient residential buildings, where employees can rent apartments at subsidized prices. Lavtar explains that these support the remote work lifestyle and are tailored to the needs of young individuals, couples, and families under Optiweb’s roof. What’s more, there are also holiday homes available to rent, enabling the company’s partners, clients, and investors to experience the most idyllic corners of Slovenia.

From greener tomorrow to greener today

It seems that when it comes to sustainable solutions, Optiweb is always a step ahead of the competition. Is it a planned process? What drives it? How does the company put ideas into practice? CEO Miha Lavtar, the man behind the vision, has the answers.

Miha Lavtar, Optiweb’s founder CEO, has always felt a special responsibility towards nature. And back in 2021, when he became a parent for the first time, his wish to move in the direction of sustainable business practices only grew stronger. “I want my daughter to drink clean water. I want her to be able to ski down a nearby slope,” he told his colleagues when presenting his vision.

However, Lavtar says that reducing waste and correct waste disposal are only the beginning. According to him, we as a society need to rethink our shopping habits: we need to develop more self-control and support local producers. “We need to take responsibility for the waste we produce,” he believes.

The topic of sustainability is also emphasized in many of Lavtar’s LinkedIn posts, in which he addresses the current state of affairs and shares some of the best practices from his business as well as personal life.

All of Optiweb’s buildings are low-emission, with Optiweb Campus being zero-emission.

Lavtar’s enthusiasm is reflected in his business decisions. One of the reasons why Optiweb opened its many branch offices was precisely the aim to reduce the carbon footprint of its employees. But this green scheme also includes partners and clients as Optiweb only works with companies that try to protect the environment themselves – either through their products or through their sustainable business practices.

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that in 2030, Optiweb Group owns solely low-emission buildings. Its campus even produces zero emissions as it uses its own solar power plant to generate electricity.

The secret to happy employees

When speaking of Slovenia’s most sought-after employers, the one on everybody’s lips is Optiweb from Škofja Loka. Does the company live up to its reputation? Its employees agree. Its top brass explains.

The fact that Optiweb is one of Slovenia’s most prominent players when it comes to employee satisfaction hardly comes as a surprise. Since its foundation, the company has strived to put employee well-being first – and proved so on numerous occasions, including in 2017, when it was awarded Zlata nit, a prestigious award for best HR practices.

Despite the competitive industry it operates in, Optiweb is successful in retaining its employees; this year, its turnover rate is at a record low. According to CEO Miha Lavtar, there are several factors at play.

Growth and progress

First is career growth, which Lavtar and the HR department pay a lot of attention to. As he explains, the key is to allow for a diverse career path. Optiweb does so by enabling vertical as well as horizontal career moves across all companies that are part of Optiweb Group.

Optiweb enables vertical as well as horizontal career moves across all companies that are part of Optiweb Group.

“We know working at an agency can get chaotic. Every now and then, people want to try out a different environment where they can focus on a single client or product. Thanks to the many companies within Optiweb Group, we can make that happen – thus retaining good employees,” Lavtar explains.

That doesn’t mean an employee can’t return to the agency, though. On the contrary: circulating between companies is something Lavtar encourages as it enables an exchange of expertise.

Money on hand

Of equal importance is Optiweb’s competency model accompanied by 360-degree feedback. Based on the two, each employee knows exactly what to work on to raise their pay, encouraging their drive for progress. According to Lavtar, transparency is of key importance here. 

Each employee is also part of an award system that takes into account not only their own accomplishments but also the success of their team and Optiweb in general. Come end of year, employees receive a two-digit percentage of the company’s profit.

As reported by job search websites, the average salary at Optiweb ranks in the top 0,5 % among Slovenia’s tech companies. At the same time, a salary cap prevents the highest salary from being any more than six times higher than the lowest one, says Lavtar. The goal behind this is to raise the minimum salary and reduce the gap.

Playing in the sand

Being part of Optiweb’s team also means being able to test new technologies that aren’t fully established yet before potentially offering them to clients. In order to do so, they created a safe and creative environment that could be considered a laboratory in the traditional sense, while Lavtar calls it Optiweb’s sandbox. It welcomes employees from all sorts of positions, regardless of their work experience, meaning that everyone can contribute a fresh perspective.

“Our sandbox is great for attracting and retaining employees as well as helping the company evolve. While our main focus is still developing web solutions, there’s always room for other ideas – ideas inspired by our employee’s hobbies, for example,” comments Lavtar.

Help outside the office

“Being part of Optiweb isn’t just what a person wishes for themself. It’s also what their partner wishes for them,” says Lavtar. “Because overall, working at Optiweb benefits the entire family.” With its expanded infrastructure, Optiweb has managed to enhance its employees’ personal lives in numerous ways.

“If you take care of your employees, they’ll take care of your clients. So far, I haven’t been proven wrong.”

Benefit number one is Optiweb’s hybrid work model. Owing to several branch offices across Europe, employees have more options regarding their workspace. Per Lavtar, most employees switch between their home office and their closest branch office on a weekly basis, while visiting the central unit a few times a year. The possibility of remote work continues to be an option, as it was even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, employees can request help with everyday chores that take up their precious time, such as cleaning cars and apartments. In the long term, Optiweb also offers:

• small, short-term loans,
• legal and financial counselling,
• special offers at business partners,
• health plans, including private coaching,
• accommodation in Optiweb’s apartments and holiday houses.

Recently, “unforgettable experiences”, as Lavtar calls them, have been added to the company’s repertoire of benefits. These can be described as unique trips and events that would be nearly inaccessible without Optiweb’s support – like a panoramic helicopter flight and dinner with celebrities, to name two examples from last year.

“If you take care of your employees, they’ll take care of your clients. I’ve yet to be proven wrong.” Lavtar concludes.