A few weeks ago, the ShapeDiver team met up in Vienna, hopped into a rental bus, and drove to beautiful Wolfgangsee to spend a few quality days together in beautiful surroundings.
We had not done this in far too long, and I felt it was important for the team to take some time off from our busy daily work to focus on where ShapeDiver stands on its journey, how we got here, and all the exciting opportunities ahead of us.
We had time to get to know each other better through learning from one another, brainstorming, cooking, rowing, and generally having a great time.
To me, this trip was special in many ways. First and foremost, because of the people I got to spend time with.
Our team is, without any doubt, the aspect of ShapeDiver that makes me proudest. To run something as complex as ShapeDiver with a team of this size is only possible if everyone in it is truly dedicated to the group's success, thinks for themselves, and contributes not only hard work but also creativity, ideas, and constructive feedback wherever needed.
The best evidence for the team’s dedication is that they tend to stick with us for the long term.
Until quite recently, our Vienna team's “rookie” was Matthias Reisacher , who joined pretty much exactly 5 years ago and is the main reason our backend infrastructure is second to none when it comes to executing computational design apps in the cloud.
Michael Oppitz joined ShapeDiver right out of university in 2018 and built our 3d viewer from the ground up to the versatile tool it is today, powering thousands of engineering automation tools, e-commerce configurators, and scan-to-print applications.
Edwin Santiago Hernandez Gomez got drawn to us, also in 2018, when he couldn’t realize his vision for beautiful and functional 3d configurators with other technologies, and has over the years become one of the most accomplished Grasshopper developers there is.
Dmitry Rumiantsev has implemented a huge chunk of the frontend code we have (other than the viewer) and handles the ever-expanding feature requests from all sides with calm and precision.
He’s also playing an essential role in the development of App Builder and our platform backend.
And then there are, of course, my partners, each of whom has been indispensable for the development of ShapeDiver: Ezequiel Lopez, who carries our sales and marketing efforts in his own bare hands and never tires of improving and updating them to new ideas and strategies.
Mathieu Huard who has the difficult job of distilling the gems from a neverending stream of exciting feature ideas for platform, Grasshopper plugin, backend everything in between and somehow forge a consistent product out of them. And @Alexander Schiftner, who is the brains behind all of our technology and whose breadth and depth of technical knowledge impress me every day.
All of this experience and skill is a robust and stable basis for ShapeDiver to grow on - but this growth, bringing in new perspectives and ideas, is crucial for our continued success as well. That’s why I’m excited that we were able to start hiring again this year, adding Agnieszka Nowacka and Sakshi Jinturkar , two wonderful new colleagues to the team who are strengthening our computational design expertise and are already contributing their unique skills to various aspects of our company.
A second reason for me to cherish this retreat is the fact that we were able to spend it at
Ferienhort am Wolfgangsee
. I spent five wonderful summers there as a kid and went on to work as a counselor and camp leader until I couldn’t spend all summer with other people’s kids anymore, as I had become a father myself.
I met my wife here, got married on the other side of the lake, and still come back whenever I can. So the fact that I could invite my “work family” to this special place was a real treat. Fortunately, it presented itself in spectacular fashion - the fall colors were amazing, and we even got some sun!
ShapeDiver has had numerous successes to celebrate over the past few years. Still, we’ve also faced our fair share of challenges and had to make some hard and uncomfortable decisions. I am incredibly grateful to everyone who continued to believe in us and contributed their time, work, advice, and insights to bring us to where we are today, especially my team, as well as alumni, partners, customers, advisors, investors, and many other well-meaning individuals we met along the way.
I’m excited to build the future of computational design with all of you and look forward to seeing where this journey takes us!
