Travel through time and enjoy reading about the past of projektwerk!
We just turned 11, so it was about time to share our past with you:

1998 – Identification of trends

How did it all start? Well, in the mid 90’s some important (social) trends surfaced: The world was fast becoming a networked place, structures were getting more complex, knowledge became obsolete in shorter periods of time and there was a growing number of freelancers and people who wanted to work self-determined.

1999 – projektwerk as a marketplace for cooperations

So what is there to do once you see those changes happen?
We decided to found projektwerk!
Our aim was to link companies, freelancers, founders, investors and experts and to support them in reaching their goals through an online network. This is the reason why you still find the consulting part (“Unternehmensberatung”) in our name.
While doing this, the web meant to us: A possibility for linking companies at a higher speed and better quality. Therefore projektwerk´s first internet appearance as a free “marketplace for cooperations” was launched in November 1999.

2000 – Development of a business community

Even though the consulting was embraced, the financial part remained challenging.
We kept believing in our ideas – so did the public trust “Innovationsstiftung Hamburg” that funded projektwerk from 2000 to 2002.
The object of this project was the development of a business community.
This allowed us to build a pool of freelancers.
Within a year the pool grew to 1000 users and about 200 projects were posted.

2001 – Implementation of a rating system

In 2001 a rating system was implemented because we believe that quality and reputation are important for the users: Freelancers and companies now rate their project partners.
Until the end of the year 4.500 freelancers and companies sign up as projektwerk members.

2002 – projektwerk as a platform for biddings

Our idea seemed to be working and attracted more attention to projektwerk:
In the early summer a group of private investors decided to fund projektwerk further.
By the end of August, 1.500 projects were being published.
In September, projektwerk´s first big relaunch took place. From now on we are a platform for biddings.

Freelancer and companies, who want to additionally offer their services on the new platform, have to qualify through positive ratings.

Science became interested in virtual companies, so projektwerk and the Technical University of Hamburg started working on the AVAG project.
This project was financially endorsed by the BMBF. In addition, projektwerk took part at its first fair: the “systems” in Munich.

2003 – Further development of the platform

A growing number of users believed in us: 4.800 ratings were being made by freelancers until the end of the year. But we had to discover that individuality gets lost while standardizing.
Especially the IT sector seemed to embrace projektwerk, so we decided to present projektwerk at the CeBIT tradeshow.

2004 – projektwerk as a placement platform

Until June, 15.000 freelancers signed up and more than 1.600 projects were posted.
A relaunch in summer left the platform more user-friendly and intuitively arranged.
Furthermore, projektwerk was conducting the placements from now on and the first premium memberships with costs were being established.

2005 – Revision of the business model

The obligation to pay was transferred from freelancers to companies after conducting a poll.
Until the end of the year, there were approx. 22.000 profiles on projektwerk.de.

2006 – projektwerk as a project marketplace

Another launch took place: The subscription model was implemented for freelancers as well as companies. A brand-new design and new features were being launched, too.

2007 – Even more features

Further features allowed freelancers and companies to act at eye level.
Why should freelancers just be waiting until some attractive project comes their way? The new features allow them to post and market their own profiles.

During this year, approx. 10.000 projects and 1.000 profiles were published.

2008 – Plans for opening up new branches

Furthermore, we planned to establish new branches for projektwerk, since project related work is not only popular in the IT and consulting sector.
Through engaging a new investor we could actually start to substantiate these plans.

Schließlich wird nicht nur in der IT- und Consulting-Branche Projektarbeit groß geschrieben. Durch die Unterstützung eines neuen Investors stehen ab Ende des Jahres die Zeichen dafür auf „GO“.

The amount of profiles doubled compared to the previous year.

2009 – New positioning

projektwerk turned 10!
This seemed to be the right time for examining projektwerk as a brand.
In various workshops we explored positioning and brand essence.
At the same time we were developing concepts for internationalization as well as the branches IT, fashion and automotive.
Our first international platform www.projektwerk.com/it, was launched in an alpha version and was tested and rated by our users.
So we spent the end of this anniversary year reviewing, testing, implementing…

2010 – …

After testing, we launched project marketplaces for IT, Fashion and Automotive branches. Throughout this year we will continuously be optimizing and revising the projektwerk platform. And we’ll be looking forward to make our further journey with you!