It was mid-2018, while preparing a presentation about digital transformation in the tourism industry for the annual meeting of the Federal Association of German DMCs, when I first grappled with what digitization could possibly look like.
Lingering thoughts made me conclude that we urgently need to shape the future of this industry, as tried and tested work formats from the past 20 years have become outdated.
In Spring of 2019, a keynote from Hannes Kleist about his App programming company Stanwood left a lasting impression on me. His company is staffed with 40 employees that are spread across Europe, working fully remote. The IT & Tech industry were already outsourcing a lot of work and assignments to remotely working freelancers, but in the event, communication and tourism industry this was not a common business model. The idea of building a fully remote company simmered in me for weeks, until it finally hit me, while I was mowing my lawn:
I must digitally innovate to prepare my team for a remote future.
“… I handed the concept to my bank to see if they were willing to finance the idea… They were!”
I prepared a first concept on how I envisioned that remote work would look like in the field of project management. In the same summer, I visited the Running Remote conference in Bali, where I met a community of digital nomads and entrepreneurs, who freely shared their valuable knowledge. The company I was working for at the time did not see the value of moving one of the departments into a remote work structure. So, my initial idea and concept was moved into my drawer, but my conviction never faded.
It wasn’t until February 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic had started, that I re-opened my concept again. I noticed that it had everything but my initial plans to digitalize were not far reaching enough. As I worked on it over the upcoming Easter Holiday, the idea of a fully remote business was taking shape: A remote-first consultancy that specializes in pre-dominantly virtual communications called Perthex (short for: Performance through Experience).
In May I handed the concept to my bank to see if they were willing to finance the idea… They were!
Crafting on the concept and moving from business model to business plan, a friend of over 30 years Peter Hassinger, was immediately on board and supported my efforts. Today, he is the Chair of the Advisory Board and a guiding hand.
On September 1st, 2020, the company was officially open for business and two new reliable partners – Marc Weise and Mark Paetz who work remotely from Munich and Brooklyn respectively – joined me on this exciting journey of Perthex. With their creative and innovative ideas, the company gained the necessary expertise to build a remote-first content consultancy and brought the company to life, which led to our new brand: PrtX.
As we started to work on first projects, it was clear that the existing offerings on the market were no match to our ambitious ideas, so we built our own virtual event and communication platform. Design forward, intuitive UX, savvy features that evoke discovery, yet within reach of people’s imagination & comfort. We’re excited to have executed the first virtual client event this January and are excited about what the future holds. We hope you join us on this journey!
