This week, we had the opportunity to speak with Piotr Nowak, the Founder and CEO of
Nopio. We discussed how the company evolved, what services it offers, and what is the future of the industry.
Please present Nopio to our audience.
Nopio is a digital agency based in Boulder, CO. Our niche is a perfect match between creative and tech services, where both aspects get equal high-end treatments. On top of that, Nopio aims to create things for humans. Whether we’re building a new brand, web design, website, or a custom web application, the goal is to make the lives of its future users easier.
Please describe the story behind the company: What sparked the idea, and how has it evolved so far?
Nopio’s current incarnation is a result of multi-staged evolution. We started back in 2010 as a small tech company that offered custom web applications created in Ruby on Rails. Over time, after lots of discussions with the clients, we noticed a need for high-quality websites developed quickly and in a technology that people already know and use. In 2014 we officially started offering sites developed in WordPress that was entirely custom coded. We primarily worked with business clients that had their own design teams, so they created the designs, and we coded the websites. The customers appreciated our work—some of these being the most prominent agencies globally. I believe that’s because we’ve created a unique approach to managing content that we call
ThemeFlex™.
In 2018, we took another step and included branding and design services in our portfolio, and then SEO and UX/UI consulting followed soon after.
I believe that the gradual introduction of services and an obsessive drive to make things easy for end users are the key factors that allowed us to provide excel at each service.
What services do you offer?
I covered some of them in the previous question, but that’s far from a definitive list, so let me go through what Nopio does more organized.
First of all, we have creative services, including corporate identities, branding, web design, visual communication, and UX/UI consulting.
Then we have our technology services list that consists of MVP creation, custom software development in Ruby on Rails and ReactJS, WordPress websites, website migrations, performance optimization, eCommerce websites creation, custom analytics implementation, and custom integrations with third-party systems.
What is the mission of Nopio?
Nopio is always creating for humans. It’s always made with humans in mind, whatever it is, branding, design, website, web app, or consulting report. We want viewers of our websites to like what we created, but our goal is to optimize the processes for marketing teams who use our creations daily to publish content. That’s why we commit a significant amount of our time to developing and improving our operations and our ways of managing content.
Who are your typical customers, and what do you think is the main challenge that your product solves for them?
We have multiple personas that describe our ideal client. Let me walk you through them to see if you may be one of them. These aren’t in any particular order.
Firstly, we have a CMO from a more prominent company looking to optimize the marketing team’s work and find easier ways to publish new content quickly. The site needs to be fully managed for the client without tech team involvement and non-technical staff. Our involvement with this client depends on the project. Often we deliver a solution, and the client is pleased with it for some time (12-24 months at least), and our involvement is limited to periodical updates of the software. In others, the client requires ongoing work to introduce new website features and design elements or just weekly or monthly reviews to see if everything is up to standard.
Secondly, a medium-sized agency. In this case, the timing, availability, and on-time delivery matter the most. We work with these clients to establish a relationship based on trust and historical performance. We work with internal teams and support them in the over-extended areas and often participate in their customer relation process as white-labeled resources to increase the value that our client shows to theirs.
Finally, we have an SMB client that approaches Nopio directly to build or refresh their digital presence. For this type of client, the main issues are time and money. Some of them need to complete the project quickly, and some optimize for budget, but still would like to get a good quality, custom-designed website. We have a tiered offer that targets different customers that one can choose from to fit their current needs. Again, we approach these discussions with an open mind and help our fellow humans to find a solution.
You can learn more about our clients and services on our website:
www.nopio.com.
How do you envision the future of your industry?
To some extent, the industry is heading towards automatization. There are tons of services that offer users self-service options like “build your website for free”, and I think that’s great, as it lowers the cost of entry for someone who wants to start a business.
That said, these have some significant cons. First of all, they require a lot of time to master if one wants to build something great—one thing that an entrepreneur does not often have. Also, they tend to look very similar, so if uniqueness is essential, it’s not a great option. Finally, one needs to be creatively inclined to build good-looking sites—and that’s not always the case.
In my opinion, the industry will keep polarising. On the lower end, we will have increased activity of the online, hosted builders, while on the other side, the more prominent players will push with customization.
Our role is to create processes and utility software to help us deliver fully custom, unique, and beautiful products quicker than others. I don’t see how that would be possible to automate fully, but there are always places where one loses time.
