About elio

Your first day at work? No open-plan office, no team meeting - just an internet connection, a desk in a small corner and a clear mission. As a developer, Sascha was ready for his first real projects. But if you're not visible, you won't get booked. So off he went - to find customers. And sometimes it felt more like being a hoover salesman than a programmer.

But that was precisely his strength: listening, understanding needs, offering solutions. Technically, not everything was clear yet - but the promise was there. This ‘I'll take care of it’ mindset was the cornerstone for everything that followed.

One of his first customers was a kebab shop around the corner. Sascha was a regular, they knew each other. One day he said: "Why do you only take orders over the phone? It should also work online." And so the first shop was born - with tickets printed directly in the kitchen. No joke. And above all: not a classic online shop. It was a well thought-out, pragmatic process.

The early years were characterised by open source technologies such as OSCommerce (later XT:Commerce), but also by in-house developments. No two shops or websites were the same, everything was customised. There was no industry focus - everything from cleaning companies and retailers to insurance companies was included.

Sascha was a solo freelancer, but worked together with other freelancers early on. A real team was only formed later when the company became a limited company. He himself always remained the driving force: the first point of contact, the source of ideas, the doer.

A new chapter began in 2010 with the founding of Eliomedia GmbH. Self-employment became a structured company - with the aim of thinking bigger and working more sustainably. Becoming a limited company felt like the first real foundation stone for a long-term success story. At the time, the company was based directly in Giessen - just a few steps away from the university hospital.

Right at the beginning, the company also became a training organisation - a deliberate step for Sascha to give young talent opportunities and allow the team to grow in a healthy way. At that time, the team consisted of a handful of people, including Lina Noah, who is still an integral part of the company today.

The name elio was a mixture of the personal and the symbolic: Elias, the name of Sascha's son, combined with a conscious decision in favour of this path - and a reference to the church, which was also anchored in the family. The addition ‘media’ fitted the agency's orientation at the time, but later turned out to be misleading - because elio was more of a tech service provider than a creative agency right from the start.

In terms of content, the company was still broadly positioned at the beginning: customised software solutions, interfaces and e-commerce projects - with systems such as XT:Commerce, Magento and OXID eShop. Even back then, it was clear where the passion lay: in e-commerce. Seeing projects live, whose success was directly measurable - that was fascinating.

The first project after the transformation into a GmbH was a complex jewellery shop with many product variants - technically demanding, but successful on the basis of Magento. Sascha's role also changed: from an operational developer to a team leader who created structures so that others could grow.

2011 marked the beginning of a phase that would characterise elio in the long term: the entry into the world of Shopware. Just at that moment, it was a perfect fit: a customer was operating three self-developed shops with an MS Navision connection - and was urgently looking for a more stable solution.

Shopware offered exactly that. So they got started, optimised, rebuilt - and in the end they had a single shop with four sub-shops and a clean interface. The system was stable and the error rate fell. And Shopware itself was also impressed. The feedback: ‘What you're doing is really great.’ As a result, elio quickly became more than just a partner - in 2012 it was recognised as the first Shopware Enterprise Partner, even before the programme was officially launched. By 2013 at the latest, it was clear: ‘All or nothing.’ elio said goodbye to other systems and focussed entirely on Shopware. A milestone.

The partnership with Profihost also arose from practical experience: server failures, headaches, too little scalability. So we switched - not to just any hoster, but to a partner with a real understanding of agencies. This collaboration grew into something more - elio is still one of our closest partners today.

In the same year, Heilbronn was opened as a further location. A strong developer with a lot of potential provided the impetus - and the team there grew quickly. The location developed quickly - also because recruiting was a top priority. At the same time, the team moved from Giessen to Pohlheim - into a maisonette flat with a garden. A temporary home, familiar and creative.

A small agency team with a lot of passion became a growing company with a clear vision: in 2017, ‘Eliomedia’ became ‘elio GmbH’. The new name not only reflected the technical development, but also sent a signal: elio does not see itself as a competitor, but as a partner in the project business. With growth came the company's own software solutions and more responsibility - both internally and externally.

The management team also continued to develop. Aleksa Marinovic impressed with his commitment and technical sensitivity, Simon Toprak came to elio through a joint project - what began as a good collaboration became a shared vision.

Another milestone: winning the Shop Usability Award 2018 for notlikeyou. The customisable Chucks configurator in the Shopware environment showed what is possible when technology and brand experience go hand in hand.

Trust grew in the years that followed: Eintracht Frankfurt, the Max Planck Society - plus involvement with local clubs. The transformation from agency to tech company was noticeable. Projects such as Leuze or Cube epitomise the new scale: complex system landscapes, deep SAP integrations and sophisticated B2B logic. And when a shop like Yours Truly becomes ‘Shop of the Month’, it's more than just a title - it's a pat on the back for the path taken. This became particularly clear in 2020 with the first major Shopware 6 Enterprise project for DT&GOLDART. Despite immature software, elio took on the task - with success.

New locations in Frankfurt am Main and Würzburg underlined the growth trajectory in 2021 - closer to talent, closer to customers. The next step was also taken at the headquarters: After years in Pohlheim, elio moved to a new office in Langgöns in 2018 - with more space for a growing team and modern working environments. Internal changes were also made: Simon Neuberger became CTO - not just because of his professional depth, but because he combines team leadership, mentoring and technical excellence.

Growth does not happen by chance - it requires clear decisions, good ideas and the right timing. At elio, this has meant one thing above all in recent years: strategically smart investment in the future. With technology partners such as OXID eSales, Ibexa, HCL and Shopify Plus, the portfolio has been expanded in a targeted manner - not out of actionism, but with a plan. After all, if you want to remain relevant in the long term, you have to be flexible and demonstrate technological depth.

A new approach was also adopted internally: with the founding of main cloud solutions (formerly elio cloud solutions) and synQup, two sister companies were created that ideally complement elio. While main cloud solutions provides professional hosting and smart cloud infrastructure, synQup brings order to the system landscape as a cloud-native iPaaS solution - and connects what belongs together.

At the same time, the team grew to over 150 bright minds working together on major e-commerce solutions. With Jochen Kernwein as the new CSMO, the management team was also strengthened - another building block on the way to the next stage of development.

And this can be seen not only in figures or certificates, but also very tangibly in Giessen: elio moved into its own new company building in 2024 - built for ideas, encounters and the future. Modern, sustainable, well thought out. A place that shows: We are not standing still.

Because with ISO 27001 certification and the next strong partnership around Xentral, it's clear that we're only just getting started.