What came before
It took more than 13 years to get to the GmbH. The first website was built in 2001, after that the sole proprietorship built websites and online shops, with a team that kept growing.
- 2001 The first website. Over the years the sole proprietorship looked after many different clients with websites and online shops.
- 2008 The first agency as a client. For Worldsites, a Google Premier Partner, we took on project management in web design and website performance.
- 2009 Galli Uhren Bijouterie at Bellevue in Zurich got a website and shop. It became one of our longest client relationships.
- 2013 For the Lucerne web agency Arcmedia with 30 employees we stepped in on WordPress projects, and for the event agency Eventrix we helped with a web project for SAP.
The trigger
As a sole proprietorship we were working on the website of a large company, a project worth several million francs. In the middle of the work it became clear what that meant. If something went wrong, the owner of a sole proprietorship is liable with all his private assets. Uh-oh.
By then it was clear that a sole proprietorship was no longer the right framework. Other reasons came on top.
- A growing team Even in the sole proprietorship, more programmers joined regularly.
- Agencies as clients Whenever an agency handed over a larger volume of work, the question of social insurance for a sole proprietorship was in the room.
- Trust Larger clients often wondered whether a sole proprietorship could carry a complex project.
How the name came about
Beatrice Suter of KommunikationsWerkstatt has a sure touch for anything to do with communication. We have been building web projects for her for years, which also let us ask her for advice on our own matters.
With her help the name Cross-Link came about, by far our favourite out of a great many ideas. The alternative «Webgefährte» was dropped after talking it over with clients. For the slogan, «Aussicht auf bessere Seiten» (a view of better pages) won out over ideas such as «We Will Web You» and «Born to be web».
What stays
We love our clients and agencies, and that will not change.
