They say that in hindsight, parents often feel that "the days are long but the years are short", as put by Gretchen Rubin. Now that we’re taking a retrospective look in the face of our four-year milestone at HEITS, we can say that indeed time flies. Of course, the two situations are very different, raising children being arguably or better said, undoubtedly harder to do than building a company, a common thread comes to mind when counting the many memories from the beginning of HEITS and up until now.

We’ve researched and read about all the things that you can accomplish in 4 years just to set the record straight on where we at. We discovered that 4 years is enough time to become a carpenter and build a house from scratch, get a black belt in martial arts, organize the Olympic games, and learn to code just about anything.

We kind of feel like we did all of the above. Not per se, but take a look and decide for yourself.

All great things start with a handful of people who are bold enough to believe in something. In our case, we’re talking about Sorin Buiga, our CEO, Andrei Dumitrescu, the COO, and Marius Baghiu, our CTO. While they didn't initially have the fancy C-acronyms attached to their names, in most conversations, they remain simply "the boys" to us.

These three carefully put their complete belief systems, ideas, hopes, dreams, and aspirations onto various forms–from writing, on little bits of paper and notes, to voice memos and blackboard drawings, spanning everything in between; and out of this effort, HEITS – High-End IT Solutions, was born.

Our company had, at first, three men, three laptops, and three chairs, and… they would (friendly) fight over that one desk.

Luckily enough after working for quite some time in the field of digital products, Sorin, Andrei, and Marius were known by many, and the rumor of HEITS quickly caught on. This made many people interested as they knew that the high-end promise would be explored and pushed to its full potential. Soon enough, a bunch of people with kindred traits joined this homogeneous group of similarly diverse people. We take great pride in this, as almost everyone on our team came through recommendations, brought by someone already on the team.

We’re now 100 souls working together, building software, and contributing to some of the biggest names in the game success stories. All while nurturing our culture and our relations, caring for each other's journeys, and showing up for one another.

We prioritize well-being and we appreciate our similarities, while we truly celebrate our uniqueness. With this in our hearts, many initiatives were born out of both our shared traits and our interestingly sundry curiosities.

We enjoy a bit of adrenaline in our lives, therefore there was no question about whether we were going to support the Apuseni Cup or not. Thus, the emergence of the HEITS Apuseni Cup, a bi-yearly event that focuses on skiing and mountain biking. We meet up in the mountains in the wintertime to hit the slopes and during summer for some rocky action. There are many stories to tell here, but until further notice, take a look at the upcoming Ski Cup.

In between biking and skiing, many more activities go inside, or better said outside. From friendly games to marathons, and the HEITS football team, we never say no to a challenge. The best part of any activity? Being together and having fun!

This mentality of being together and enjoying all moments has led to an internal series called HEITS People Podcast. An incredibly talented handful of people put their minds together and created something that’s now the Multimedia team of HEITS. This isn’t about just doing something new, but about learning new skills and expanding your horizons out of pure curiosity and openness. We’re so grateful for them as we now have this way of meeting our colleagues with whom we don’t interact as much in a super insightful way. Check out our online People Minute which is born out of the longer podcast done internally.

You see, our curiosity takes us on many paths, as we enjoy exploring ourselves and each other, learning, and supporting one another’s growth journeys. We never put a stop to things and always wonder, what’s next. One of the many answers to that question was exploring passions with people we admire. Take a look at our podcast, Despre Pasiuni (About passions) which puts the spotlight on some of the people who inspire us through their dedication to their craft.

We might not have become carpenters nor did we actually build houses in the span of these last 4 years, but we sure built spaces meant to inspire our teams. The days of three men and three chairs are long gone, as we’ve moved our HQ in Cluj-Napoca to a bigger office and opened a new one in Iasi. The two tech-oriented cities have become the main centers of our activity. Of course, as we’re a remote-first company, our team members are scattered across the country with important centers in other cities too.

Our new and improved HQ in Cluj-Napoca is a two-story office in a historical building in the city center. Featuring lofty ceilings and abundant natural light, the elegant space is mixed with state-of-the-art hardware and different open spaces that encourage teamwork and collaboration.

HEITS's second office is strategically situated in the heart of the tech scene in Iasi, within the Palas Campus. Positioned as one of the most impressive office buildings in the country, our workspace seamlessly blends timeless elegance with an industrial charm.

It’s in these spaces, in our virtual world, and remote environment that we’ve built who we are and what we do on a regular basis.

Even though we believe that, as mentioned before, we’re a bunch of similarly diverse people something, that at first was indescribable, connected us all. We now call it #HEITSmaterial. What does that mean, you might ask yourself. To put it simply, #HEITSmaterial encapsulates who we are, how we work, and what we do. Well-versed in technology, we take pride in our 11 years of experience (on average) as a team, which makes us fast, reliable, and highly skilled when it comes to clean code. Yet, we are also characterized by our curiosity, continuous growth, and an eagerness to share both professional and personal experiences for the benefit of others, as evidenced by our internal events such as "Sharing is Caring" and our mentorship program, HEITSchool.

Moving on, this hashtag underlines the nature of our output. While additional years of experience enhance our ability to produce cleaner code and make quicker, more informed decisions, the passage of time tends to bring with it wisdom. We cherish and celebrate that wisdom by putting it to good use, by knowing when’s the right time to do, and when’s the right time to plan. By being first and foremost partners to one another and our clients, to offer the best solutions to any kind of issue, thinking outside the box, and having an interest in the best possible quality products that use state-of-the-art technology. It means active involvement giving it all, while knowing when to rest and care for all aspects of our personal lives too. Whoever struggled or still struggles to juggle with it all, knows that achieving a sort of wisdom is similar to getting a black belt in (professional) martial arts.

Our work transcends the usual limits of professional endeavors. As briefly touched on above, a significant portion of what we do refers to our community involvement, tackles our partnerships, and even our merch or other products that get to wear the HEITS logo—the true Olympic Games.

Each year humbles us through our work with Bethany, a social services foundation that focuses on helping struggling children and young adults and at the same time gives us hope for a brighter tomorrow. Our involvement with other NGOs and the ongoing partnerships that we cultivate are proof that little by little we can create a ripple effect and tip the balance in the favor of goodness.

There’s a lot to unpack here, so we’ll do a deep dive into each of these areas in the following pieces.

From a trio sharing dreams, we’ve blossomed into a vibrant team of over 100 people, shaping spaces, products, and each other, and building what’s now known as the #HEITSmaterial. Beyond the code, it’s countless shared moments that makeup who we are. With gratitude for everything that used to be, we’re hopefully stirring the wheel into the future to embrace what will come.

Cheers to the whole team!