How we work? Nurturing a sense of agency at Voucherify

Our need to "geek out" in a friendly, predictable environment led us to build a product used by developers at easyJet, Burger King, and Vodafone. Here's how we forged our definition of agency and how we make sure it doesn’t fizzle out.

Why agency matters?

The first few years in software for a fresh-out-of-uni engineer? Feels like Disneyland. Everything's new. Cool tools, paid tickets, friendly mascots (aka teammates) waving on every corner.

But go there a few more times and the thrill wears off. The rides feel scripted, the lines are long, and the best stuff is "for older kids only." Eventually, you realize you'd rather be with your neighborhood crew, building a fort from scratch.

Same story here. At first, getting staffed on real projects, working with The Business, and collaborating with Real Engineers™ was the dream. But after a few cycles, the magic faded. Life became a string of JIRA tickets and sprint reviews.

The bigger the projects, the further away the payoff. The more disconnected we felt from results. Our sense of agency? Shrinking fast.

But big projects had an upside, they introduced us to IT consultants. Folks operating at the intersection of business and tech. They walked into meetings with bold ideas and bleeding-edge tools. Clients called them "highflyers."

We were impressed. Not just by their paychecks, but their autonomy. Watching them work in Berlin and Paris startup hubs, we realized something: agency is possible in tech. So we got our company registered and started mimicking them.

Our first app? Total flop. Twelve-hour coding sprints? Didn’t help. Student-level optimism? Nope. What we lacked: marketing and sales.

Still, we built something real — a glimpse of what agency could feel like. And that tiny flame kept us going.

Agency attracts agency

Then, in 2014, a miracle happened. The CTO of a new Berlin startup called us up. He’d helped build Delivery Hero, now a billion-dollar business.

They needed devs. We needed a first real client. So we shook hands, quit our day jobs, and started shipping code like lightning.

The flame turned into a bonfire. And it pulled in other devs like moths. We moved as a peloton, someone always pulling at the front, shielding the rest. We became part of Berlin's startup fabric. Our bank balance? Finally growing.

A few months later, the torch was lit. It was time to chase the Holy Grail of any engineer with skin in the game, our own product.

Keeping the flame alive

Fast forward to today. Voucherify serves 350+ customers and powers incentives for Fortune 500 brands. We’d probably rank high on Deloitte or FT tech lists (not that we’ve applied).

Our product, an API-first promotion engine, is going head-to-head with leaders in its category. MACH Alliance listed us among top e-commerce tools, right next to Contentful and Algolia.

Dev blogs, job posts from unicorns, and glowing reviews mention us without us even asking.

But here’s the real flex: the people who joined when our "agency spark" was barely glowing? They’re still with us.

Together, we shaped the way we ship code, how we talk, how we work. And three principles have kept that agency fire from burning out.

Three pillars of agency

1. Work that’s actually interesting

If we had to name one dev principle we’ve stuck to since Berlin, it’s this: write as little custom code as possible.

Maintaining custom code is the biggest brake on velocity. So we outsource anything repeatable. Feature flags? LaunchDarkly. CI? Use what’s mature. We save our energy for what truly makes our product stand out.

That’s where we let our engineering brains and math nerd tendencies run wild.

We care for our codebase like Commander Andrzej does for his battle fleet. Frequent releases mean battle-tested CI/CD and code reviews. We deploy on Fridays without flinching. And when your infra is serving tens of millions of requests with low latency? That’s fun.

2. Work with empathy

Agency needs the right people. People with three key traits: humility, kindness, and pragmatism. As HashiCorp’s founder once said: “Technical skill isn’t the hard part. It’s empathy and how you collaborate that makes a great engineer.”

Same here. Our team thrives on mutual respect. No ego battles, no politics. That’s how we stay productive long-term.

3. Work that’s predictable

Agency also needs rhythm. Predictable people help. But so do predictable processes. We’ve worked on the same product for years. Compound interest in code and context lets us ship big things without daily fire drills.

Even with regular feature launches, our cycles follow a calm six-week rhythm, with a one-week cooldown. It’s like Shape Up, but in our flavor.

Flat structure helps too. Managers code. Even marketing does. Devs are also users of our platform. That means engineer-to-engineer comms are our engine.

To make smart product calls, you need data. That’s why we share company health, user feedback, and product metrics openly. It makes problems easier to solve and more fun to fix.

All this leads to that mythical work-life balance. Which for us means: high output, a stable team, and almost no "ASAPs." Sure, some nights run long. But hey, those are the ones you remember.