From secret supporter to official team member: Welcome Martina!
With us since day one: Martina, who supported our development behind the scenes 16 years ago — from an improvised office in a children's room to today's company — is now an official member of the dataforest team. A story about family, trust and the special support that has shaped us.
Beginnings in the children's room: Where our story began
When we started web hosting in 2009, it happened in a small children's room right in the heart of the Ruhr area - in Essen. When the sole proprietorship became a GbR a few years later, this children's room had long since been converted into a de facto office. It was in the apartment of Marvin's parents, who not only launched PHP Friends - originally planned as a developer blog - during school hours, but has also been supporting us again since February as managing director and chief developer after taking a break in consulting for a few years - as far as you can talk about taking time off. :-)
Family support: much more than just in the background
Over the years, Marvin's parents have always supported us. They booked the first vServers for us with our current competitors for our projects (it must have been like this in 2007, well before our first hosting project PHP-Friends), gave their approval for Marvin's request for early legal capacity to register a sole proprietorship, and gave us delicious food at appropriate intervals so that we could look up from the screen from time to time. And they never (okay: rarely) complained when we had programmed and tinkered with PHP friends until sunrise instead of doing something for school. My much too loud monitoring notification sound from my cell phone was also tolerated around the clock (I think sometimes a bit gnashing of teeth), so I really always felt welcome with Marvin's family. I think they knew it was going to be something.
A small but formative anecdote from this time: When we had to go to our first website customer for a project meeting (yes: we actually made websites and then hosted them on our first servers), Marvin's mother drove us because we both didn't have a driver's license yet. Our customer contact then asked us whose girlfriend had to stand outside in the parking lot for two hours to drive us home after the appointment. Marvin then said “Um... well that's my mother” — a moment that perfectly illustrates our status as a young start-up at the time. By the way, the conversation was a great success and this very funny moment didn't hurt the project!
Joining forces to the first office
When our small GbR became PHP-Friends GmbH ten years ago, it was Marvin's parents who set up our first real office with us. Because we were far from being able to hire “real” craftsmen, and as more or less born IT professionals, we were of no great help ourselves in assembling desk and kitchen components into a functioning office infrastructure. Ten years later, our plans worked out — a no longer so small team of experts Takes care of great customers and projects, with which we can grow every day.
The circle is complete: From supporter to colleague
An unbelievable privilege — and now the circle has come full circle: From 01.06.2025, we can officially welcome Marvin's mother Martina to our team. After supporting us in the background over the years together with Marvin's father — through her belief in our projects, her practical help and endless patience — she is now an integral part of our accounting. We are particularly pleased to have someone on our team who not only knows our story, but has also experienced it from the start and has had a very intensive influence on it. With her experience and commitment, she will actively support us and will certainly stretch our ears where necessary. In principle, everything is the same - just like in Marvin's bedroom 16 years ago.
The dataforest has a few fathers, but only one mother. Thank you dear Martina for being with us!