The road less traveled

Software houses typically grow into products by providing services to clients and gradually learning with and from them.

We did the opposite. We started with our own software product and learned through trial and error directly.

This is what makes us think and behave like investors, product owners and CTOs.

It all started 10 years ago with a business problem at the Chess Academy in Gliwice. Over 1000 chess students per year needed tailored tasks and work packages to practice and a whole team of trainers had to create and validate this content daily. It was only natural to think about an IT platform that would vastly improve this process and Marlena Chlost, CEO of Emphie, decided to bring this idea into life.

At first, the plan was to find a seasoned software house to build the digital product. However, after preliminary discussions about its scope and shape it quickly turned out that the investment would be too big to handle. All proposals we got seemed uneconomical, projects - overcomplicated and timelines - unacceptable. Being both an investor and the end-user of the platform and knowing exactly what we wanted led to a breaking decision that shaped Emphie as it is - we decided to do it ourselves.

We had built a team of software developers and created the platform from scratch. Did we make mistakes during that process? Of course! Did we get burned? Yes. But we did it. And so ChessGrow came to existence.

Since then our team expanded further with talented developers, creative designers and high tech experts. We started taking on new challenges and creating other products, and it was then when we realized that we already are a software house. The only missing part was the name for it.

Nowadays, we're growing fast but it’s strategically planned. We have our offices in Gliwice and London. Our company comprises of 40+ great specialists who work either on our own products or for the benefit of our Clients from all over the world.

We are constantly looking for new opportunities, exciting projects and ideas we want to give life to. But at the same time - as in chess – our work is rational and optimized. Because at the end of the day, every move matters.