Introduction
Friendly is a small Swiss company with a big goal: to make marketing software more friendly.
We believe that privacy is a competitive advantage, work only with open source and donate one percent of our revenue to charity:
Contents
Our story
The history of Friendly began in early 2020 with the goal of offering a privacy-friendly alternative to the marketing tools of Google, Meta & Co. This has grown into a company with seven employees and over 190 customers:
Our team
Stefan Vetter
Founder and CEO
Stefan is the founder and CEO at Friendly. He is also the founder at Wortspiel, one of Switzerland’s leading digital marketing agencies. His motto: “We have an exist strategy, not an exit strategy”.
Lukas Sigel
COO and CCO
Lukas is COO and CCO at Friendly. As COO, he makes sure that the team works well together and coordinates important tasks and processes so that Friendly can grow sustainably.
József Keller
CTO
József “Joey” is CTO and employee #1 at Friendly. He is an Assistant Team Lead on the product team of the open source software Mautic, on which Friendly Automate is based.
Kathrin Schmid, PhD
CMO
Kathrin, PhD, is CMO and CISO at Friendly. As Chief Marketing Officer, she builds public trust in Friendly. At the same time, as Chief Information Security Officer, she is responsible for the security of our customers’ data.
Peter Boehlke
Analytics Consultant
Peter is a freelance Analytics Consultant at Friendly. For over 10 years, he has been a contributor to the open source software Matomo, which is the foundation of Friendly Analytics.
Matic Zagmajster
Senior Engineer
Matic is a developer at Friendly. He discovered his passion for programming as early as elementary school. He then honed his skills at the Electrotechnical Computer Vocational School in Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana.
Mona Sorcelli
Customer Success Specialist
Mona is Customer Success Specialist at Friendly. With a marketing DNA, IT roots, and customer support in her blood. At the intersection of technology, marketing, and people, she translates complexity into clarity and loves automating everything that gets done by hand too often.
Ágota Dimén
Customer Success Specialist
Ágota is Customer Success Specialist at Friendly. She firmly believes: a Migros bag has two handles so two people can carry it together. For over ten years, she has worked in Customer Success with this mindset.
Nicolas Previdoli
Digital Marketing Specialist
Nicolas is a freelance Digital Marketing Specialist at Friendly. With 10 years of experience in marketing, he brings expertise in B2B SaaS copywriting, positioning, and conversion optimisation.
Certifications
We place high demands on the security and quality of our software and on data protection. We have these standards regularly checked and certified by independent third parties.
ISO 27 001: Acclaimed information security
Our information security is certified in accordance with ISO 27 001. We rely on an Information Security Management System (ISMS) to continuously improve our infrastructure and processes. This enables us to protect data against loss, theft or changes in the best possible way.
ISO 9 001: Approved quality
The ISO 9 001 standard for quality management provides a system to ensure the quality of our services under all circumstances. Our certification proves that we comply with this standard.
swiss made software: Swiss origin
The “swiss made software” label stands for high-quality Swiss ICT products and is only awarded to companies that are based in Switzerland and generate most of their value added in Switzerland. Friendly is a proud bearer of this distinction.
swiss hosting: Data remains in Switzerland
The “swiss hosting” label is also awarded by swiss made software and stands for two key promises:
- The data remains in Switzerland.
- The data can only be accessed by third parties via the Swiss authorities.
We are fulfilling these promises with our hosting in Switzerland with providers headquartered in Switzerland since day 1 and are pleased that we can now communicate this with this label.
Investors (not)
We get asked time and again why we don’t want investors at Friendly as a tech startup. It’s not that we haven’t received any offers yet. But we have turned them all down and will continue to do so in the future. For good reasons:
Open Startup
Everyone says they are transparent. We are. As Switzerland’s first and only Open Startup, we share everything unless there is a reason not to publish it. This includes revenues, costs including salaries, website visits and even our employment contracts:
Memberships
Together we achieve more. That is why we engage in various industry associations:
Swico – The trade association for digital Switzerland
Swico is the Swiss trade association of the ICT and online industry. Its more than 700 members employ 56 000 people and generate annual revenues of 40 billion CHF. We are one of these members.
CH Open – for open source and open standards
CH Open is committed to promoting open standards and open source software in Switzerland. With our collective membership, we support this initiative and the implementation of its objectives.
Digitale Gesellschaft
Digitale Gesellschaft campaigns for data protection and fundamental rights in our digitally interconnected world in Switzerland. We support their important work with a patron membership.
Netzwerk SDS
The Netzwerk SDS – Sovereign Digital Switzerland promotes professional exchange among Swiss stakeholders on digital sovereignty, with the aim of collectively reducing vendor dependencies, advancing open-source technologies, and building sovereign infrastructures. We actively participate in this exchange.
eCH: E-Government Standards
The non-profit association eCH promotes, develops and adopts standards in the field of eGovernment for efficient electronic collaboration between the public sector, companies and individuals. Friendly contributes to eCH as a corporate member.
Inspiration
These books have had an influence on us and our work:
Thanks
In addition to all of our supporters, our thanks go especially to the open source projects and their contributors that have made and continue to make Friendly possible: