30th June 2020
Traffic Lab is celebrating its 6th birthday – In an Interview with CEO Sebastian Agerskov
The founding idea for Traffic Lab arose by Sebastian Agerskov and a former business partner in 2013. The company was then officially founded by Sebastian on the 27th of June in 2014. While the first target market was Finland, the focus area quickly expanded to the Nordic countries and was finally followed by global expansion.
Sebastian recalls that the first Traffic Lab office was situated on Nyvej 17, a space shared with other companies. The space offered capacity for the first four employees, so after 1,5 years the time had arrived to move to a bigger office. For the next 1,5 years, all Traffic Labbers worked on Bredgade 75, again side by side with other companies in a shared office space.
“The first ‘real’ office, which was not shared with other companies, was truly a transformation for the company.”
In 2017 Traffic Lab moved to Store Kongensgade 57, which offered space for 20 employees. Sebastian remembers that “the first ‘real’ office, which was not shared with other companies, was truly a transformation for the company. I felt that things were becoming serious now.”
After another 1,5 years, Traffic Lab moved to its current office on Bredgade 42. Laying in the heart of the Frederiksstaden district in Copenhagen, we are working in a unique historical setting. Traffic Lab is located in the beautiful Bernstorff’s Mansion from the 18th century.
Not only have the office spaces and numbers of employees changed over the years. In the first year Traffic Lab also still worked with other products but then decided to specialize completely on iGaming.
Today Traffic Lab offers services ranging from Social Media-, E-Mail- and Display Marketing to Search Engine Optimization combined with unique quality content.
What lives on since the first day is the experimental spirit and a flat business structure, bringing about creativity and new ideas!
Traffic Lab’s 53 employees (continuously growing) are working in nine different departments but there are no walls between the departments. All employees are experts in their fields and Sebastian believes that great results are possible with the power of teamwork and brainstorming.
“It used to be the big fish that eat the small fish, but I think it will be the fast fish that eat the slow fish”
When thinking about the biggest accomplishments for Traffic Lab so far, Sebastian said, we need to distinguish between the company and him personally.
“We are today competing with big stock-listed companies, I mean, there are big fish out there. It used to be the big fish that eat the small fish, but I think it will be the fast fish that eat the slow fish. So, this is the greatest accomplishment for Traffic Lab.”
He continues, that for him personally, the biggest accomplishment is to see how people are developing after first stepping through this door. “I am truly working with some great minds and wonderful people!”
“At Traffic Lab I aim to create more enriching and fun days for my colleagues.”
We ask Sebastian what Traffic Lab means to him and he laughs: “It’s my child! It’s all my great colleagues working here that fulfill me. Everyone and every idea are valued equally, it doesn’t matter if you’re working here full-time, part-time, or as a student.”
He adds that Traffic Lab is his life, but he is aware it is not his colleague’s life and laughs again. He knows that no matter where you work, everyone sometimes has those days where you just want the day to be over and be able to go back home. “I want to make as few days like these as possible. At Traffic Lab I aim to create more enriching and fun days for my colleagues. And, I want them to be able to develop themselves, use their mind, and speak their mind!”
Traffic Lab – Balance, Trust, and Innovation
The three keywords to describe Traffic Lab are Balance, Trust, and Innovation, Sebastian declares.
Balance because Work-Life Balance plays an important role at Traffic Lab and as Sebastian puts it: “A balanced person is a better person in every way!”
Trust refers to how Traffic Labbers should be able to trust each other and speak their minds. Trust also goes hand in hand with cooperation. For teamwork we need trust and by working together we build up trust! Therefore, cooperation is an important part of trust.
Finally, Innovation comes in many different forms, which could be regarding the infrastructure, strategy, or humans. “New ideas are always welcome and appreciated by everyone, regardless of the job title.”
Celebrating Traffic Lab’s 6th birthday
To properly celebrate the 6th anniversary, Sebastian organized a special event. On Friday, 26.06.2020 we had one full day of brainstorming with the whole company. We brought in consultants to challenge us in order to find out how we can improve ourselves and to see whether there are other products we could take up in our portfolio.
In the afternoon we got all dressed up and went to Restaurant SILO for dinner and drinks to officially celebrate the past six years. We toasted to Traffic Lab, enjoyed the magnificent view over the ocean and Copenhagen and witnessed a beautiful sunset.
“I for sure look forward to the future with excitement to what more we will achieve.”
Sebastian is passionately talking about the future. “We’re going to rent the cellar in Bredgade 42 and we will move the lounge, kitchen, and cantina there. We will be able to have more meeting rooms there as well. When the high court moves out in a couple of years, we also want to rent the spaces upstairs.” Besides the office in Copenhagen, he would also like to open a second office somewhere else in the world, but he is not 100% sure where yet.
Aside from the office spaces, he would like to reduce even more manual tasks in the future and eventually outsource the ones that cannot be automated to other companies. Referring to our innovation day and ideas for new products, Sebastian reveals that Traffic Lab could have a daughter company one day, focusing on a completely different product.
Concluding, Sebastian summarizes: “We are definitely doing something right, so sometimes there’s no need to change that much after all. After seeing what Traffic Lab has become in the last six years, I for sure look forward to the future with excitement to what more we will achieve.”
