The history of O’Matic

Many people we meet ask us how we came to set up O’Matic. What were our reasons, our motivations, our ideas, our dreams…

To do so, prepare your hot chocolate ☕️ and your fireplace (or the 10 a.m. version on your favourite streaming platform) because we’re going to tell you everything!

The meeting between Chloé and Thomas

If you have browsed our website, you will have noticed that there are two of us:

• Thomas: Web & Application Developer
• Chloé: UX/UI Designer

We met at a Geneva-based communications agency in 2020, whom we warmly salute, if they are reading this. Throughout our collaboration, we discovered a shared passion for mobile app development, as well as a desire to deliver fast and methodical work. Working on joint projects from time to time, we quickly found ourselves on the same wavelength professionally, both in our approaches and in our ways of working.

Experience in the healthcare sector

In 2021, Thomas left the agency where we were employed to join a company specialising in the marketing and design of wellness products. The aim was to create an in-house team capable of designing websites and applications from start to finish (from concept to publication).

During that year, he demonstrated the importance of having a design component in addition to marketing and development, and so Chloé joined the adventure in 2022, also seeking to create mobile applications.

The Slim Sonic website

At the end of 2022, the company responsible for marketing the Slim Sonic brand asked us to redesign its e-commerce site, which was experiencing significant performance issues (slow page loading, crashes during peak traffic, etc.). Our challenge was to provide them with an e-commerce site that would enable them to continue selling their products internationally within three months.

Given the scale of the project’s technical specifications and despite the deadline, we decided to design a website with a theme from scratch (without having to start from existing code).

After several hours/days of reflection, design, development and meetings, we published our first major website as a duo in early February 2023, meeting our deadline!

After this project, we realised that we loved the challenge and wanted to take on more projects and adventures like this one. The idea of setting up our own agency, which had been on our minds since we first met, was now a reality!

To learn more about the Slim Sonic project, click here!

Geneva, here we come!

Once the main task has been accomplished, an advertiser does not really need a designer and a developer 42 hours a week. To continue to evolve in our professions, we therefore had two choices: change employers or become self-employed.

After working as an agency for the Slim Sonic website, we enjoyed being in direct contact with the client to advise and support them throughout their project. If we decided to return to working as employees in an agency, we risked losing this aspect of the role, which is similar to that of a project manager.

So we had only one choice left: to become independent!

‘We need a name!’

As with any project, the most difficult stage arrives: the name!

If you have set up your own company, you will understand the wonderful problem that is choosing a name.

So we needed a name that represented what we offer, wasn’t already taken, and wasn’t too complicated to remember.

O’Matic Technologies Sàrl

But what does O’Matic mean? Here is its definition :

Appended to titles of (often fictional) machines, especially to suggest that the verb to which the suffix is appended is its primary function.The Fix-o-Matic 2000 set about repairing the old car.

In fact, this particle is used to define the primary function of an automatic machine. For example, a drink-o-matic is a machine that automatically dispenses drinks.

But why choose O’Matic in our case?

It’s very simple… our goal is to offer you the most enjoyable experience for your project, so that it seems automatic, without you having to wonder why.

Now why Technologies?

O’Matic is already used on its own, and as a bonus, o-matic on its own doesn’t mean anything. So we had to find a particle to give it meaning. As we work largely with digital and technological objects, we decided to add Technologies to our name.

What shall we do now?

Since 13 September 2023, O’Matic has been officially registered as a limited liability company (Sàrl) in the Geneva Commercial Register with the aim of providing various design, web and application development and consulting services and marketing our original creations such as Transpo’Matic.

Feel free to follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram to keep up with our adventures, or contact us directly via our contact page.