Ten years on the Road: A decade of impact, and we're only just getting started

This spring marks ten years of Columbia Road and a decade of helping companies sell better. Back in 2016, we were at the forefront of growth hacking. It was a genuinely disruptive concept at the time. While the terminology has evolved, the core logic was exactly what the market needed. And when it comes to AI, surely some pioneers were already working with machine learning, but for most leaders, AI still felt like something from a science fiction film.

At the time, many companies were busy building cool technology just because they could. They spent a fortune on systems, but their sales results rarely moved the needle. We started Columbia Road with a simple goal. We wanted to shift the focus away from "IT projects" to making money. Ten years later, we are still here helping our clients turn their digital ideas into actual profit.

Looking back to 2016: A small room and a big provocation

Our first office was essentially a cupboard in the Futurice headquarters. We had one table and three chairs that we had borrowed from the corridor. The air was thick, the space was cramped, but the intensity was real.

We were a handful of specialists and a few brave clients. Back then, we were exceptionally bold in how we challenged people. That familiar vibe of a community meeting in a shared space is still there when you walk into any of our offices today.

We have always argued that digital channels should be growth engines. This approach was quickly validated by our first clients, proving that the model worked in the real world. It all comes back to our core philosophy, helping companies sell better by turning digital investments into measurable results. That provocation was our differentiator in 2016. Remarkably, it still is today.

Even though we have grown into a Nordic powerhouse with offices across multiple cities, we have kept that "challenger" energy, often wrapped in the floral brand identity we're known for, bringing a much-needed sense of playfulness to the corporate world.

Nurturing the culture

Scaling from a handful of people to an international team is a challenge for any culture. Many businesses become rigid as they grow, losing the personality that made them successful in the first place. We have worked hard to avoid that shift. 

Since the beginning, we’ve operated as a community-led organisation, a model that defines how we work and grow together. By stripping away conventional hierarchies, we have created an environment in which the group's collective wisdom provides the necessary direction, making traditional management redundant. We treat experimentation as a core part of our rhythm, understanding that in a shifting market, static solutions are useless. This means we embrace mistakes as vital learning curves, encouraging a culture where people feel safe to fail, adapt, and keep moving forward.

Some changes have been inevitable and useful. You cannot run a team of 200 the same way you run a team of five. Our onboarding, for instance, used to be a casual one-hour chat. Today, it is a professional, widely praised, months-long experience. It gives us the structure we need to succeed without losing our identity, a spirit we've captured in our Culture Code, an honest book written by Roadies.

But the fundamental profile of a "Roadie" hasn't changed. We still look for the same rare breed: experts who can speak the languages of both business and technology. We prioritise kindness and humility above all else. This isn't just for karaoke or office chats. It is how we show up for our clients every day. Roadies never just "complain" when they see a problem: we simply get up and fix it. We aim to bring that same spirit to every interaction, whether we are tackling a million-euro ecommerce renewal or simply fixing a broken coffee machine in the office.

Proving the model one win at a time

We saw our approach work almost immediately. In those early days, clients often gave us very tight windows to show results. We took a stagnant online shop and turned it into a profitable business function in just three months with a small, focused team: one developer, one marketer, and one growth owner.

That success led to many more projects. In fact, we still work with many of those original partners ten years later. These early wins proved that technical excellence and commercial results belong together. Seeing those clients stay for a decade is proof that the "commercial first" approach wasn't just a lucky guess.

Our influence now reaches far beyond our own offices. We are incredibly proud of our alumni network. Many former Roadies are now leaders in our clients' management teams or have started their own businesses. Seeing them build the next generation of successful companies shows that our work has a lasting impact on society.

The next decade of digital hurdles

The slow reality of market change

Market changes often happen more slowly than we expect. While technology leaps ahead, silos and traditional hurdles remain prevalent in most businesses. We will continue to modernise the way companies operate while bringing them cutting-edge tech and commercial insight.

The real test for the coming decade is how organisations handle the lightning speed of technology. AI is the deciding factor here. It is the practical tool that will separate those who move forward from those who get left behind. Learning to take advantage of modern tools isn't optional. Those who master them will lead the market, while those who don't will simply be left behind.

AI as the ultimate catalyst

AI is essentially a tool, but it represents one of the most significant shifts in computing history. Given the current capabilities of LLMs, we could easily spend the next decade just learning how to extract their full value. New models arrive every other month, often overturning everything we have just understood.

This rapid pace underlines the need for a curious mind and real agility. Adaptability is no longer a soft skill: it is the primary requirement for anyone who wants to stay relevant. You have to be willing to unlearn just as fast as you learn.

We must now prepare businesses for a world where AI agents use digital services as much as people do. This introduces an entirely new "persona" to the buying journey. We need to ensure systems are built to be agent-ready. Whether the customer is a human or an AI, our focus remains on the buying journey and the internal tools that support it.

Because behaviour will shift faster than ever, we will maintain a strictly test-driven approach. This ensures we aren't chasing a trend, but responding to how users, human or machine, actually interact with technology.

However, the biggest wins won't come from tech alone. We want to get better at tackling the root causes that prevent progress: conflicting incentives, poor purchasing habits, and rigid organisational structures. Many companies have the ambition, but these hurdles hold them back. Fixing them would create a lean, efficient sales machine for any Nordic business.

The Road ahead: Driving daily sales while building for scale

The tech will always change, but the goal stays the same. Success will be defined by an organisation's ability to master two parallel tracks: driving sales every single day while simultaneously building the scalable digital capabilities needed for the long haul.

The biggest pitfall we see is companies nailing their tech but failing to deliver profit, or vice versa. We continue to bridge that gap by excelling at both.

As we look toward the next decade, the isolated IT project mindset must be left behind for good. The focus should be on the whole organisation working towards a shared goal. If your digital strategy isn't driving commercial impact, you are just making noise.

Our mission for the next ten years is to keep making sure that noise turns into real, sustainable growth for our clients.

Ready to build the next ten years with us? Head over to our careers site. We are always looking for smart people who are ready to build what comes next!