Camden-based startup, Penji offers an on-demand unlimited graphic design service — logos, pitch deck design, web and app design, and revisions, all included at one low monthly cost. Customers can sign up on a month-to-month basis, with no long-term contract required.
Penji Co-founders Johnathan Grzybowski and Khai Tran officially launched their business on October 21st, 2017. Penji’s growth has exploded in 2018 as businesses and startups in the local region look to revitalize their brand. Penji has hired five Camden students and looks to continue scaling their startup by bringing on more clients and growing their services.
We caught up with Penji’s Co-founder Johnathan Grzybowski for an exclusive Startup Spotlight interview:
Johnathan, How did the inspiration to start Penji come about? My co-founder and I have been working in the city of Camden for three years as separate entities. Khai Tran ran an organization called Owners Magazine which is a publication that focuses on telling the stories on tech companies and emerging cities in America.
I ran a high-end design agency that worked with Fortune 500 companies, Inc. 5000, and universities.
During a tech event in Camden that focused on the emerging city of Camden and it’s tech scene. We were both asked two questions by the press:
1. How can you ensure that the tech companies will hire in the city?
2. Are you hiring in the city?
Our answers were no.
The day after the event, we launched Penji.
Prior to the official launch of Penji, we were working on this project privately. We were able to obtain a few clients without any formal software, but after listening to our customers and network, they all told us that if we were to create something like this, they would buy it.
In the first On October 21, 2017, we launched Penji, our very own Startup that will hire Camden students/residents, and set an example for future startups joining the city. By providing an unlimited graphic design model, we’re able to train and employ qualify Camden students studying graphic design, marketing, writing, and communication from Universities in Camden.
In 2018 alone, we were able to hire five students and plan to hire three more in February.
What problem is Penji aiming to solve? Some of the biggest problems that agencies experience are:
- Difficulty to manage all of their design requests
- Tedious to find dependable, reliable, and talented designers that can understand and work on your design project/requests
- Communication problems: Email is by far one of the most cumbersome ways to communicate with a designer, things get lost in translation and the project itself becomes confusing between the project manager, client, and designer.
Our service shatters these common issues by offering design all in one dependable, easy to use, and quick turn around design platform.
How is Penji different from similar competitors? The one thing that we care about most is our customers. We want to create a world-class platform for marketers, agencies, and startups that allows our customers to help focus on what matters most; growing their business.
Our current competition is using primitive ways to communicate with their customers. Some are using emails and others are using custom software that has limitations.
We are focusing on long-term strategies that will allow us to constantly innovate and stay ahead of our competition.
Our motto at Penji is to listen to our customers first, then ask questions. We are constantly reaching out to our customers to ask them for feedback and also about what features they would like to see within our platform. This constant state of being curious will help our organization as we continue to grow.
VC, Angel Investors or Bootstrapped? We are cash flow positive. We have never received outside funding, nor do we plan to do so in the future. If there is a period of time where it makes sense, we will consider it, but at the rate in which we are growing, it may not be needed.
The biggest mistake you’ve made so far: It’s hard to say that any one thing has been a mistake. It might be a cliche answer, but where we are today is the culmination of every past failure, mistake, and even success that we have made.
We are where we are supposed to be because of the efforts we made in the past. Although I personally am not content with where things are, I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish as a company/team.
The smartest move you’ve made so far: Investing back into our community.
At Penji we stand for three things:
1. Delivering a 5-star customer experience and creating the best DAAS (design as a service) on the planet.
2. Helping the local economy by hiring residents and students from Camden.
3. Offering our service to ALL non-profits in Camden for just $1. It’s our way of giving back to our community and changing the digital landscape of Camden NJ.
In Camden, we have three of the best state universities in New Jersey. There is a ton of talent here in our city, so why not find a way bring that talent into our ecosystem. Gone are the days where you have to move to a large city to find opportunities. There are opportunities surrounding us at all times, you just have to know where to look.
Would you rather have Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos on your team? Jeff Bezos without hesitation.
Jeff Bezos has completely revolutionized the way we receive and buy products online. He has also helped the city of Seattle Washington become an economic behemoth and plans to do the same to whatever city he chooses to inhabit with his HQ2.
When we have the opportunity to meet Jeff Bezos, the meeting would go as follows:
- Share local Camden cuisine together
- Ask questions to learn how he is constantly able to innovate Amazon
- Discover how he has made an impact on his local economy and community by hiring local talent
What are some unexpected hurdles you’ve faced? Pricing and software bugs.
1. When we first launched Penji we had a package that was far too underpriced. The idea of unlimited design is still a relatively new business model, so we created a package that we originally felt was a good way to start our customers on and then find a way to “up-sell” the client. What we realized was that we spent the most time per customer on the ones paying us through this tier. This was an easy decision to get rid of the low tier and simplified the buying decision for the customer.
2. With any technology-driven business, you always meet the inevitable software issues and bugs. We are no different. Our team worked around the clock to develop Penji in record time. With that comes bugs. Our ability to fix these bugs and stay focused on the customer experience has been inspiring to watch. Incredibly proud of our team and how they handled these unexpected hurdles.
Your favorite team building activity is: We have a close-knit company culture that genuinely likes to hanging out with one another, but the main activity that we love doing as a team is eating. We have a culturally diverse group of individuals on our team. Most of our team members come from immigrant households that has a rich culture and bloodline of incredible cooks. Our potlucks are known to have Turkish, Vietnamese, Chinese, and homegrown American influences.
We eat almost every day together and have newly expanded our eating habits online. Every week, we record ourselves eating directly on Facebook where our customers and fans can come in and watch us eat, ask questions, and forget about the stressful workday for an hour or so.
Where do you envision Penji in 5 to 10 years? Once we are able to hit our internal milestones for Penji in Camden, we plan to open a second office in another underserved city in America. A place that needs more jobs and support from the small business community.
As we continue to innovate, I am confident that we will continue to produce services and find better solutions to help small businesses, marketing companies, agencies, and startups.
The biggest thing you look for when hiring is: We grade all personnel and will grade future personnel under the same four principles: Dependability, loyalty, positivity, and talent. In that specific order as well.
As much as it is important to grow a strong resume, it’s not graded as strongly as you may think. We ask questions to get a better understanding of who that person is and what they stand for. At the end of the day, it’s all about being a quality human being and team player.
What are some of the key things you’ve learned so far as an entrepreneur? Here are the basics:
- The most obvious thing that I have learned as an entrepreneur is to get back up every time you fall.
- As much as you want something right this very instant to happen to you or your business, it may not be your time to reach out and grab it.
The complex (This is probably the most important thing I’ve learned in life and will only state these two things without any explanation. I am hopeful that after reading these two things, you will think about them on your own terms)
- You are not and will never be as big as the company.
- Check your ego at the door, every single day you walk through the doors of your business
What advice would you give to entrepreneurs just starting out? A few tips:
- It’s ok if you’re not “ready” to be your own boss yet. Go out there and work for someone else that is either making moves in your community. Work for them for free or if you’re lucky enough to have a paid internship, that works too. Gain as much knowledge and experience as you possibly can to ensure that when you expand and execute your idea, you’ve learned a thing or two about business and yourself.
- Stop reading and watching others people’s success on social media, in fact, I’d go as far as to say stop following other people in general. Focus on your goals and find a way to execute.
- Quit coming up with new ideas. Develop the easiest path with least resistance and double down on a strategy that has worked for you in the past.
- Be patient. Things take time!
- Be consistent. Do the same things over and over again, without hesitation for the next 365 days and beyond and check back to see the progress that you made.
Learn more and connect with Johnathan:
www.penji.co
www.linkedin.com/in/grzybowskij
