Sidestream | Team

What is behind Sidestream?

Whether it's an innovative AI start-up, a professional digitalization partner or a cool tech company from Cologne - it all depends on who you ask.

What mission drives Sidestream?

Sidestream was built to create a workplace where we do good, honest work together in a dynamic, inclusive, and innovative environment. In just a few years, we've come far, but everyone here remains as hungry as on day 1.

Can you tell me about Sidestream’s journey and growth?

2020: Sidestream began with a bang, landing our first clients, building a talented team, and delivering successful projects.
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2021: We dove into Crypto/Web3, becoming a core contributor to MakerDAO and leading the way in partnering with decentralized organizations..
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2022: We created sidebase, our open-source framework, revolutionizing enterprise-class project delivery with speed and quality.
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Since 2023: Growing stronger each and every year, we’re now a go-to digitization and AI partner for German businesses and global decentralized organizations.

Our Team: A tight-knit group of ~25, where everyone plays a critical role, takes ownership, and gives their all for our clients and each other.

Working at Sidestream

What our employees say, shortly after joining us.

Sidestream’s structured onboarding process helped me get into cutting edge topics fast.

Navid

Web 3 Specialist from Marburg, joined in January 2025

I’m amazed by how every Sidestream employee is incredibly motivated, dedicated, and enjoys their work.

Judith

HR Manager from Cologne, joined in July 2023

Sidestream’s clear direction helps me know my individual goals and how they have an impact on the company’s mission.

Mohamad

Developer from Passau, joined in March 2024

Sidestream’s remote team building is surprisingly top-notch, the best I’ve experienced.

Marsel

Senior Developer from Essen, joined in February 2024

A look inside

From the outside it is always difficult to understand what makes a company really tick. This usually only becomes apparent after a while. We'll take the shortcut and give 12 excerpts from the inner workings of Sidestream.

Sistrs

Our equivalent to Googlers. Pronounced like [sisters] and stands for "SIdeSTReam employeeS”.

Sistrs Code

Our compass for corporate values, responsibilities and necessary skills.

Hybrid workstations

In keeping with our focus on good work and interpersonal relationships: No one has to come into the office, but anyone can come in at any time. Personal responsibility is a top priority at Sidestream.

Modern Tools & Tech

Automation-first: We use the most modern tools so that all sistrs can concentrate on the essentials. Our company's operating systems are Notion and GitHub. We rely on a pragmatic mix of corporate tech such as Kubernetes and Bitwarden and combine this with agile tools such as Slack.

Meeting Free Mornings

No meetings before 11:45! This way, every sistr can start the day with uninterrupted deep work and deliver real value. We also rely heavily on asynchronous communication in Notion and Github.

Engineering Workplace

Clients and sistrs appreciate Sidestream's rigorous software development process. That's because in addition to working on software projects, we also work weekly to further improve this process. So customers always get the best performance on the market and sistrs work in the best environment.

OnStream

Every Friday we pause briefly to review the week in our internal newsletter, with formats like: Weekly Recap, Recently at Sidestream, Sistr of the month, Quick Tips for Hip Kids, Project Deep Dives, Meme of the Week, etc.

Willingness to experiment

For all our agility: In our sales, in our customer support and in the execution of our projects, the focus is on excellence and quality. We try out a lot in the further development of the company: Move fast and break things.

Hackathons and Summits

The latest addition to the Sidestream family: joint participation in hackathons. At our first hackathon in mid-August 2023, we directly took the first place out of 1200 worldwide participants to Cologne. We like to measure ourselves against the worldwide competition, especially when we win ;)

Team Events

Despite all the pragmatism with meeting-free time and peak performance, there is always room for fun. Once a month, we meet in person (or sometimes remotely) and do something together. Once or twice a year, we go on a Workation together.

Departments

Structures meet personal responsibility. We rely on as much structure as necessary to remain excellent, but no more. Specifically, we have 3 departments: Business Development, People and Operations, and Fulfillment.

Routines and Rituals

People are creatures of habit, and so are Sistrs. Despite an exciting workday with new challenges and successes every day, we rigorously stick to our rituals, such as the daily stand-up at 11:45 with updates from the management and formats like Messed up Monday and What's up Wednesday.

On a trail to the next summit