Tree growth rings
Growing from the roots
What tree growth rings are, and what they have to do with business and technology.
Every year, a tree trunk grows a little more and adds a new layer of wood. These layers appear as rings inside the trunk: a lighter band, from the wood that grows in spring, and a darker one, from the wood that forms as growth slows down toward the end of summer. In some years the ring is wider, and in others it is narrower, depending on the conditions of each year, but the tree never stops growing. That is why the rings tell the story of the tree and of how it has thrived, year after year.
In these rings, I find the idea that guides my work: steady growth that starts from the roots. Each ring rests on the one before it. There are no leaps, but there are no pauses either: the tree grows year after year, firmer and more resilient. That is the kind of growth I want to build in my studio, and the kind I like to support in the businesses I work with. And I am also starting from my own roots: the local businesses of Catalonia.
More, and better
When people talk about a growing business, they often think of more power and more money. That is the idea of growth usually associated with large companies, and it is not the one that guides my work. When I think of a local business or a small company that grows, I picture someone who has turned their idea into reality, or who finds new opportunities. Someone who can do more, and better, what they set out to do at the start, or carry out new purposes and visions.
What I admire about local businesses is how close they are to people's lives. They understand what people need because they see them every day, and their priority is not only to earn more or produce more, but to fit into the lives of their customers, their teams and their community. From that closeness, they change lives in a very direct way, and with them, society too.
“That's for big companies”
Many of these businesses doubt that quality technology is within their reach. A modern website, a platform of their own, an automation or an AI solution sound expensive, hard to understand and meant for someone else. Often, that idea comes from real experiences: very high quotes, conversations where they did not feel heard, or proposals that did not start from their goals. But I do not believe technology has to be like that.
Changes you can feel
In many businesses, the impact comes as much from broad projects as from very specific decisions. Moving to a tool that is easier to use can solve many of a team's daily problems, and sometimes its founders' too. A well-designed automation can remove manual, repetitive tasks, and what matters is not only the time it saves, but the focus it frees up: that energy can go into the real growth of the business. And a website that clearly explains what a business does changes how many people find it, how they see it, and how many end up choosing it.
What these changes have in common is that, if they are kept up and built on, they add up, like the rings of a tree. And there is often a moment I especially love: when someone who did not believe a goal, or an idea, was possible discovers that it can become real.
Start with the person, not the tool
That is why, with every new client, the first thing I do is ask and listen: how their business is doing now, what goals they have, what their day-to-day looks like, what they need and what they do not. Only then do I think about technology. I do not start from a specific tool, and that is why I do not define myself as a studio that does only websites or only AI: every business needs something different, and technology should be designed around it, not the other way around. That adaptation, thinking carefully about what to build instead of always applying the same template, is what allows the result to last and to grow.
Technology also grows in rings
In a tree, the rings are not isolated: tiny channels run through them and connect them, and each new ring makes the whole trunk stronger. Something similar happens with technology. When each piece connects with the others and builds on the ones before it, they all reinforce one another. With well-organized information, automation is easier. With repetitive tasks automated, there is more time for the business and more data for decisions. And when data and tools are connected, AI can go much further. The whole becomes more effective, more solid and easier to maintain.
I have seen this in very different places. At Amazon, each process improvement made the next one easier. And when I was building a startup's product as a founding engineer, I saw that, with well-organized data and a well-connected system, AI was far more accurate and reliable. Mathematics, and network theory in particular, shows it too: the strength of a system, and of each of its parts, often lies in its connections. This is true of data, of processes and of people. And a business, which brings all three together, is no exception.
All of this means growing more efficiently and in the chosen direction. Each step solves something in the present, but it also strengthens the earlier steps and prepares the next ones, and so the business moves closer to its goals and its new visions. Technology does not set the course: it helps the business move toward it with more strength.
From the roots
Many ideas are born to improve people's lives, a team's day-to-day work or a business's position, so that it keeps growing on what has already been built. These ideas deserve good technology, which can create opportunities in an accessible way, and which does not have to be expensive or hard to use. As with a tree, it is about starting from the roots and growing, ring by ring.
