A software company should be a happy place, filled with excitement, satisfaction and pride. Most startups are created by founders who believe the market is missing a product or service, but many also want to prove something closer to their heart: a software company can be a happy place to work at. What they soon find is that happiness is not created by itself – inspiring environments take both attention and engagement to happen, and it's never permanent. A startup is an illusion knocked over by reality that puts all dreams and promises on hold – sometimes permanently.

Around 2009 I went to see a movie, having left the comfort of employment four years earlier, to spend an evening away from all the grinding in my new venture. I was tired of how I was treated by those I met. Everyone asked how things progressed, no one offered any help that mattered. It's one of the differences between Silicon Valley and Europe: in Silicon Valley you get an introduction, what you make of it is up to you; in Europe you face closed doors in every conversation. The movie I saw I don't remember but the trailer before the movie became an epiphany that has stuck with me to this day.

The September Issue was a documentary about the publication of the September 2007 Vogue magazine, featuring its editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, creative director Grace Coddington, and many other legendaries from the fashion world. Grace Coddington didn’t want to be part of the film at first, but for some reason she changed her mind halfway through filming – it wouldn’t have been the same documentary without her. What I saw was relentless pace and energy, a determination to create something truly great, driven by creativity, imagination and style. I said to myself: This is how a software company should look like. Fashion is not about the past, it’s all about the future, Anna Wintour says. The same is true for software, but even if a software company can create amazing software, it can also be a really boring place to work at.

The creative process is usually a long struggle in Software Engineering. For startups, a new product is always a death march that ends in a big question mark. Major releases come with lots of emotions that have been built up during a long time. Satisfaction mixed with anxiety and even emotions of emptiness are bundled with years of aspiration. It's satisfaction to have made something truly challenging; anticipation and anxiety for how it will be received by customers; to finally be replaced with a void you can't really prepare for.

There are, however, measures that can be taken to make it a more happy place. While working at Apple, Jony Ive said, ”You must surround yourself with beautiful items. They inspire you.” It can be posters and photographs of people you admire, or super hero miniatures, music and perks in the form of free beverages and fruits. The workplace should go in neutral or natural colours with complementing patches. It's all about giving the soul space to be creative. A startup can't always afford all these perks, but a successful software company should definitely attend to it. A happy place is not only about items, it's above all a place where relationships create the energy that ends up in everyone's work. For all these reasons, a software company needs to remain a world of its own, where new dreams and ambitions are born, a place where people can grow with new challenges.