The ‘bubble’ had a big impact on this young start-up. Between 2003 and 2004, the internet lost some of its shine. But even during this difficult time, Parantion kept going. They believed strongly in their mission: using data to understand behavior and support personal development.

The first idea was to build an HR portal where employees could manage everything themselves. And that was at a time when the internet was mostly just a collection of static web pages. Parantion started working on one of the first real web applications.

Most software at that time came on CD-ROMs. You would put them into a disk drive, and your WordPerfect disk would start spinning. When we showed the first version of our online survey tool, many people could not believe it was possible. You could create a questionnaire online, send it to a group of people, and get answers right away.

The first version was called EDS (emension dynamic survey). Soon, it was renamed to Parantion Web Survey (PWS). The final version, PWS 6.1, was turned off in 2024. Its follow-up, Easion Survey, is still running. It will eventually become part of Scorion as a panel-style evaluation tool, probably sometime in 2027.

Big organizations used PWS and Easion. It was safe, easy to use, and fully developed in the Netherlands. In 2005, the company started to grow. From that point on, a few new team members joined each year.

Around that time, other companies also started offering survey tools. But it was unclear what happened with the data. That is why many cities, health insurers, hospitals, and other large organizations chose to use PWS.