Flying higher – János Sarkantyú leads Ergomania San Francisco office

As a paraglider, János Sarkantyú is clearly not afraid of heights or rising to challenges, and is looking forward to trying out his skills in the California skies. This won’t be a vacation; he’s on his way to the USA to set up an office for the digital design company, Ergomania. Let’s get some idea of where János is at, professionally speaking.

From his school days, he was keen to work in the visual arts. After graduation, he gained experience in print media working with a small graphic design company. As it was a small company, János could try his hand at creative marketing and design, and by the turn of the millennium, he was also getting into creative online work. At this point, an old college friend who was already doing website design called in János to help. Over time, the pair did a lot of good work, developing an increasing client base, often with agencies.

However, the day came when János’s partner received an offer that was too good to refuse; he moved to London to take up his new job, leaving János to keep their company going. He managed to do this for a while, but found himself wearing too many hats, from project and product manager to designer and business manager. A raft of large agencies was pushing good business in his direction, but as he couldn’t find a suitable new partner, it was time to call it quits. He was also drawn to a specific skill set – UX design, which he found increasingly fascinating.

A new era

At this point, MOL, the Hungarian multinational oil and gas company, caught his eye. It was there that he would find his niche in UX design. When János joined, UX in the company was barely scratching the surface and was far from the highest priority. MOL had around 40,000 employees, of whom 1,000 max worked in IT. Within this section, the UX component formed a tiny microsystem. However, the drive was on to bring new design thinking and agile methods across all departments. János found himself at the center of what became a company-wide digitalization program.

At the core was a project called Go On Digital, also known as GOOD. As the “design thinking, weirdo guy,” János was just the sort of person to communicate these new ideas and methodologies. “Management saw that I had strong communication skills, even with the leaders of the company. I wasn't scared if someone was way up in the hierarchy. I just talked with them, like normal people.”

János addressing a conference

The digital Swiss army knife

Another MOL initiative was Digital Coach, which required János to use his skills with C-level executives who needed personal mentoring in the details of the digitalization program. As a result, he developed a very visible presence across MOL, heading up what became the mobile application stream of GOOD. Meanwhile, the ambition to get all 40,000 company employees using mobile apps, worldwide, was growing. János once again found himself in a ‘Swiss army knife’ position: “Advisor, product owner, UX and UI lead. You could call me whatever because I was all of these things.” He oversaw the development of more than 30 apps for the company. Microsoft and Apple Hungary were MOL’s main partners in this, as it was also equipping all key employees with company laptops and iPhones.

The result was that, ahead of the pandemic, MOL was already well-equipped to deal with remote working. When COVID-19 arrived, over 90% of employees were already trained on digital solutions. The Microsoft connection also meant that when conferences started up again post-pandemic, János would often be invited to speak on best practices and power apps. It was also the advent of Lo Code/No Code, which he embraced. He started spreading the word about this, forming a collective of the most proactive employees in MOL to do agile working and design sprints. “We were solving problems in the company’s everyday life.”

Building higher

Opened in 2022, the tallest building in Budapest (and indeed in Central Europe) is the 143-meter, 28-storey skyscraper by Foster + Partners, who also designed Apple Park and the new World Trade Center in New York. It’s known as the MOL Tower, or the MOL Campus, and is now the company’s home. Referring to Moby Dick, János describes it as his ‘white whale’ in that he spent some five years hunting down IT design solutions for the new structure, which went from a greenfield site to a completed glittering glass-and-steel tower. What started with a few people clustered around a whiteboard, hashing out needs and wants, turned into a core team of 70, with another 80 or so working on development and physical construction.

The goal was to create a comprehensively green, energy-efficient, smart building. Initially, the idea was to find a technology vendor for the whole project; however, over time, the team decided that most of the development work could be best done in-house. By this time, the move-in date was only 18 months away, so it’s easy to understand why János saw himself as a captain navigating stormy seas! Needless to say, the voyage was successful; 2,500 employees are now connected to the world and each other with highly efficient sophisticated systems.

János and some of his team in Central Europe’s tallest building

Significant meetings

As the MOL project ramped up, János continued to go to conferences, both as an attendee and a presenter, with two significant meetings occurring over this time. The first was at a conference after-party when he met data-visualization expert Zsófi, now Mrs Sarkantyú, who was working for Vodafone at the time. Later, she’d work with one of Hungary’s most successful startup data companies, Starschema. As we’ll hear, it’s actually Zsófi who became the motivating force for the move to America.

Joining the dots that connect up to the USA, the second significant meeting was with the CEO of Ergomania, Dr. András Rung. The two formed an instant bond and kept running into each other at conferences. This mix of professional synergy and personal friendship led to János doing occasional freelance work for Ergomania. Gradually, he was absorbed into the Ergomania family, enjoying the fun times, but also helping with two challenging and rewarding US projects in the role of UX-UI expert. As he says, “I burn on 2,000%, so I’d rather work in my free time.” In addition, he initiated (and on occasion presented) the series of industry talks, which Ergomania still runs.

János in conference

The mingling kind of guy

We’re now more or less up to date, yet the question remains: Why America? The story goes like this: With Zsófi at Starschema, she eventually worked directly for an Apple US team. Meanwhile, she and János were looking for bigger challenges and more opportunities. They were considering a move to the Netherlands when a LinkedIn US-based job advertisement for Apple appeared in Zsófi’s feed. She applied. The job offer came in 2025, and the visa application process began. András and János were chatting about Zsófi’s new role and how the couple were thinking of moving from Hungary. As János describes it, “The stars aligned.”

Having already worked together on the two American projects with Percapita and Sterling Archer, and with Ergomania keen to get more US business, it seemed a no-brainer that János would become the company’s USA rep and ambassador. Or to put it more simply, Head of the Ergomania San Francisco Office. This will mean doing a great deal of circulating and getting to know both the tech scene and the people. “In the USA, business is even more person-to-person based. I’ll organize networking gatherings and reach out to different designers and companies. We have a billion ideas. I can't say now which ones will work and which won’t, but I’m a social extrovert and an always-mingling kind of guy.”

There are, of course, challenges for anyone moving to a new country and a different culture, but János is optimistic about these. Yes, he’ll miss family and friends in Hungary and the UX and design community of which he has been such a core part. “I want to stay connected with the Hungarian design collective because there are so many great professionals here, but I also want to build bridges to the USA.” But he’s looking forward to immersing himself in Bay Area life in San Francisco. As they say in the USA – a win-win.