About Us
In January 2003, after two years of working independently, our founder, Patty Tawadros, received a call from an old coworker with an intriguing proposal: “Let’s start something new.” Along with Vlad Chernousov and Kresimir Profaca, Patty set out to build a company grounded in their shared passion for innovation. That moment, signing the paperwork together at the attorney’s office, marks the official birth of Xercel, Inc., the company that would become Studio x.
From the outset, the vision was simple: create impactful technology solutions. The team dove in headfirst, building everything from a golf tee-time booking platform to a high school athlete recruiting tool, and even a rating system for online dating. They each brought unique strengths but shared a single-minded drive to build, adapt, and deliver.
As the years passed, Vlad and Kresimir moved on in their careers, and Patty took the helm at Xercel, Inc. Her journey led Xercel to Philadelphia, where she rented our first office on Walnut Street. The client list expanded rapidly, from a local bowling alley to partnerships with global manufacturers. To this day, one of our very first clients, Streamlight, remains a valued and long-standing partner.
Alongside this work, Emily and Patty launched Smoochie Paper, a high-end stationery brand that gained national and international recognition, earning features in both The Huffington Post and Grace Ormonde magazine. Smoochie Paper thrived until the global pandemic, a challenging but transformative period.
2016 marked a turning point when Patty was accepted into the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program. This experience reinvigorated her approach to scale and growth. Shortly after, the team built Brambaly, our website platform tailored for manufacturers, a tool that continues to anchor our clients’ web experiences today.
By 2018, our evolution called for a new identity. We rebranded as Studio x., keeping the “X” to honor our founding roots. One client jokingly shared, “But Patty, I just learned to pronounce Xercel.”
Shortly after that, our team at Studio x. won the prestigious Philadelphia’s Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies award two years in a row!
The pandemic era taught us the power of flexibility; closing our physical office opened doors to a global team that could work remotely across time zones seamlessly. Today, Studio x. thrives with team members in Philadelphia, San Diego, and India.
Over the last two decades, we’ve had the privilege of working with extraordinary people, many of whom are still part of the Studio x. family. And as we reflect, there is immense gratitude for our journey, from that first phone call to the global team we are today. We look forward to the next twenty years of building, collaborating, and creating together.
