The value of a team in app development

While standing at the precipice of one of the most exciting steps in their start-up journey, Sofia and Isa from Birds Relations reflects on her experience partnering up with Crowd Collective.

“Deciding to work with Crowd Collective was an important decision and it has turned out really well. We realized how important it was to partner with the right firm. Looking back, the decisions on site architecture and the rest have proven to work well. We are very happy.”, Sofia says.

Cost-efficiency vs. a crowd of professionals

During 2020, when the business began to take shape and the app development was ready to start, people at Birds Relations evaluated different strategies on how to acquire the relevant skills and competences needed.

“We knew that the breadth of knowledge we would get from Crowd Collective would be hard to match with a single developer, which was our other alternative from a cost-efficiency perspective.”, Sofia from Birds Relations explains.

There were many things left to decide also tech wise, which made the choice simpler.

“In the beginning we didn’t know which architecture would suit us best or how the tech stack should look. Having access to the entire Crowd Collective network, even beyond the consultants we hired, was really valuable for us in this early stage,” she emphasizes.

Building together from the ground up

One area in which Crowd Collective differentiates itself is by offering consultants who can build competencies within a client organization.

Consultants possess the practical skills, leadership and mentorship abilities to help shape an internal team. This makes Crowd Collective a valuable partner for both start-ups and established businesses undergoing expansion.

“We could start out with a Crowd Collective consultant as a senior developer and then phase in junior developers. We wanted, primarily, to recruit. But we know how incredibly difficult it is to attract tech talents. Therefore, it’s extremely valuable that we can access Academic Work’s entire talent pool through the partnership with Crowd Collective,” Isa explains.

A part of the team

“Crowd has made the effort to really understand our business and wanted to be a part of its development, not just offer technical solutions,” Sofia highlights.

“It isn’t just important to have people with the right competencies or even an interest in the product. We need people who work well together and trust each other,” Isa continues.

Having a constant and open dialogue throughout the development process is a vital way in which Crowd Collective consultants ensure they are aligned with the business goals. They work closely with the rest of the team at Birds, adapting to their working style and internal culture to achieve the best result together.

“From the beginning, Crowd Collective has been more of a partner than just a contractor for developers. You get so much better results when you are working with people who are excited by what they do and the product itself,” Sofia says.

“We have product meetings together, we make decisions together and we make prioritizations together. Crowd Collective is a part of our team,” Isa finishes.

Where are Birds Relations today?

In mid-May, Birds Relations raised 8 MSEK in an investment round. Their plan is to launch their app outside of Sweden during 2023. Sofia Brandt, CEO, says to BreakIT: “We think globally, and we will translate the app, the first market outside of Sweden will be Great Britain.”

We at Crowd Collective are proud to have been a part of their start up journey!