As a new year began, most of us look back at what has happened, what we did in 2020. When doing so, we see all of our mistakes, lessons learned and successes. Sometimes it is just unbelievable how much can change in one year. And that’s exactly the case with us – so much has happened and I still cannot believe it. So let’s wrap up 2020 and start planning 2021!
Team development in 2020
When it comes to our HR activities 2020 brought many of them. Not only have we welcomed over 14 new employees, but we have also introduced Tech Leaders who can help the team (e.x. the backend team) in further development, answer technical questions, etc.
What is more, we created PGFs for our tech teams, you can read here about it. It was highly important for us that all of the team members know what they need to do to grow with us and that their career paths at Applover are planned properly.
Many changes were introduced due to the global pandemic. We are now able to hold the recruitment process and onboarding fully remotely. Our HR Team also organized 5 fully remote online integrations and we know we can have fun together even off-site, so our organization’s culture can thrive despite the COVID-19 restrictions.
Projects we developed in 2020
In 2020 we worked with great clients from various industries and developed numerous digital products. About some of them, you can read in our case studies section – see how we developed PWA for Prismade (in 2017 they have partnered with edding), or a mobile app for Steppie, an insurtech company recognized by Business Insider. Moreover, we established long-term partnerships with companies such as Bigvu and Novoda. We cannot talk about many projects due to the white label model of cooperation but we are satisfied with each one of them. If you want to see what our clients say about working with us, you can visit our Clutch profile.
Applover’s Awards
One of the projects that brought us great satisfaction is Bench – our own product. It is a tool for dev team subscription which uses a machine-learning algorithm. We strongly believe that it can ease the recruitment process and make it much faster and efficient. Several of our clients already use it. Moreover, developers who were hired for new projects, thanks to Bench, are also content with this particular project match. Bench by Applover was recognized in several rankings which we are really proud of! We were chosen as one of the 50 most creative people in business by Brief (Poland) – the jury praised our new tool and it helped us a lot in getting this title. Then, we were recognized by Deloitte as Fast50 Tech Company in the CEE. In December we were given the Diamond of Business Excellence award by ABSL Poland (Tigers category). These titles mean a lot to us, as they prove that our idea for Bench and its execution were just great and the businesses across the world can benefit from it.
New website and marketing activities
2020 brought us new challenges so we wanted our message to be as clear as possible. That is why we decided to launch our new website! We introduced a detailed FAQ so every potential client can find answers to the most common questions. We showcase our services and present case studies in a more user-friendly way. What is more, thanks to the new, modern design we believe our website is much more approachable and aligns with new trends. With a new website, we can also further develop our blog and increase our presence in the global market. With improved web performance, our search engine visibility is greater and we can be more easily found by potential customers.
We worked pretty hard in 2020. Our marketing team released The state of outsourcing services in the post-pandemic landscape report and The UX/UI TrendBook. Both of them were downloaded hundreds of times and helped us establish our presence as industry experts. We have also updated our Process Book so our clients know from the start how we work and what we focus on at each stage of product development.
The wind of change
Our income in 2020 was 5 800 000 PLN – it increased almost by 100% in comparison to the previous year.
14 people worked on Bench – our new product. It resulted in 1 fully developed tool and 3 industry awards. Bench was a highly engaging project for us, especially me, who also worked in the role of the CEO of the company. We want to develop it further and offer our solution to even more clients. It needs our focus and that is why we decided to introduce some changes to our organization. With the start of 2021, I will step from the role of CEO to devote my time and energy to Bench as the CIO. From now on Piotr Sędzik (former COO) will play the role of the CEO of Applover.
This decision was natural for us. Piotr acted as the COO for a long time but he performed many tasks of a CEO already. With his knowledge and experience, I know he will be the perfect fit for this new position. On the other hand, I focused most of my time on Bench and developing a product from scratch. Also, I managed the company as the CEO was too much for one man whose day is as long as it is for all of us. I am confident that neither our client nor the team will notice any changes but both me and Piotr will work more efficiently knowing what our main priorities are.
I feel confident about Applover’s future as greater efficiency can be introduced after this change. I think that our team knows already how engaged I am in my tasks and their well-being as employees. I strongly believe that this change can help us develop even further.
