Lab08 celebrates 1 year anniversary
It is already one year ago we, in Lab08, teamed up with our very first customers deepdivr.io and Intellecto. A primary goal the first year has been to prove that it is possible to build a software-business based on strategic partnerships. We aimed to naturally be included in our customers’ strategic discussions and product development based on our own SaaS experience at the same time as we understand that our primary contribution is to hire and to manage top tier software talent leveraging our large IT network in Bulgaria.
In other words, it is in our DNA to refuse to be a “body leasing” company who just provides people to be managed by the customer, and we don’t want to be a “software agency” dropping in and out of strategic projects charging high hourly rates.
I think it is fair to use the occasion of this 1 year anniversary to conclude that we so far have proved ourselves and our approach to the market. This is based on the fact that all of our partnerships so far have had this desired dynamic. Read more about our partnership with the three customers who have been with us for the longest time here: https://lab08.com/customers/
UserTribe & Lab08
To support our (not so objective) conclusion I want to highlight our partnership with UserTribe, who facilitates customer involvement by making it easy to align and collaborate with your customers.
UserTribe has great momentum and we are excited about the progress of our joint product team located in Copenhagen and Sofia. We are consulting on team structure and work methodology and we are operating the UserTribe product team in Sofia. In Copenhagen, the focus is on strategy, UX and data science, and in Sofia, we are focusing on product management, UI design, software development, quality assurance and DevOps.
I believe we are currently striking the right balance between a Nordic tech scale-up like UserTribe and the talented IT industry in Bulgaria. Product strategy and user experience are fully embraced and owned by the UserTribe leadership team close to the market at the same time as they are getting the full value of scaling a talented and cost-effective software team in Sofia through us in Lab08.
UserTribe has shared a few early thoughts of their own about the progress: https://usertribe.com/blog/usertribe-x-the-customer-centric-platform-project/
Looking ahead
It is still early days and we are continuously innovating on our own business and partnership model to increase the impact we have on our customers’ success, and thereby on our own success.
Besides the journeys we are on with UserTribe and deepdivr.io, we have during the summer started brand new partnerships with Nordic startups Diplomasafe and Scratcher.io. Diplomasafe is on a mission to create student advocacy through secure digital online diplomas and Scratcher.io is one of the markets most promising gamification platforms. We are excited about doing our part in taking their great products to the next level and to get more valuable learnings about ourselves and the way we work!
Even though we are busy, we are always interested in discussing software partnerships with other innovative companies who are open to exploring the benefits in teaming up with a partner like us: https://lab08.com/get-in-touch/.
