Tag: Lab08 approach

  • Lab08 x CyberPilot: Transition journey from service business to a tech company

    Lab08 x CyberPilot: Transition journey from service business to a tech company


    CyberPilot is an educational platform improving cybersecurity within companies. Great example of a service company in growth with strong product-market fit with an opportunity to standardize processes and scale the business with a tech product transition.

    As a growing service company they suffered from operational bottlenecks across onboarding, campaign planning, training, and coordinating multiple tools. The product also depended on multiple third-party services, limiting customization, integrations, and a consistent user experience.

    To scale effectively, CyberPilot needed a unified platform that gave full control over product direction, improved scalability, and reduced operational complexity. With this clear product roadmap, we could build a stronger and more tech-driven business.

    Industry: Cybersecurity and security awareness educational platform
    Size & Type: Scaleup (SaaS)
    Region: HQ Denmark, Europe, with international customer base

    The challenge

    • Product-market fit achieved, but with growth heavily dependent on manual work by Customer Success Managers (CSMs)
    • Fragmented third-party tooling limited product evolution, customization, and consistent UX
    • Customers relied on CSMs for onboarding, planning phishing campaigns, and coordinating tools
    • No scalable self-service flow; operational complexity rising with business growth
    • Growth constrained by linear CSM hiring, slow product iteration, and fragmented customer experience

    The solution

    To become a tech-driven business and keep up with the company growth and operational bottlenecks, Cyberpilot needed:

    • Centralized platform instead of disconnected third-party tools
    • Strong self-service flows for onboarding, planning, and execution
    • Clear separation between customer actions and CSM oversight
    • Continuous expansion of the product with new services built into the same ecosystem
    Cyberpilot’s team and Tsvetina – Product Manager, Lab08

    What we did

    • Tech Strategy process to build an actionable product roadmap
    • Build a centalized platform and self-service design to support company growth
    • Discovery & prioritization of customer and internal needs
    • Setting up a tech team to drive and implement the product
    • Delivery & iteration in collaboration with CyberPilot’s engineering and CSM teams

    Lab08 owned the what, why, and order of building the platform, not just execution. In turn, CyberPilot has hired their own CTO and in-house development team members, and have transitioned into a tech company.

    Outcome

    • Transitioned from a people-led service business to a tech-driven, scalable company
    • Enabled growth without linear increases in Customer Success headcount
    • Improved unit economics by shifting delivery from manual work to product-led self-service
    • Increased customer satisfaction and customer retention with a consistent and mature product
    • Accelerated decision-making and execution by owning a clear, unified product platform

    We have been working together with Lab08 for over three years, where they have provided us with a complete development team, and we have been using their DevOps services. They’ve built our infrastructure and platform from the ground up, delivering a robust, high-quality solution that performs reliably and is easy to maintain and extend. 

    We’re very happy with our partnership and their consistent dedication to our success. Lab08 is a company of talented, approachable people who communicate effectively and are always forthcoming in addressing our needs. I strongly recommend Lab08 as a dependable and skilled partner.

    Kristian Kaa,
    Head of Engineering at Cyberpilot

  • Sign up for Lab08’s next webinar

    Sign up for Lab08’s next webinar

    We recently hosted a conversation on AI-powered due diligence – and the response made it clear: forward-thinking investors and DD professionals are ready to reimagine the process. 
We explored what an AI-supported approach could look like, and how it stands to benefit both investors and founders by making the process faster, more scalable, and more transparent.

    Now, we’re continuing the conversation. Early in 2026, we’re hosting a new webinar that dives deeper into the future of due diligence – featuring fresh insights, real-world use cases, and practical tools.

    If you’re curious about where things are headed, you won’t want to miss it.

    Sign up here to stay updated on our upcoming events. By subscribing to our newsletter, you’ll be the first to know when registration opens.

    Sign up for the webinar

    This November, join us to learn: 

    → Why traditional due diligence is challenged
    → Why context engineering is key to get right
    → Tangible ways to enhance your own process with AI

    Once you sign up – stay tuned for the webinar invite in your calendar!


    In the meantime, if you haven’t yet, check out the key takeaways and recording from our last session – still very much worth a watch.

  • AI in due diligence webinar session (Watch recording)

    AI in due diligence webinar session (Watch recording)

    On May 13th we hosted a conversation on AI-powered due diligence. We shared what we’ve learned from 50+ product and tech DDs. You shared what’s shifting in your own work. And together, we touched on what an AI-supported DD process could look like in the future. And how it will be able to benefit both investors and founders alike. We were especially happy to see so many forward-thinking investors and DD professionals are open to reimagining the process for a faster and more transparent one.

    If you’re curious about where the process is headed, it’s worth a watch. Here are a few takeaways from the session:

    • AI accelerates and deepens due diligence by analyzing vast, fragmented data, enabling more informed investment decisions even with limited time or expertise.
    • Structured prompt engineering and RAG systems enhance consistency and accuracy in analyzing large document sets, reducing the risk of oversight or hallucination.
    • Agentic workflows and AI tools like FlowWise, GitHub MCP, and Amazon Q enable automated, scalable technical assessments across infrastructure and codebases.

    Enjoy the recording here 

    Download additional resources

    This webinar session is part of our AI applied in due diligence series.
    Lab08 shares learnings and data from tech due diligence collaborations and data across due diligence processes from our AI-platform Vicinity.

  • TechBBQ x Vicinity: Results & reflections on AI-powered networking

    TechBBQ x Vicinity: Results & reflections on AI-powered networking

    We introduced Vicinity to investors and founders at the Nordics’ premier startup event – TechBBQ. The event hosted over 8500 attendees, including 350 speakers, 3500 startups, and 1300 investors. Given the magnitude of the event, making the most of networking can be a significant challenge. The necessity of preparation and the concentrated effort to identify the right connections makes this a time-consuming and complex process.

    Committed to solving the networking challenge, we collaborated with the TechBBQ team to employ Vicinity in providing a tailored shortlist for each participant, based on their specific criteria.

    Founders had the opportunity to showcase their businesses more effectively, guided by Vicinity regarding commonly asked questions by investors. The process starts with an upload of their pitch decks and providing detailed information about their startup’s specifics and investment needs. By doing so, founders received comprehensive startup profiles enhanced with data from trusted resources utilized by Vicinity, including financial information, ownership details, team structure and skillset, and more.

    Investors could swiftly share their investment thesis via a chat interface, initiating all necessary questions to build their investment criteria, thereby receiving better recommendations. This information was utilized by our AI-powered matchmaking engine to suggest startups that are closely aligned with their specific investment focus. Investors were able to review these recommendations, delve deeper into startup profiles if desired, and be better equipped with information when meeting founders to maximize their time. Founders received exposure to potential investors who may not have been on their radar previously. Investors got a more focused look on the landscape of founders, attending the event.

    Source: TechBBQ

    The results followed: 300 founders seamlessly created startup profiles uploading their pitch decks to Vicinity and 250 investors submitted their investment thesis. The AI helped generate more than 170 meeting invites during the event, and likely more new connections being forged offline, out of reach for our tracking, as well.

    Given the ambitious plan to develop what became Vicinity, and release it right at a major event like TechBBQ, we’re very happy with the results. We’re also very grateful for the trust the TechBBQ team had in our ability to deliver on such an important challenge in a short amount of time, and appreciate all the hard work their team did in making this a success together with us.

    Just as important as the results are the learnings of this journey.

    Learnings from utilizing AI in Vicinity

    Some of the challenges we tackled along the way included ensuring that, when users interact with the AI chat (i.e., free text format), we gather the correct data in the appropriate format. This required training the AI to detect what information is crucial, how to extract it with apt questions, and how to visualize it correctly. This process called for extensive testing and experimenting with various potential cases.

    We’ve had a few curious, even amusing cases while preparing our chosen AI model to be utilized for the use cases in Vicinity. For example, upon asking vital questions to collect data about a startup or investment criteria, when the user responded with ‘thank you’ to conclude the interaction, the AI interpreted this as an approval to ask a few more questions. In another scenario, when an investor specified ‘industry agnostic’ as part of the investment criteria, the AI recommended companies practicing an industry-agnostic approach, instead of companies from diverse industries. At times, the AI even initiated interactions on its own – posing and answering its own questions. Needless to say, all of these cases led to in-product improvements and learnings for better prompt engineering.

    Onboarding founders and investors in Vicinity for TechBBQ begins with our AI chat, which gathers information to improve their representation and recommendations.

    To provide more precise recommendations, we asked investors to define the essential investment criteria, as well as those of lesser importance for them. This was a crucial step to present investors with the startups that aligned closely with their specific criteria, as it allowed us to perfect the prompts and deliver recommendations fitted for investors’ interests and needs.

    Although challenging at times, this was an enlightening experience, which contributed to the discussion about training and fine-tuning our own AI model, incorporating our knowledge about the dynamics between startups and investment organizations, their needs, and shortcomings.

    What is the future plan for Vicinity?

    Vicinity continues to live as a standalone product outside the scope of TechBBQ as an AI powered analyst for investors. We have moved the product to a closed beta phase, where we have invited a selected group of investors from the Nordics, Baltics and Benelux to help shape this tool to better meet their needs and those of their peers.

    We expect to be ready with an enhanced version of Vicinity for all investors by the end of this year. At the same time we will be working with TechBBQ to create an improved version for founders making the networking experience even better for next year’s event. 

    How can I stay updated on Vicinity’s progress?

    Stay updated with Vicinity’s progress by following us on social media and visiting www.myvicinity.ai for updates. If you’re interested in joining our closed beta you’re welcome to reach out to us at contact@myvicinity.ai

    Diliana Beeva

    Head of Culture & Partnerships
    Linkedin

    Diliana is one of Lab08’s first employees. She was previously responsible for the company’s recruitment and branding activities. Currently, she is focused on expanding Lab08’s customer portfolio and onboarding clients to Lab08’s own product, Vicinity.

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  • The Lab08 Pop-Up Offices

    The Lab08 Pop-Up Offices

    As the end of 2022 is approaching, we’re looking back and doing our retrospective of all the challenges and achievements. We’re proud to say that this year brought growth and many positive emotions to all of us. One of the core team practices that has contributed to this is the Lab08 pop-up office initiative. We were lucky enough to enjoy three editions of it this year, and we are currently in preparation for Lab08 Winter Office 2022/23. Let us tell you more about this important component of Lab08’s culture.

    Lab08 is an aspiring software company, whose remarkable achievements and happy customers come from the effective collaboration between smart, open and competent people. Lab08’s company culture relies on teamwork, cooperation and friendship. With the pandemic, our culture was at risk, and we had to come up with a solution to revamp it. Back in 2021, we started researching options for great locations near the seaside and in the nearby mountains, where employees can spend several working weeks, being close to nature and in a new and different environment. What was initially just an idea for testing became one of the most enjoyable and anticipated company events. A core cultural practice of Lab08.

    A pop-up office is essentially an event held during the course of one or more weeks. All employees can choose personally convenient days to work from the designated space. In addition to ensuring that every employee has a seat in the coworking place, the company covers accommodation, breakfast & lunch, as well as outdoor activities of choice (e.g. skiing, parasailing, etc.).

    We believe that the pop-up office initiative allows us to have a natural way of team building, stimulating people to work together and in addition – it offers a noticeable increase in creativity (key to ideation and problem-solving). Especially during the pandemic times, the pop-up office initiative was one of the very few opportunities to refuel the team spirit after months of isolation and harmed company culture. The Lab08 pop-up office initiative presents a change of environment, in a great place close to nature. Thus, the team receives a boost of motivation, coming from the saturation of positive emotions and experiences. And you know what? It’s one of the most productive periods for us. We actually do work and return with accomplished tasks, aside from great memories.

    By introducing the pop-up offices, we gather people from different teams, who share experiences and create memories together. We believe that this allows for improved communication, more trust and consequently – better collaboration in work.

    The very first pop-up office took place in July 2021 at Beach Hub Kavatsi. This was a three-week event with fully covered accommodation expenses, breakfast and lunch, as well as costs for recreational and fun activities for the team. The company also organized a soft skills training, held by Tochka 2, which aimed to improve teamwork, awareness of strengths and points for improvement in team communication. The training was a blend of new technique acquisition, as well as a fun interactive game, which has also contributed to the overall pleasant experience during the pop-up office.

    In February 2022, Lab08’s office was the cosy lobby corner of the Moreni hut on Vitosha mountain. As the event was held in winter, we decided to book a nearby location, in order to make transportation easier. The team was able to enjoy working from the mountain for a period of 2 weeks. Ski and snowboarding activities, as well as soft skills training by ShiZi Impro Club, were organized for the team to enjoy. The training helped us improve our active listening skills, as well as the ability to clearly communicate ideas, avoid ruminating over mistakes and dwell on challenges, instead of taking action and contributing to the team’s work process.

    We learned that by regularly having pop-up offices, our team’s motivation remains high and this greatly benefits performance, as well as contributes to the company culture. That’s why we organized another edition of the initiative at the end of June 2022 and this time, our office was the Septemvri Hut on Vitosha. Our workdays were accompanied by the summer sun, fresh mountain air and delicious food. Carpooling to the designated location was also a big part of the experience and definitely contributed to the team-building experience. You’ve all heard of the proverb: ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.’ That’s why our chosen activity for this pop-up office was taekwondo training. Several sessions took place in the surrounding outdoor sites. It was not only fun but a healthy thing to do. We all enjoyed the recharge that this activity provided, but also the beauty of the nature around us. Of course, summer and the sea go together, so despite the welcoming nearby mountain, we couldn’t say no to another opportunity to visit the seaside. 

    In July, Lab08 moved its office to X Challenge Park in Tsarevo and this event was quite significant – it was the second time we organized a beach pop-up office. This meant that our initiative had become a tradition. What was even more exciting – this was the highest-attended event of the sort since the beginning of the Lab08 Pop-Up Offices! Picture this – you spend the first half of your workday in the coworking zone of the park, where you enjoy great coffee and hide from the raising temperatures in a cosy air-conditioned spot. When it’s time for lunch, you and your team have a nice walk to the seaside, where you enjoy local food and a pleasant view of the sea. When you get back, the remaining part of the workday passes by so quickly (yet productively ;)) that it’s time for you to get in your bathing suit and say a proper hello to the sea. In the evening, you get back to the park, where you have a nice outdoor dinner and a movie night together. And during all of this, we bond and become closer as a team. You imagine why this has become a tradition, right? 

    In Lab08, we aim to do things when we see real value in them. It’s not just about doing something that’s trending and modern. The Pop-Up Office initiative keeps on giving, and its benefits are visible to the company and to each team member individually. That’s why we plan to keep on going, and the preparations for this winter’s edition are currently in progress! Each time we aim to do something different and in a better way, so stay tuned to learn more about what we’ve planned 🙂

    All in all, the Lab08 pop-up office initiative aims to bring new opportunities for the team to bond and gives a boost of positive emotions and new experiences. We believe that this will greatly benefit our culture and the products of our work long-term.

    Diliana Beeva

    Talent Community Manager
    Linkedin

    Diliana is one of Lab08’s first employees, responsible for the recruitment and branding activities of the company.

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