10. This year, it is a special number for Kindgeek as it represents an important journey. For us, a decade is not just a number. It represents numerous projects that brought challenges and fueled creative thinking, valuable clients and partners with bright ideas and passion for innovation, and kind geeks, whose expertise and creativity bring everything to life.
A lot can happen in a 10-year journey. And in this series of 10 articles, we would like to try and reflect on some of the most important highlights and achievements of this journey that shaped Kindgeek and laid the foundation for many more years of innovation. We invite you to hop on board!
When Innovation Met Opportunity
Every success story has its first page. The first line of code, the first customer, the first team meeting around a borrowed desk. Today, as we stand at the summit of a decade of innovation, we would like to press the rewind button.
In this article, we’re taking you on a journey back to where it all began. Not just for the sake of nostalgia but to remember the spark that ignited our current success. Those early days of 2015 weren’t just about building a company – they were about building a vision. A vision that, despite all its transformations, remains at our core today.
Through the lens of our tenth anniversary, we’re revisiting the pivotal moments of our first year. These weren’t just firsts; they were the foundation stones of what would become a decade of innovation.
Want to take a look?
First spark
The first thought about Kindgeek appeared long before it even got its name. Ideas about forming a company have flown around since 2010. At that time, our C-level already had a strong background in business management and understood how IT companies, tech startups, venture funds, and investments work.
The symbiosis of experience and aspirations later transformed into Kindgeek. We knew from the start it would be a long road, but our mission was also clear: we wanted to create a platform for positive changes that would allow us, our employees, partners, and clients to grow and develop constantly. That mission stayed with us and grew stronger.
The name “Kindgeek” has its own history. It all started with a series of brainstorming sessions to outline the main idea, ways of cooperation, and growth vector. After seeing the fuller picture, it was finally time to find out how to call us. We focused on what we longed to do, who our ICP would be, and what future we wanted to build for our company. And, of course, it all had to line up with available domains.
You can call it destiny or a good business intuition, but at some point, it appeared that the domain “kindgeek” had already been bought and waited for the right time. That`s when it all lined up perfectly. It sounded good and was easy and native for our future clients, which was confirmed since the first meeting. And what`s probably the most important, it represents who we are and what we do best.
Since the first purchase of the “kindgeek” domain, we have kept proving that we are kind, experienced, and passionate geeks who are always ready to take on a challenge and turn your idea into a bright reality.
First official workdays
Our first year of work brought us interesting clients and projects and forced us to be creative and keep up with the world of technology. Back then, we were a community of young, passionate people who made mistakes and learned from them. It was the time that formed our core principles and the ways we do what we love to guarantee the best results.
Eventually, we landed on four principles:
Trust
We believe that trust isn’t just a value – it’s the bedrock of everything we do. It’s through trust that we forge lasting bonds with our partners and clients, creating relationships that stand the test of time.
Transparency
We believe that transparency is the engine of true progress. By fostering an environment where every team member feels empowered to voice their ideas, concerns, and visions, we create a space where innovation thrives, and genuine growth takes root.
Social responsibility
Born in 2015 during the first waves of russian aggression, our Ukrainian identity shapes who we are and how we operate. While we deliver cutting-edge solutions to clients worldwide, we remain deeply committed to our homeland – supporting our nation through IT army initiatives, volunteer work, and direct assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Sense of beauty
People love creating, but they especially love creating something beautiful. Every project we undertake isn’t just about solving problems; it’s about creating solutions that are as beautiful as they are effective.
A lot changed through the decade. We became more professional, and we work with bigger clients on technologically advanced projects. We set processes and built mechanisms that allowed us to be efficient in our work. It did not happen in one day – we were constantly enhancing the approach for years. We formed a portfolio of successful projects and created a place people wanted to work in.
At the same time, the atmosphere and values of the company remain the same. Trust, transparency, social responsibility and a sense of beauty lay as a foundation for every project we take over.
First office
Our first office was a great representation of who we were: optimistic, enthusiastic and passionate. How? It could already include more than 30 people, even before the first geeks joined the team. It was bigger than we needed and exceeded our plan for the whole year. Still, it was perfect as it was our first way to aim for bigger.
It had two rooms (one smaller and one bigger) and a hall. The small room was almost immediately named “submarine” because of its looks and still holds a lot of memories of that first year. Our open space was filled with painted cities: New York, San Francisco, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin. We surrounded ourselves with our dreams and goals, and ten years later, we can say that it worked.
Since then, we have changed locations multiple times and grown bigger, even outside Lviv, which is Kindgeek’s homeland. Our location expansion and hiring countrywide are among the few positive things about COVID-19. So now Kindgeek is more significant than a physical office, it`s a community of geeks from all over Ukraine who are eager for innovation, challenges, and growth. And not just personal growth but the growth of the company, our clients, and our country. Which is something we are incredibly proud of.
First kind geeks
During the first few months, our C-level conducted four to five interviews per day. So they developed a good understanding of what they are looking for and who those kind geeks are.
Since the launch, we knew that we wanted to create clear and transparent rules according to which the whole organization works in terms of employment. We looked for kind and intelligent people who also love and care about Ukraine. Match in values and principles is also very important. You are already familiar with those principles: trust, transparency, social responsibility and a sense of beauty.
Like most young tech companies, Kindgeek was a community of young people and students who were eager to learn quickly and search for new challenges and ways to overcome them. It was a company of true geeks.
Even though that spark in our eyes when we see a challenge and passion in our hearts for all of the rising trends in the tech world has remained, we have changed over the years. Kindgeek is now a mature fintech development company with ambitious, passionate, mature professionals who do not need supervision and micro-management to inspire and motivate others. It is cool to see how we combine our different skills and approaches to do amazing things together.
First projects
Our development journey started with a variety of projects from different industries. Healthcare, education, media, fintech and retail. We truly did it all and learned a lot of valuable lessons. Let`s take a look at some of those first projects:
Quards
With Quards our goal was to create a simple tool, that helps you to create your own website, edit it and change at any time. So that`s what we did.
First of all we carefully designed various flexible cards with simplicity in mind. Once a user add their own content, their website will be unique and special. It allowed creating a full website without having to deal with complex software or even think about coding.
To make the magic happen, we used WordPress. Qards is a WordPress Plugin, so it can be used with all designed themes.
Lehrermarktplatz
Lehrermarktplats – is an e-commerce web platform for selling educational materials. This web platform was created for teachers who can sell and buy some education materials etc. that can help them on their lessons.
Thats how we got it done: we installed rest-frame applications and connected the necessary bundles on 2 different institutions – staging and production. We created the database structure and the entities. Than we implement the necessary functionality to MVP. After that we integrated Services prerender, mandrill, cloudconvert. Also integrate services for online-payment Omnipay, Paypal and Sandbox Paypal.
Hive Social
Hive social project was built as social network for local university. Students can share ideas, communicate, organize and follow groups, create posts, etc. Application is bringing students life on the whole new level. Here, one can always get access to study materials, or get help, or find a fellow.
With this app, first-year students can start their social life with help and support, other can always be updated with the latest news. The main feature – everyone is related to the university, other are restricted from registering into the system.
We have developed and upload the AppStore and Google PlayMarket full working applications that support all the main versions of mobile operating systems. Now, there are a lot of users who are satisfied with the features and functionality.
There were many similar and totally different projects across industry, before we decided to focus on something more specific. That`s why a couple of years ago we niched to fintech and become more focused on financial world with all of the possibilities and challenges it brings. It allowed us to deepen our fintech expertise, stay ahead of the trends and build a fintech focused portfolio.
Of course we are still open to deliver our services across industries so don`t hesitate to contact us if you have any ideas you would like to bring into reality.
We also became proud owners of our own products:
SignSpot
SignSpot is a facilitator platform that helps businesses find potentially profitable partnerships. Here, you will not find unnecessary bureaucracy: companies have complete freedom to directly discuss the terms of their partnerships, both anonymously and openly.
Now, companies can process clients who lack workers or experience, find jobs for bench workers, and capitalize on potential clients who cannot start businesses due to a lack of skills or personnel. Where previously there was lost opportunity, there is now potential profit.
Tallenta
Tallenta is an extremely complex system that combines a huge variety of different tools for managing employees’ workload, day offs, projects, payrolls, budgets and contracts, creating and viewing reports, and monitoring employee retention. It is a solution that provides full control over internal business processes and guarantees smooth scaling of the company
WiseWallet
WiseWallet is a smart companion and AI-powered personal finance management app designed to monitor your spending, set savings goals, and stay on top of your budget like never before with planning fun and not an evening spent on spreadsheets.
WiseWallet brings a unique user experience to the financial management app market. It makes the process of adding transactions as easy as possible, as it is the most used action in the process of routine financial tracking. It also provides key analytics about your financial habits.
First decade
A decade of development has taught us that innovation isn’t a destination – it’s a constant journey. Looking back at our path from that first year to where we stand today, each challenge we faced sharpened our expertise, each setback fueled our determination, and each success validated our approach.
These ten years have proven that technology alone doesn’t drive progress – it’s the combination of bold ideas, technical excellence, and, most importantly, the right people. Through global changes and local challenges, we’ve stayed true to our core mission of being the platform for positive changes.
As we turn this page, we’re already focused on what comes next. The future brings new challenges and opportunities we’re ready to tackle. And while the technology landscape will undoubtedly change, our commitment to innovation and excellence remains unwavering.
