Hello! We hope this finds you well today!
Growee, as you've probably seen here on the site, is a software for digitizing company data designed to help you manage your business simply, easily, securely, and intuitively.
But where did it all start, and what are Growee's plans?
Below, Cristi, one of Growee's founders, answers a few simple questions, so you can get to know us better.
1. How did Growee start, where did the idea of an all-encompassing app come from?
Growee began as an internal project within the BinarCode company. As we started to grow as a company, there was a need to use more tools for everything related to the organizational aspect of the company, starting with billing, clients, and ending with evaluations and leave within the company.
We started looking and even used several software, but we encountered a few problems:
- ERP-type software is usually very generalist.
- Good software excels only in a small part of the needs a company has. For example, there are softwares that do very well in billing or time tracking, but there isn't a software that does well in multiple areas.
- Most tools are not adapted for Romania and Romanian legislation, especially regarding everything about leave.
- Good HR and company management tools start at 8-10+ EUR/user, which is quite a lot for some companies in Romania. If you use multiple tools, you end up with very high costs per user.
Considering the above, we decided to build our own simple and rudimentary tool that would meet our own needs.
After a period of about 2 years in which we used our own software for leave and evaluations, we came to the conclusion that we could rebuild it, in such a way that other companies could benefit from it too.
At this stage, we decided to think very carefully about the architecture of this product and how we can extend it so that other companies can benefit from it.
Initially, Growee wore a different makeup :)
Documentation for the new product:
Creation process:
This was followed by a period of about 1 year in which we developed Growee as a side project, on weekends or free days, so that we could achieve our proposed goal, and in 2023 we set ourselves the goal of having a soft launch towards the end of summer. We announced that we were going to launch a software for digitizing company data and made several posts about it on our social media networks.
As we progressed with the product development and that soft launch, we formed an internal and enthusiastic team, dedicated to the Growee product.
Final result:
2. What was the biggest challenge in building this app?
The initial biggest challenge was, of course, financial. Being a product that does not depend on external investments, the financial aspect until the launch was quite a big challenge. We always had to balance and analyze well what functionalities we wanted to build to fit within the proposed budget, but at the same time to be able to offer a quality product with a good user experience. In the initial stages, another challenge was also time-related. In the beginning, we did not have a dedicated team as we do now, which sometimes blocked us from having constant and visible progress, this being sometimes a demotivational factor, but still, we did not want to give up.
3. How did you choose the name, or why Growee?
We wanted to associate the name with the fact that the purpose of this product is to help companies manage administrative processes and grow easier and faster. Unfortunately, managing leave, reports, documents, or evaluations is still a quite bureaucratic process and time-consuming. We want the Growee name and brand to communicate that we try to eliminate or at least simplify these bureaucratic processes and help companies grow easier by providing visibility and clarity in a safe and very pleasant to use digital system.
4. Who are the team members and where can we find them?
The Growee team is mostly in Cluj, but Leonid and I are in Moldova. We try to see each other live as often as possible, to connect and spend time together as a whole team. Team members are as follows:
- Co-Founders: Cecilia(Co-Founder & Product Owner), Eduard (Co-Founder & CTO) & Cristi (Co-Founder & CEO)
- Design and Marketing: Claudia(Product Designer) & Silvia (Marketing Specialist)
- Sales & Operations: Bianca (Presales Specialist)
- Development: Vasile (Full Stack Developer) & Cristian (Full Stack Developer)
5. What are the plans for the future or what does Growee want most for 2024?
The plans for 2024 are quite big, but at the same time realistic. We intend to participate in 2 major networking events. One of them is MWC Barcelona, in February 2024.
We are working on everything related to scalability and security of the application. In January 2024, the application underwent extensive Penetration Testing, following which we will obtain a certification that assures clients that the application is safe in all respects and all their data is completely secure.
In addition, we plan to onboard more companies in the coming months. This will help us get feedback and improve existing functionalities.
We also want to include on the website a more detailed roadmap and a public board, where users can request features and vote for them. We believe these things will help us make the application even more valuable and pleasant to use.
We aim to improve certain aspects related to the design of the site and to add new resources for our users and followers.
Another resource we always work on with love for our readers is the Growee blog, where we want to bring valuable and helpful information from fields adjacent to human resources and the digital organization of companies, and we hope to do an even better job!
With love,
Growee Team