Each of the last five years has presented numerous challenges—from the year the pandemic hit, which started off on a tear as we acquired numerous new clients in January, then saw a couple of months of client cutbacks and dried-up sales calls, leading to a boom in the back half of the year, the likes of which we had not seen before. The team was able to scramble, adjust, implement new processes, take on new responsibilities, and elevate their communication and collaboration so we could all move swiftly and confidently together. The resilience of our engineers, the creativity of our recruitment team, and the flexibility of our managers allowed us to build, pivot, and execute, all the while focusing on delivering impactful business outcomes for our clients.
The year following was likely the easiest of the five as we had worked hard to scale the operational infrastructure to support a 50% increase in workforce and were able to refine processes to support further development opportunities for our team. It felt like riding a wave; it was not easy, but it felt familiar and exhilarating, and we welcomed the increased swell. The challenge faced in that second year was managing the rising costs of goods and services and the rapidly accelerating software developer salaries. As the demand for software engineers and other development contributors grew, the competition for talent heated up significantly. In order to attract and retain key personnel and capitalize on new sales opportunities, the team needed to re-evaluate salary tiers, improve employee benefits, and invest in better technology and tools while remaining vigilant on the outcomes for our clients. The talent acquisition team became more of an agent for the development community, learning about their experiences and interests to ensure that they were considered for opportunities that advanced them toward their career goals and that, when placed, they would have the necessary support around them to learn and grow in stride.
In the third year, new client acquisition slowed as the post-pandemic frenzy and the era of nearly zero-interest loans abated. The team doubled down on execution, setting new standards for development and increasing internal tech talks, soft-skills training, and skill certifications. We aimed to be as indispensable as possible to our clients who put their trust in our team. We had worked hard to gain their business, find the right talent for their team, and onboard new employees to work with them, and we were going to do all we could to ensure those relationships were maintained for the long term. Our existing clients, many of whom had ramped up their software development teams the two years prior, reached out in need of QA Engineers, most of whom were experienced automation engineers. Some clients had never employed automation engineers and relied on our engineering leadership team to identify how to integrate and calibrate expectations. The second half of 2022 saw technology industry layoffs increase significantly and continue to climb for an entire year, with Q1 2023 accounting for the most tech layoffs since the dot-com bubble burst. Uncertain times breed anxiety. While we were not immune to clients ramping down resources due to budget cuts, the diversity of our customer base proved to be the strategic decision that would see us hold steady as many other companies struggled or shrank. Not shifting our entire focus toward one industry or betting heavily on specializing in one tech stack mitigated the risk and allowed us to weather the uncertainty with little ill effect.
As we crossed the forty-active client threshold and entered the fourth year in this growth window, we further diversified the technologies we worked with and the industries we served. To improve our organization and offer greater confidence to our current and future clients, we became SOC 2 Type 1 compliant and are currently in our review audit for SOC2 Type 2 certification. This allowed us to be more competitive with larger clients, especially those in heavily regulated industries like healthcare and banking. This year, we also saw a rise in the number of start-ups we worked with. Venture capital seemed to rebound, and we helped companies get off the ground with products focused on full-vertical real estate buy/sell transactions, white-label investment platforms, and social media. The team was also committed to maintaining a visible presence in the larger community, and we chose not to cut back on marketing efforts targeting new clients and future employees. This has contributed to a steady flow of interest, and we were able to expand our client base, even if those projects or engagements were smaller than our previous norms.
The big surprise in the fifth year came with the new demand for Project Managers, Product Owners, and long-term UX/UI Designers. Our clients, gaining more confidence in our team’s ability to understand their products and business objectives, articulated that their stakeholders were often the bottleneck to the team’s productivity. They expressed the need to have someone dedicated to articulate requirements, remove blockers, facilitate efforts between different contributors, and more clearly define what to build while understanding the expectations around application performance and outcomes. While the sales cycle still seems to be off from historical trends, we are seeing a steady uptick in interest—even if the prospective customers’ desired start dates look further into the future. The hope is that with our continued sales and marketing efforts and outstanding account management team, we should be able to capitalize quickly on new business opportunities when the economic factors become more favorable.
Our technical expertise in the backend now spans .NET, .NET Core, C#, Java, Kotlin, Python, Ruby, and more. Frontend and Full Stack development see the continued proliferation of JavaScript and TypeScript languages. Frameworks and libraries such as Angular, Bootstrap, Material UI, NextJS, React, Redux, VueJS, and WPF continue to grow in popularity. Mobile continues to be included in many client roadmaps, with React Native still leading the way. We are also seeing a resurgence in demand for QA Automation engineers, where most teams of more than three software developers also include at least one hybrid QA resource. Our DevOps team continues to grow, and while we gain more experience in Google Cloud and Azure, AWS dominates. We have dozens of employees who have achieved their AWS certifications, and First Factory is now a certified AWS Partner.
Growth isn’t singular and doesn’t come by focusing on one area alone. Our success these last few years has come from hard work and not getting stuck in our old ways. Adaptation has been the essential element; just as Darwin articulated in The Origin of Species, “It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.” We are fortunate to be able to go to work each day, share with and learn from our colleagues, solve new problems, and achieve new personal development goals. We ask a lot of each other and are rewarded with the kindness and generosity of the team every day. The road may not be straight or easy, and we may encounter less favorable conditions in the future, but we know that the dedication and adaptability of our team will continue to carry us through.
We have been in business for over twenty-four years, but we retain a start-up mentality. We never say, “That’s not my job.” We never take for granted that what we have today will be there tomorrow. We pivot when the opportunity presents itself, and we do not hold any processes or policies sacred. We do, however, abide by a moral core where honesty and integrity are demanded in every action.
To all the clients who continue to put their trust in us and the incredible team here at First Factory, this recognition from Inc. Magazine belongs to us all.
