First Factory

Five-Time Honoree

Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in America


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Pride of Accomplishment

We are immensely proud to have made the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies for five consecutive years. For over forty years, Inc. Magazine has evaluated company performance and shared annual lists of outstanding performers. It was a revelation when we first made the list. For us, growth was never about recognition or the short-term revenue win. For the team at First Factory, growth is the vital ingredient needed to build resilience into the organization and further opportunities for our employees. Growth allows us to diversify the industries in which we operate, extend the technologies that we use to build products, and expand the roles of talented software development contributors we can bring to the team.

We are selective about working with clients. We must be confident that we can rise to the challenge and exceed expectations while building a long-term symbiotic relationship. Like all good relationships, those we forge with our clients are built on trust, which results from honesty, transparency, quality, and integrity. We believe that once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a habit. We all may be graced with good fortune at some point, but continuing to see and secure opportunities and applying the right skills and effort are what turn those wins into lasting value.

We are extremely proud of the efforts of our dedicated, talented, and passionate team, which accepts the challenge each day and feels more rewarded by the progress we make on the journey than by the view from the first mountaintop.

Each Year in Highlight

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2020
 

Flexibility and Resilience

The year of the pandemic was off to an exceptional start as we acquired numerous new clients in January. Like so many others, March saw client cutbacks, dried-up sales calls, and an overwhelming sense of anxiety—if not panic. Fortunately, the back half of the year saw a boom, the likes of which we had never seen. The team was able to scramble, implement new processes, assume new responsibilities, and elevate their communication and collaboration skills to capitalize on the new opportunities. 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 while focusing on delivering impactful business outcomes for our clients.
2021
 

Scalable Infrastructure

We worked hard to scale the operational infrastructure to support the increase in workforce and further refine processes to support continued growth. In this second year, the challenge was to manage the rising costs of goods and services. 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.

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2022
 

Execution and Quality

In the third year, the team doubled down on execution, setting new standards for development and increasing internal tech talks, soft-skills training, and skill certifications. Our existing clients, many of whom had ramped up their software development teams the two years prior, reached out in need of QA Automation Engineers. The second half of 2022 saw technology industry layoffs increase significantly. The diversity of our customer base saw growths outpace cuts. 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 of 2022 with little ill effect.

ENGINEERING CAPABILITIESkeyboard_double_arrow_right
2023
 

Startup Value

Venture capital seemed to rebound, and we helped several start-up companies get off the ground with products focused on real estate, financial investing, and social media. We expanded the services we offered our clients, thus helping companies conduct market research, identify and design user experiences, encourage adoption and utilization, and prototype product concepts. To improve our organization and offer greater confidence to our current and future clients, we also became SOC 2 Type 1 compliant and proceeded to secure our SOC2 Type 2 attestation.
2024
 

Management as a Service

The fifth year in this recognition window came with a 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 for someone dedicated to articulating requirements, removing blockers, and facilitating efforts between different contributors.

PROJECT MANAGEMENTkeyboard_double_arrow_right
2020

Flexibility and Resilience

The year of the pandemic was off to an exceptional start as we acquired numerous new clients in January. Like so many others, March saw client cutbacks, dried-up sales calls, and an overwhelming sense of anxiety—if not panic. Fortunately, the back half of the year saw a boom, the likes of which we had never seen. The team was able to scramble, implement new processes, assume new responsibilities, and elevate their communication and collaboration skills to capitalize on the new opportunities. 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 while focusing on delivering impactful business outcomes for our clients.
2021

Scalable Infrastructure

We worked hard to scale the operational infrastructure to support the increase in workforce and further refine processes to support continued growth. In this second year, the challenge was to manage the rising costs of goods and services. 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.

MEET THE TEAMkeyboard_double_arrow_right
2022

Execution and Quality

In the third year, the team doubled down on execution, setting new standards for development and increasing internal tech talks, soft-skills training, and skill certifications. Our existing clients, many of whom had ramped up their software development teams the two years prior, reached out in need of QA Automation Engineers. The second half of 2022 saw technology industry layoffs increase significantly. The diversity of our customer base saw growths outpace cuts. 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 of 2022 with little ill effect.

ENGINEERING CAPABILITIESkeyboard_double_arrow_right
2023

Startup Value

Venture capital seemed to rebound, and we helped several start-up companies get off the ground with products focused on real estate, financial investing, and social media. We expanded the services we offered our clients, thus helping companies conduct market research, identify and design user experiences, encourage adoption and utilization, and prototype product concepts. To improve our organization and offer greater confidence to our current and future clients, we also became SOC 2 Type 1 compliant and proceeded to secure our SOC2 Type 2 attestation.
2024

Management as a Service

The fifth year in this recognition window came with a 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 for someone dedicated to articulating requirements, removing blockers, and facilitating efforts between different contributors.

PROJECT MANAGEMENTkeyboard_double_arrow_right


A Look Ahead

 


A Look Ahead


We are structured comfortably for scaling again. Our Client Experience and Engineering Management teams have years of experience running complex projects, meeting aggressive deadlines, and mentoring their direct reports. This has led to historically low levels of employee turnover, hovering at just over one percent per month. With more training and career development support, combined with greater client project diversity, our employees remain highly engaged. Our Lifetime Employee Net Promoter Score sits at 77. With our continued sales and marketing efforts and outstanding account management team, we should be able to capitalize quickly on new business opportunities that present themselves. We continue to learn, diversify, and grow, preparing us for what the winds of fortune have in store next.

Our Open Positions

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