Trainimal
Trainimal started as MammaFitness Sweden in 2007. In 2021, we decided to expand our business on a larger scale by raise capital and doing an IPO. We started employing developers and other staff at an optimistic rate. When the pandemic started to vane, our efforts did not give the returns expected, so we found that the costs were unsustainable. The sentiment in the financial market was not in favour of a new share issue, so we needed a quick restructure. We had to reduce our costs to a minimum on all levels, but we did not want to slow our software development. We found that we had to go back to our initial setup with developers on a consultancy basis.
Aside from the direct cost, we did not have any resources for recruiting, so that’s why we decided that it would be more cost-effective if we outsourced the specific IT resources that we needed. When hiring consultants, money and time goes more efficiently to the development project and you can more easily scale the resources to the workload.
Who are Trainimal?
Trainimal AB develops and operates subscription-paid solutions for personal training and nutritional advice online. They are also known for MammaFitness, which was created by the well-known training profile Olga Rönnberg. Trainimal Woman has gradually replaced MammaFitness as a concept.
Trainimal consists of a cloud-based backend to support PTs and nutritionists in managing their clients and an app for the clients that is available in both the AppStore and Google Play.
Who are you?
My name is Håkan Rönnberg and I am the co-founder of Trainimal together with my wife Olga Rönnberg. Trainmal was started when Olga, who is a nutritionist & PT, was pregnant with our twins and her clients missed her. She started offering her services remotely and that was the beginning of everything. Today, 50,000 women have used our services since 2009.
I have a background in IT & finance and today’s role in Trainimal is therefore in the IT and administrative parts. This means responsibility for the development team, being the product owner and making sure we have the resources that we need.
Describe the scope of the project with Developers Shore
When the need for consultants appeared, we contacted account manager Joel, since we had been in contact before. We liked Joel’s attitude and felt that we would probably work well together. He saw our needs and delivered on them.
For about a year, we have been developing a completely new version of our existing app Tranimal for Women together with the developers from Developers Shore. We have a total of four developers from Ukraine, two full-time (frontend & backend) and two part-time (frontend & UX). They are located in different parts of Ukraine, but together we are all a good team. The relationships work well, and it feels like we are belonging to the same company. Today the developers from Developers Shore make up our entire development team.
For what projects did your company hire Developers Shore, and what were your goals?
The collaboration started because we needed a whole new development team. Today we have a developer who works full-time on the backend and a main developer of the app. We develop the app in both iOS & Android and we also have a UX designer. We had an established contact with Developers Shore before a need even existed and when the need of IT resources arose, we decided to go with them. We already had good experiences and recommendations about developers in Ukraine.
Håkan Rönnberg
How did you select Developers Shore and what were the deciding factors?
We chose Developers Shore because we had an already established contact with Joel and we were also confident with competence from Ukraine. We quickly got a selection of talented candidates and if any candidate didn’t feel right, Developers Shore was quick to come up with new proposals. The cooperation has always been very good.
The advantage of having an external broker like Developers Shore is that they come with proposals for candidates that have already been evaluated. Developers Shore has never promised anything they can’t keep. If you were to recruit yourself, you would get all kinds of CV:s. With Developers Shore you don’t have to evaluate a huge pile of CVs. It’s a relief that the work is already done!
Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project?
During this collaboration, we have worked on developing a new version of the Trainmal for Women app and we are now releasing a closed BETA. During the project, a lot has also changed in our backend. Partly to support the new app but also to enable new services and functions. The project has been going on for about a year now and we are about to make our biggest release yet.
Some concrete results are that we were helped to take control of the entire infrastructure. The work continues with migrating infrastructure from the company in Lithuania as well. One of the consultants from Developers Shore has helped us in that project, which has generated both reduced costs and more efficient work. In addition to that, the collaboration has resulted in improvements regarding code structure, more efficient processes and in our working methods. The focus going forward is developing a new version of our CRM system in 2024.
What did you find most impressive or unique about Developers Shore?
What I like most about Developers Shore is the personal relationship with Account Manager Joel. He is responsive, flexible and solves most things we need help with. We feel that he is responsible in his actions and the personal chemistry between us works well, which is important. He has always delivered qualified consultants to us.