Wolfpack Digital 8 Years Anniversary: An Infinite Journey

In 2015 Wolfpack Digital entered the tech world with a mission: to develop powerful web & mobile apps, start-to-end. 🐺 January 19th, 2023 marked the 8th anniversary of the company. 🥳

To put everything in numbers: We are now at our 4th office, our diverse team has 80+ wonderful members, and we’ve developed over 100 successful apps. 

Wolfpack Digital's journey has been filled with passion, results, and beautiful experiences. From the very first steps of building the foundation to the present day, the team has shown their tenacity and dedication throughout challenges and opportunities alike. As we look back, we are in awe to see how far we've come, and we look forward to meeting new heights in the years ahead, while building our journey sustainably! 🙌

Now, are you curious about what happened during these 8 years? 🤩

Let us take you through a little bit of history and how we celebrated this milestone, and through a few words from Gina 🌸, our founder & CEO. 

A little bit of history ✍️

The beginning: 

After graduating from a Master’s program in Engineering with Business Management from King's College in London, UK, and gaining experience as an iOS Developer & Designer while living abroad, Gina decided it was time to come back home 🏠. Armed with newfound knowledge and confidence, in 2015, she decided to start Wolfpack Digital - a company with a mission to help individuals and businesses bring their ideas to life through successful digital products, with the team being guided by a shared passion for performance and beauty. 

The name of the company is inspired by Gina's surname, Lupu, which in English means "wolf". The wolf 🐺 is a symbol of performance, dedication, agility, teamwork, and playfulness - which is represented in all that we aim to be today as a team. 

The journey: 

The company started to grow based on great recommendations from both our team members and our clients. Step by step, we set out to explore new grounds and challenge ourselves with every opportunity. With each adventure, we became more resilient and powerful, while keeping our curiosity and inner fire alive.

Starting with the very first client, a UK-based startup for whom we built a start-to-end web and mobile recruitment platform (including design, web development, iOS & Android development), our partners began to come from various industries and with more and more innovative ideas, such that now we have a strong portfolio of complex projects in fintech, healthcare, IoT, transportation, beauty, etc. We’ve always believed in the lean methodology as the winner for building digital products, be it for startups, scaleups, and corporations. 

Our team also grew a lot, ever since we rented out our first office in a 2-room apartment in central Cluj, where we used to wear slippers - we’ve always believed a laid-back and cozy atmosphere inspires creativity and smart solutions. We carry that mindset with us still, and we are guided by the same values we established in our founding years.

Gina being interviewed in our first office about a beautytech mobile app (2015)

We carry that mindset with us still, and we are guided by the same values we established in our founding years.

2018 marks an important milestone in our journey, as Adrian joined as CTO of Wolfpack Digital. His extensive experience in software development, product management, and team leadership in the startup & scaleup environment has helped boost our company’s development. 

2020 - Wolfpack Digital marked our 5th anniversary milestone, which we celebrated on ancient grounds by means of a trip to Rome. 🇮🇹 It was a complete touristy experience: from eating lots of gelatos (in January, yes! 🍨) to visiting the historical Colosseum and the "Capitoline Wolf" sculpture. For a complete Italian experience 🤌, Gina organized a surprise for everyone: a treasure hunt on the streets of Rome, challenging the wolves to look for answers and complete the tasks while taking in Rome's beauty. In the end, everyone found the treasure: a dinner celebration with delicious Italian meals! 🍝🍕🍷

The now, in 2023:

After 8 years, our goal remains to grow sustainably while bringing performance and beauty to the world through technology, and we are adding a little more to the story every day. 🙌

In the past year, we got featured in TechCrunch, we were part of the top 50 companies selected by the Bucharest Stock Exchange in the “Made in Romania” program, got listed in Clutch’s Top 100 Companies with Sustained growth, and we reached 100+ developed apps and a team of 85+ people. Also, we impacted the way people live, work, play, and connect in healthcare, finance, entertainment, and many other fields. 

From promising startups democratizing access to healthcare (such as BrainCapture) or digitalizing asset management (Everon), and all the way to giant companies revolutionizing retail (such as Walgreens Boots Alliance’s No7 Pro Derm skin scanning app that has more than 100k users already), we enthusiastically got our “paws” dirty in the past year working on digital products, while successfully continuing long-term collaborations.

Last but not least, no journey is complete without giving back to and receiving support from our community - and we're so fortunate to have such an amazing one! 🙌 From receiving timely advice when needed to creating welcoming spaces for open conversations, our community has been with us every step of the way. We were present in many local and national events as speakers, mentors, or attendees, and we partnered with and sponsored hackathons, accelerators, etc. 💛

Our 8th anniversary 

This year we finally got to celebrate our anniversary in-person and on-site, at our “Wolf Den”. We enjoyed some cake 🍰, a few sips of prosecco 🥂, and a lights show in our backyard. ☄️

We felt a sense of accomplishment and infinite possibilities as we watched the lights in the sky make shapes of an "8" - a reminder that our journey is never-ending.

We had a small activity during our celebration, where we took some moments and thought about the pawprints we already left behind in the world and the ones we would like to leave as our legacy from now on. Our colleagues gave some powerful & inspiring answers: "To change the world for the better through our awesome work", "A better greener world", "Apps that will change people's lives", "Growth mindset", "Performance & beauty", "Empowerment" and "Quality". 

We are all looking forward to continuing our partnerships and building new ones while investing in a strong culture, a healthy workplace, and of course, supporting the community. 😍

Thoughts from Gina 🫶

We asked Gina to tell us how she sees the company's journey and her wishes for the future.

“This is a really important milestone, and I never imagined when I started the company what it would look like today, or that we would achieve all the wonderful things we have in these 8 years. Whenever I take a step back, I am very grateful for what I see, and for that, I want to thank our team and our clients and our community for their trust and inspiration! 

I believe that throughout the years the company’s power has been in thinking creatively, acknowledging our strengths & limitations, being ambitious, and always going for a sustainable business model, while acting in accordance with our values and what we believe in. Together, we build powerful web and mobile apps start-to-end, and change the world “byte” by “byte”. 

In the next year, the plan is to expand our impact even more, while navigating gracefully through opportunities and challenges alike! 

Here is to the next exciting years of passionate innovation at Wolfpack Digital!”