Beat the Competition with Bornfight in Your Corner

BERLIN, Germany - Ladies and gentlemen! Pangea is proud to introduce our main event, coming all the way from Zagreb, Croatia... it’s Bornfight! A digital innovation company that provides top-notch solutions to today’s toughest digital challenges, Bornfight has been part of the Pangea universe since 2019. With heavyweight design chops and agile development technique, this battle-hardened team is more than ready to take on whatever obstacle you need to be taken care of!

A Passionate and Determined Partner

Officially launched in 2018, the Zagreb-based digital innovation company Bornfight is actually an offshoot of a twelve-year-old digital marketing agency Degordian. That company had already spun out a separate media monitoring business and saw a market opportunity for a more ambitious venture that would bridge the gap between business consulting and high-tech development. Fifty-seven employees migrated to the new company and thus Bornfight was born as a company that can help clients large and small along this digital journey, per CEO Tomislav Grubišić:

“Whether you're a global powerhouse or just getting ready to make an impact, we'll provide you with the process and the people who’ll shape your ideas and company goals into successful digital solutions.”

From the get-go, Bornfight made a name for itself in the Croatian and European tech world, winning the 2018 Users’ Choice Agency of the Year at the Awwwards web design conference in Amsterdam (among other accolades). Over the past few years, the company has continued its run of success, earning honors from CSS Design Awards, European Design Awards, Creative Frontend, and the W3 Awards. Plus, just last year they were named as one of the top 20 employers in Croatia in a survey of local software engineers.

We welcomed Bornfight to the Pangea universe in 2019, when the company was experiencing a 50% YoY growth, with even more expected in the future. After conferring with several of their clients, we awarded the company a great overall Pangea Score of 8.5/10.0, but read on to see what makes this creative Croatian agency a great partner.

A Bornfighter hard at work

A Team That Digs Deeper

As of 2019, Bornfight had 72 employees divided into three units: creative, product, and mobile. However, the company aims to grow to a workforce of 150 by the end of this year (though the ongoing pandemic obviously might make this more difficult). But regardless of the size, the team at Bornfight share a company culture grounded in cooperation, innovation, and freedom.

Education is a major focus of the company, which provides over 200 hours a month on external meetups and internal education workshops like “Happy Monday” “Show-off lunch”, and the “Apps & Pizza” meetup. Plus, if employees want to burn off calories from said meetups, the company has an active club promoting sports like swimming, weight-lifting, yoga, and dance. Throw in a transparent seniority system and career development paths with uninhibited internal mobility, and you can see why Bornfighters love working for the company.

Last year, the Croatian job portal MojPosao surveyed 93% of the Bonfight’s employees and found that ~80% were happy and engaged in their work while not one employee reported they were unhappy with the company. Indeed, the company has a 95% first-year (and 80% overall) retention with an average seniority of 5 years. Impressive numbers, to be sure, but the real proof can be found in the words of the employees themselves:

“We’re all good friends and we like to have fun, so the entire working atmosphere inside the team is really positive and entertaining. I believe it’s really important to have that balance – this striving for perfection pushes the team forward, while that positive, relaxed attitude makes working on projects so much easier.”

- Luka, Android Developer @ Bornfight

“I worked in a couple of companies before, and Bornfight is one of the rare ones where I don’t feel like I’m actually going to work. It’s something about the people here who are all extremely open-minded and pumped about the projects we work on. [...] Everything’s transparent and we’re all ready to jump in and help each other. The entire atmosphere, I’d describe it as calm and pleasant, and that really has a positive impact.”

- Tea, Project Manager @ Bornfight

“The level of transparency that Bornfight nurtures among all of its members is something you won’t find in any other company [...] As for communication and openness, it goes from the top down — from the CEO to every single member of the team, you’ll get support, you’ll get information, your ideas will be heard and you’ll get the chance to implement them and make the entire company better.”

- Jelena, HR Representative @ Bornfight

The team at Bornfight enjoying a delicious (and no doubt educational) meetup

Fighting for the Client

In just a few years, Bornfight has already cultivated a number of deep and long-lasting partnerships with some of the worlds’ biggest brands across the Financial Services, Travel, IT, and Retail sectors; these include Lufthansa, Rimac, Cars, Infobip, British American Tobacco, Molson Coors, as well as the Manhattan School of Music. They also recently designed 30 interactive applications and games for the largest museum in the world, the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre in Kuwait!

One of the things that really differentiates the company from their competitors is a ‘no sugar-coating, no bullsh*t’ direct style of communication that seems to really resonate with their clients. This can be reflected in consistently solid Client Insight Scores of 8.5/10.0 in Customer Journey and 8.4/10.0 in (deep breath) Project Management, Documentation Level, Business Maturity, and Process Maturity. But where Bornfight really shines is on the design and development front, scoring a masterful 9.6/10.0 in UI/UX Design accompanied by an excellent 8.9/10.0 in Technical Expertise.

Simply listen to the effusive praise heaped on the company by their satisfied clients and you know you are dealing with a heavy hitter:

“Working with Bornfight has been reassuring and angst-free, qualities that are uncommon in the world of online product development.”

- Mutiu O. Fagbayi, President/CEO @ Performance Fact, Inc.

“They made an awesome microsite for the Dreamscapes campaign. The site was user-friendly, unusual, and eye-catching. We were all very impressed with what the development and design teams came up with.”

- Chloe Ravat, Marketing Manager @ Lufthansa Airlines

“Bornfight is extremely easy to work with, allowing staff to focus on other work. The team accepts changes easily, communicates well, and is flexible in terms of their approach.”

- Bailey Edwards, Senior Product Manager @ UrbanDaddy

“They are a team of young enthusiasts that are serious when it comes to their work. [...] Their team is responsive and supportive, capable of implementing features and changes very quickly and providing helpful suggestions along the way, which makes them a great partner to work with.”

- Paula Ljulj, Senior Brand Manager @ Hartmann Group

Trailblazing Tech

Whether back-end (Typescript, Symfony, SQL, etc.), front-end (HTML, React, Vue.js, etc.), mobile (iOS, Android, Flutter), e-commerce (Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.), or DevOps and cloud (AWS, Ansible, Jenkins), Bornfight’s tech stack can handle whatever field or platform is needed. Using these established development methodologies, the company takes pride in their commitment to detail and robust testing/iteration.

Moreover, the engineers at Bornfight are not afraid to “walk the path no one has gone before,” creating customized approaches tailored to the needs of each and every client. From discovery to strategy, design to development, the company will be there every step of your digital journey. So whether you are looking to augment your existing team or project, or build something from the ground up, you can trust that Bornfight will be right there in your corner.

If that sounds appealing, why not head over to their engagement page and we’ll be happy to connect you with a member of their team. In closing, we return to CEO Tomislav who sums up his company’s ethos as follows:

“We believe that we can live in a world where every product or service has an easy-to-use experience on all platforms. And our mission is to make it happen. Our values are: determination, transparency, ambition, unity, and quality.”