Become a disciple of the Ministry of Programming!

BERLIN, Germany - Pangea is pumped to introduce Ministry of Programming, a supercharged software development team specializing in building startups from the ground up in spheres from Biotech and Health Tech to music, Fintech, and social investing. A member of Pangea universe since 2018, MOP has grown to become one of the fastest-growing venture builders in Central Europe and beyond, with the growth of 1200+ % in 5 years, more than 150 team members, 80+ products in their portfolio, and partners from more than 11 countries so far!

A Family Affair

A startup studio from the heart of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Ministry of Programming, was founded by members of the Začina family - twin brothers Rešad and Faris, Rešad’s wife Amra, and their older sister Ajla - that were joined by some of the best developers in Bosnia and Herzegovina to create a tech giant.

With their big vision, raw determination, and such a capable, loyal, and versatile engineering team on their side, the Začina family knew they were in for the ride of a lifetime. The dynamics of the tech industry served only as motivation and drive for the team to create value fast, iterate faster, and eventually succeed together. It doesn’t surprise us that team spirit has always been a top priority at MoP.

In six short years, the company has grown from this (literal) family of four to one to over 150 employees from all corners of Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond.

Their staggering 800% growth in the first four years has not gone unnoticed. Ministry of Programming has gone on to become one of the fastest-growing tech companies in Central Europe (per Deloitte). This success ensured them a place on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 EMEA list as well.

In 2020, the company was listed among the fastest-growing companies in Europe by the Financial Times, as well as received the Impact Star award as part of Deloitte’s Fast 50 Central Europe 2020. In addition, the company was named among Bosnia and Herzegovina’s most innovative companies in 2017 by the country’s Foreign Investors Council (FIC).

They are always proud to have their work recognized

According to CEO Faris Začina, despite their rapid growth, the company remains committed to their mission of helping other startups achieve similar success:

“We are obsessed with building amazing products with the best founders. Our mission is to help entrepreneurs launch new products & services, iterate,​ and succeed faster. [...] We exist to help startups and founders survive and thrive in a difficult environment and make an impact on the world and the economy.”

We welcomed Ministry of Programming into the Pangea universe back in 2018 when the company experienced a 47% year-over-year revenue growth with similar projections for the three years. After sitting down with their team and several of their clients, we awarded them a notable overall Pangea Score of 8.2/10.0. As always, let’s take a deeper look into what helps MOP be a top 7% software development company!

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast"

Perhaps the greatest strength of Ministry of Programming is their commitment to helping others achieve their dreams, starting first and foremost with their ever-growing family of employees. As CMO Amra Začina describes, the company operates as a “decentralized organization” with individual departments given responsibility for their own decisions “instead of a boss at the top.” In this way, MOP constantly promotes their employee’s development, as Amra explains:

“[We are] leaving a permanent mark on entrepreneurship by supporting our team members to act, either by opening their own companies or to be a mentor to other entrepreneurs both locally and internationally.”

Such world-class educational and mentorship programs helped MOP earn an incredible 9.3/10.0 in advocacy in their Team Health evaluation, reflecting the company’s commitment to providing their staff with every opportunity for cross-functional development and learning. Every day presents a new and interesting challenge for MOP’s warm, competent, and dedicated team.

Ministry of Programming staff training their “core” competencies

"I am lucky to be able to say that my every day is different from the previous one and that is also perhaps my favorite thing about my job. My working day is imbued with constant communication, both internal and external.”

- Asim Halilbašić, VP of Business Operations

But personal development is only one way in which Ministry of Programming supports their employees. As solid scores in satisfaction, culture, and well-being show, the company takes great care to provide the same level of employee perks as one would expect from a Silicon Valley startup: remote and flexible work hours, generous benefit packages, a plethora of health benefits, and all the free food and games one could ask for.

“Just business is not enough for us—our mission, vision, cultural values and everything that team stands for are designed that way.”

- Tarik Hamzić, VP of Operations

Emblematic of the welcoming culture and atmosphere, and in addition to numerous perks each employee enjoys when they join the team, the company lovingly hand-packs a welcome gift to all their new hires, complete with a mug, company swag, and (of course) a jar of Nutella. With such personalized attention provided, it’s no wonder that MOP enjoys a 95% first year and 85% overall retention rate, with an average seniority of six years. As their (many) new hires demonstrate, the company is clearly a desirable place to work at.

They pay attention to every single detail when it comes to their team.

Exceptional Magic Workers

As mentioned above, Ministry of Programming is in the business of co-founding startups, nurturing companies from the seed of a new idea into a fully formed brand through strategic and technical support (and sometimes their own financial investment). The company has helped build over 30 companies and completed over 70 new products, including social networks, search engines, crypto platforms, mobile apps, and hardware. Overall, MOP estimates they’ve generated over half a billion Euros of market value across the domains of Fintech, HealthTech, IoT, E-Commerce, and others.

Team members working hard on their projects

We talked with nine of MOP’s satisfied customers and can say that praise for the company was universal. Ministry of Programming’s overall Client Score is 8.5/10.0, with exceptionally high marks in project management and technical expertise (both 9.0/10.0), as well as documentation level (8.8/10.0). However, these numbers only hint at the warmth with which their clients speak about the company:

”Working with Ministry of Programming (MOP) has been a true pleasure since day one. The team is super friendly, highly experienced, they respond quickly to any questions or feedback we might have and it shows that they truly love what they do. I can highly recommend working with MOP to anyone looking to get help with building their app and/or web service.”

- Christian Wilsson, Co-Founder & CXO @ Amuse

”In 'Ministry of Programming' we found an exceptional innovation partner empowering our vision for transformation. We embrace the MoP team as an integral part of the extended boundaries of our company. MoP [has] creative power, depth of expertise, and broad-ranging experiences in designing and developing complex software products and highly scalable platforms.”

- Bijan Khezri, CEO and part-owner of Marquard Media Group @ Marquard Media Group

”Ministry of Programming (MoP) is a unique opportunity to turn any meaningful concept into reality in a relatively short time, highest development quality and with a very communicative and diverse team full of professional talents. It is a pleasure to work with result-driven and performance-oriented people from MoP.”

- Andre Rup, Director of Business Development - NAGA VIRTUAL @ NAGA

”MOP has built a truly amazing, high-performing team, with the exact culture that any startup, scale-up, or even corporate would dream of. Superb communication and organisation, consistent efficiency and high quality of work are only a handful of the team's capabilities that have enabled us to achieve our goals on short deadlines. The support we have received has consistently exceeded all of our expectations; they are a unique organisation that can work their magic on anything that they develop.”

- Ahmed Hadid, Founder & CEO @ Hybird

Hard work at the MOP headquarters

Proven Tech-sperts

As you might expect from their name, the engineers at Ministry of Programming certainly know their fair share of coding languages and frameworks. Their tech stack includes everything you’d expect from a full-service development and design house: in addition to legacy experience with PHP and Ruby, the company most frequently uses cutting-edge ever-growing technologies like Angular, Node.js, React, Kotlin, Swift, Python, and Flutter.

But beyond these industry-standard competencies, Ministry of Programming also offers a wealth of first-hand strategic startup experience to go along with an unparalleled commitment to their partners. Returning once more to the words of Co-founder and CEO Faris:

“At MOP, we are passionate about the art of mastery, delivery, partner & product success, and we love to love what we do. [...] Our values are: Deliver value continuously, Continuous Improvement, Reliability, Positivity and Data-informed decision making.”

Whether strategy, design, or development, MOP can support their customers in whatever area they need assistance. Indeed, here at Pangea, we can attest that they are competent at providing new product development, team augmentation, and project handover. If you are at all curious about connecting with these B&H behemoths, just head over to their engagement page today, and we will be happy to connect you to a member of MOP’s ever-growing family!