Find your success with Halcyon Mobile

BERLIN, Germany - Today, Pangea is excited to introduce Halcyon Mobile, the Romanian software development company that has focused on mobile apps since before the very first smartphone was introduced. Part of the Pangea universe since 2019, Halcyon has delivered dozens of delightful experiences that are loved by clients and users alike.

Return to the Halcyon Days of Mobile Development

From the messy dorm rooms of two Transylvanian tech students to an office in Brooklyn, Halcyon Mobile has certainly been on quite a journey since its start in 2005. In the beginning, co-founders Szabi Szekely and Levi Szabo—who hail from a small medieval Romanian town with just over 30,000 inhabitants—were making mobile apps for Blackberry and Symbian since iOS or Android did not yet exist. With the advent of the smartphone, the company found its niche and has successfully built hundreds of apps over the past 15 years.

The reason the company has been able to thrive for so long is that they have taken joy and pride in their work from the very beginning, asserts CEO Boti Szekely:

“​We are passionate about creating joy through technology. We’re a driven team of experts who strive to do, give, and learn more than expected while enjoying everything we do. This is how we approached our first project 15 years ago, and after numerous awards, many dazzled clients, and millions of happy users, this is how we do it today.”

With such a storied and successful pedigree, we were happy to welcome Halcyon Mobile into the Pangea universe two years ago in 2019, awarding the company a solid overall Pangea Score of 8.4/10.0. At the time, the company was enjoying a 137% growth in YoY revenue and expected a similar trajectory over the next three years. As we approach the end of that span, we thought it would be a good time to take a closer look at the Cluj-based company.

A Playful (If Hard to Pronounce) Company

Halcyon Mobile employees enjoying a company outing

Pop over to the Halcyon Mobile elegantly designed webpage and you can immediately get a sense of the company’s playful mentality, with pink unicorns and a header featuring all the ways people have mispronounced the company name over the years (it’s Hall-CEE-on). As to why they picked such a difficult-to-pronounce kingfisher as their name: “back in 2005 it sounded kinda cool…” Such a quirky and refreshingly honest mindset is indicative of a company culture that is open and supportive of their 70 employees.

There are many things that make Halcyon’s company culture so great. First, they embrace change with their team constantly innovating and investigating their own curiosity into the latest tech. They encourage employees to be the best at whatever their particular talents and interests might be and foster a supportive network where the whole team is “in this together” working towards a common goal while also acknowledging the little successes with a kudos or high five. Indeed, Halcyon takes great care to celebrate their people, from corporate retreats and team buildings to hackathons, ping-pong tournaments, and office parties.

Such a congenial atmosphere is reflecting Halcyon’s Team Health KPIs which include strong marks in both advocacy (8.7/10.0) and peer rapport (8.5/10.0), with personal growth, well-being, and satisfaction all hovering around 8.0/10.0. Back in 2019, the company had average seniority of 5.4 years and an 83% offer acceptance rate to complement an 80% first-year employee retention. Clearly, people enjoy being a part of this kooky family.

Happiness, Success, and Prosperity

A team at Halcyon hard at work

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines halcyon as “characterized by happiness, great success, and prosperity,” words that aptly describe the company itself. From smart personal finance to AI-powered night photography, the company has developed numerous in-house apps and projects that have been spun out into viable stand-alone ventures. They have worked with dozens of companies across industries like education management, financial services, and health and wellness in markets ranging from North America to the Middle East.

We interviewed a whopping 23 of Halcyon’s satisfied clients in 2019, and each and every one of them had nothing but praise to heap on the company. This helped earn them an excellent overall Pangea Client Score of 8.9/10.0. Their clients were particularly impressed with the UI/UX Design (9.2/10.0), project management (9.0/10/0), customer journey, and documentation (both 9.1/10.0). Below you’ll find just a small sampling of the feedback that Halcyon’s customers gave us, but rest assured there’s plenty more where these come from:

”Strong team with a great can-do attitude. They act as true owners of the product who deeply care about the engineering and UX quality of the product they are working on. We had a great experience with the team because we knew we could trust their judgment and the quality of their work. We always felt that they were part of the core team. ”

- Product Manager @ Series B++ Startup

”The Halcyon team goes the extra mile in all areas. Deep technical skills, great communication, and a high level of transparency make our partnership a long-term success. I definitely recommend them and we look forward to working with Halcyon Mobile on our next project.”

- Andras Nagy, Business Director @ Possible

”It was a pleasure to work with Halcyon. Their winning combination of speed, flexibility, and know-how enabled us to get to market rapidly with an excellent product.”

- Product Owner @ Seed to Series A Startup

”The Halcyon Mobile team is very creative, open-minded, and willing to try new things. Throughout the development of our product, they always delivered on time, while also proposing new ideas to help improve the product”

- Project Manager @ TIFF/Transilvania Film Festival Association

”We developed a great partnership with Halcyon Mobile and their dedication to our application is evident in all aspects. Highly creative, efficient, and effective.”

- Owner @ Seed to Series A Startup

”Halcyon has been a pleasure to work with. They have a wide range of technical expertise, and they take a lot of pride in their work. I would highly recommend working with Halcyon for any iOS or Android development needs.”

- Christian Stiller, CEO @ Brightmind

Mobile Development, and More

Although they began as an exclusively mobile-focused development team, Halcyon learned early on the importance of diversifying their service offerings. They hired their first in-house designer back in 2011 and shortly thereafter added QA and project management teams to ensure that they can offer everything from strategy through design and implementation. As such, while their tech stack features the standard web mobile development tools like Swift and Kotlin paired with Xcode and Android Studio, they also have competencies in everything from front-end design (JavaScript, React, etc.) to cloud computing with AWS and Heroku.

Taking a look at their engagement page, one can see that we here at Pangea believe the company is best suited for New Product Development, Team Augmentation, and Support & Maintenance. Whether you are a small startup or a full-blown enterprise, Halcyon Mobile can help you with all your needs when it comes to UX/UI Design, Mobile Development, MVP Development, IoT Services, and System Integrations. If you are curious to learn more, just reach out and we will connect you with someone at the company.

In closing, we would like to return to the words of CEO Boti, who sums up his company’s vision and drive as follows:

“All we are (designers, developers, engineers), and all we have (knowledge, experience, skills, tech stack) is put to work towards one ultimate goal: to shape good ideas into award-winning products and meaningful experiences that help and ​delight people.”