In this piece, we pose 10 questions to our co-founders Georg Hansbauer and Markus Steinhauser to uncover their best memories from this past decade and what’s coming up for Testbirds in the years ahead.
Testbirds: Hi Georg and Markus, Testbirds turns 10 this year. How does it feel seeing the growth of Testbirds during this past 10 years?
Markus: To be honest, it doesn’t feel like it’s been 10 years already. It certainly never gets boring. I’m grateful for the amazing work that the team has been doing and want to give a big shout-out to all our testers and clients. Testbirds would not be here without them.
Georg: It doesn’t really feel that special. I’m just glad that we have had a stable political and economic environment that enabled us to grow Testbirds.
Testbirds: What were the early years like?
M: Nobody had even heard about crowdtesting back then, so there was a lot of groundwork to be done to spread the word. At the same time, it was great to just push hard with a small team without the need for complex processes. A true startup-vibe. I’d like to think that we kept a lot of that spirit with us until today.
G: The early years were different, but also, not that different. They were certainly more hands-on. Everyone was sitting close together, there was more direct exchange. Also, a lot of crazy happenings like just going to the city center, interviewing people, and trying to make a name for ourselves on social media.
Testbirds: How was the first investment round?
M: I remember the day we received this seven-figure money transfer, which was a bit scary for 26-year-old me. At the same time, it was great to see the trust in Testbirds from our first investors.
G: Yes, and having someone trust us with that amount of money made one feel a bit anxious. But getting that 1 million EUR investment was super exciting.
Testbirds: What has been most surprising about the last 10 years?
G: Meeting all the people, the employees, customers, testers, and really getting to know them as human beings.
M: How fast they’ve gone by 😊
Testbirds: What has been your proudest moment at Testbirds?
G: Being in contact and being able to communicate and work with almost 1 million people across the globe. Working with that many great brands across the globe and having a direct influence on the quality of their products.
M: It’s not really a single moment, but whenever I hear someone talk about why they love working at Testbirds, I realize that we’ve managed to build something special.
Testbirds: What’s the current state of Testbirds today?
M: We’ve become a trusted partner for many clients across the world, with offices in multiple countries, which is amazing. Crowdtesting has evolved into an integral part for building better digital products and we’re constantly evolving our product portfolio in order to meet changing needs in the industry.
G: Exactly, we’re getting ready for the next step in our organizational growth. Testbirds today is ever-changing, growing up, and professionalized.
Testbirds: What’s the outlook for Testbirds?
M: We’ll continue to build the best crowdtesting solutions that we possibly can. The focus on customer experience in the past years will continue to increase (I’ve even stumbled across the term “total experience” recently and I’m expecting “human experience” to be next 😊). But there are also interesting approaches for us in the space of AI and connected devices and we’re constantly exploring new testing approaches together with our clients.
G: I agree, the outlook will be more investment into the product. We also want to become even more international and help more customers across the globe to build great digital products.
Testbirds: What exciting developments are coming up at Testbirds?
G: We are setting boots on the ground in the US, as part of our international growth. We will also build the best customer platform.
M: Adding on to Georg’s point, we’re currently in the process of re-shaping our Usability and UX Portfolio to make it more accessible and offer additional options to gain insights into user’s needs. There will also be even easier ways for clients to gather user feedback pretty much instantly. And of course, we’ll continue to expand our language capabilities to run and analyze projects on a native level in even more languages.
Testbirds: What’s the funniest story you can share during the last 10 years?
M: A couple of years ago we went to an improv comedy show as a team event. I was selected to go on stage, where I managed to make myself sing “I will always love you”, which was very funny for everyone else I would say. I hope all recordings have been deleted or lost by now.
G: Our Birds Fly Outs (BFOs) and Christmas parties. But almost everything is bound by an NDA 😉
Testbirds: What does the next 10 years look like for Testbirds?
M: If I knew that what would be the fun in it? 😊
G: Testing in the metaverse! Looking forward to doing tests in space, for example UX testing the digital menu of the first SpaceX station, with real people onboard. And of course, a lot of more digital products in the real world.
Testbirds: Wow, we’ll be sure to watch this space! Thank you both for your time, and happy 10 years of Testbirds!