Project Inquiry

SaaS Product Development
Agency in Munich/Germany

We help SaaS businesses grow, build amazing products, automate processes, and improve customer relations.

Project Inquiry
JUNJULAUGSEPOCTNOVDECJANFEBMARAPRJUNJULAUGSEPOCTNOVDECJANFEBMARAPRMAYJUNJULAUGSEPOCTNOVWe help you to move your KPI from to .AB

Are you looking for an experienced team of business-savvy developers and designers to realize your web application? We have the know-how to support your software project at any stage: Discovery, Architecture, Design, Implementation & Deployment, and Maintenance & Support.

Our Process

Over the years, we have developed a proven software development process. All our projects undergo a systematic sequence of stages.

Business Case

What is your objective? We work with you, your employees, your partners, and your customers to understand your goal. What are you trying to achieve in business terms and which of your KPIs are best suited to measure success? Maybe we can point out a better and/or cheaper way to reach your goal?

Discovery

What deliverables are needed to reach your goal? We are already in agreement as far as your business case goes, but we don’t know yet how we are going move your KPI from A (status quo) to B (goal). During this stage, we will gather a To-Do list of major tasks, defining the scope of the project. In the end, we will write a project proposal with a fixed price for you.

Design

How should the final product look and feel? Our designers get to work, building an attractive user interface for your project. Once we are done, you will receive the finished designs and a click prototype (if it makes sense). Note, that many projects are backend-only and therefore don’t involve any design work.

Architecture

How will your project work technically? Now that we know all about your requirements, it’s time to start thinking about tech. Which database system is the best match? Is GraphQL a good fit? Does your project require an SPA frontend? How important is performance and scaling? How about security? Will we deploy to Amazon Web Services or somewhere else? In the end, we will produce a specification document to guide us during subsequent stages.

Implementation & Deployment

Ready to start building? We work in an agile fashion because no plan survives first contact with the enemy. So, this stage is usually a back and forth between us. That said, the scope (and price) of your project is already fixed. Now, it’s time to write the actual software, culminating in the delivery of a production-ready final product.

Maintenance & Support

Issues with your project? There’s no such thing as bug-free software. But no reason to worry, because we are here to help if you encounter any problems. Usually, we include a one-year support agreement in our proposals. After the first year, we are happy to negotiate a separate maintenance contract if you wish.

Happy Clients

We make our clients feel like superheroes business-tycoons.

Austin Moore

Austin Moore
Senior Software Developer @ Shore GmbH

I worked with Christoph from BugFactory for multiple years. Whenever I had a problem I couldn’t solve, no matter whether it was backend, frontend or database related, I knew Christoph could help me solve it. He is a master in his craft and a great person to work with.

Benjamin Bachhuber

Benjamin Bachhuber
CTO @ Shore GmbH

BugFactory has been instrumental in adding support for recurring appointments to our existing calendaring solution for small to medium-sized merchants. They collaborated with our in-house IT team, to build a new microservice and integrated it into our existing infrastructure. The new microservice performs very well, even under sustained heavy traffic. Highly recommended.

Christiane Widschwentner

Christiane Widschwentner
Asset-Manager @ AMB Invest GmbH

Thank you for taking over our project and quickly getting it back on schedule. Your fast turnaround and consistently high-quality deliveries made working on this project so much fun for all us.

Dylan Johnston

Dylan Johnston
CTO @ salesfive GmbH

Thank you very much for your help with the underpinning backend services for the first iteration of our iOS app. Your work on our Ruby-based backend was great, but your initiative to build an iOS SDK to encapsulate the new API was even better. Thanks to your SDK, we could reduce our time-to-market and get user feedback earlier. Very valuable indeed!

Kirstin Riehle

Kirstin Riehle
CEO @ Haus- und Objektverwaltung2000 GmbH

BugFactory has implemented our new invoicing solution for us. They saved us from a lot of needless paperwork and made our invoices and proposals beautiful, reliable, and error-free.

Martin Belza

Martin Belza
CEO @ Belza Digital GmbH

We had several opportunities to work with BugFactory as a subcontractor when our clients needed additional Ruby on Rails expertise. They always helped us move the project forward and successfully implemented solutions to complex requirements, even for projects involving many stakeholders.

Martin Winkler

Martin Winkler
Marketing Specialist @ Fair One GmbH

Fair One supports car owners to take legal action, if they have suffered financial losses due to the car manufacturer’s recent engine manipulations. Think Dieselgate! BugFactory has built our landing page and integrated it with our custom CRM solution. With the new landing page and accompanying A/B tests, we have been able to boost our conversion rate significantly. Very competent team. We are looking forward to hiring them again in the future!

Martina Troppmair

Martina Troppmair
Owner @ Via Pasto

Thank you so much for my wonderful new website, I am so thrilled with it. I really feel like its been a great investment for my business. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with you and can highly recommend your services. Many thanks.

Niklas Rickmann

Niklas Rickmann
CEO @ Freework GmbH

We found the right partner to outsource our IT projects … BugFactory has earned my lifelong trust when it comes to building amazing web apps. Not only did they provide us with Ruby experts that ROCK, but they also understood the business-case behind our SaaS product and acted accordingly. Working with them has been a pleasure!

Philip Magoulas

Philip Magoulas
CEO @ Aelius Ventures GmbH

We are a professional venture capital firm based in Berlin and hired BugFactory to build products for multiple of our portfolio companies. Working with them has always been a productive and ultimately very lucrative endeavor.

Rupert Wimmer

Rupert Wimmer
Senior IT-Security Consultant @ Siemens AG

I made the decision to hire BugFactory based on a recommendation from a trustworthy source (old colleague). And I don’t regret it. We started a new project to merge and extend a number of separate Siemens-internal systems into a single integrated solution. They helped and guided us with their constructive input on new features and proposed many relevant ideas of their own volition. I would hire them again any day.

Tobias Gutmann

Tobias Gutmann
CEO @ Tobias Gutmann Prototypes

I met Christoph from BugFactory at a conference and after talking to him about tech I immediately knew that he is somebody who knows what he is doing. Shortly after I had the chance to incorporate BugFactory into one of my IoT projects, where they helped me connect my embedded system to a proper web interface. Their way of working is fast, understanding, and problem-focused. During our joint project, I learned a lot about code quality and code documentation. I can 100% recommend them for software projects.

What You Might be Wondering

People often ask us about our development process and tech stack. Here are the most common questions and answers...

Why do you call yourself BugFactory? What's the story?

We are very conscious about quality and go to great lengths to avoid bugs. However, even extensive testing and adherence to the industry’s best practices is no guarantee for the absence of bugs. As a matter of fact, bug-free is a myth. We realized this many years ago and choose our name to play with this concept. It’s supposed to be funny and memorable. Don’t take it too seriously.

Interesting. Should we expect a lot of bugs?

Absolutely not. We only accept projects when we think we are sufficiently qualified for them. Projects are only successful if they provide enough value to all involved stakeholders. And there’s nothing we like more than successful projects.

Explain your methodology. Is your process agile or are you planning everything in advance?

We are very agile at lower levels, but not at the higher levels - specifically not with the business problem we agreed to work on. Usually, business goals don’t change anyways, so this is no problem. During our day-to-day work, we are very agile and try to keep you in the loop at all times. We have pre-scheduled weekly meetings with most of our clients to keep them updated.

How much do you charge? What's your rate?

We don’t have a hourly or daily rate. When we start your project, we look at your requirements and tell you how much it’s going to cost. Period. You don’t have to worry about budget overruns, as you would have to with a team of freelancers. We take part of the risk away from you.

Why should we hire you instead of a team of Freelancers?

Freelancers have a different business model: They are selling you their time and therefore don’t take any risk themselves. We price the whole project for you. It’s our problem if your project takes longer than expected. We share the risk with you.

What is Ruby on Rails?

Ruby on Rails is well known in the software community as one of the premier web application frameworks for rapid development. By the way, it’s also Open Source, meaning it doesn’t cost you anything.

Why are you using Ruby on Rails?

It’s true, there are countless alternatives. We like Ruby on Rails, because it’s a mature, stable, and battle-tested software development environment. This enables us to put more focus on delivering value and solving your business problem, instead of being distracted by technical details.

I've read Ruby on Rails doesn't scale well. Is this true?

There are plenty of high-profile web properties written in Ruby. Chances are, you are using one of these every day. Scale is relative. People like to put a lot of emphasis on scaling, but it’s really not important for most projects. You are not Google, Facebook, or Amazon. Ruby on Rails scales very well up to hundreds or even thousands of requests per second. That’s more than enough for 99.99% of all use-cases.

I've heard Ruby on Rails is only for backends. Do you also build modern web frontends?

Absolutely. We are experts in a niche programming language called Elm. This is our preferred approach to building Single Page Applications (aka SPAs). That said, we know from experience, that this is not necessary in most cases. Almost always, it’s enough to have a classical frontend to solve any given business problem.

Why are you using Elm and not JavaScript framework X?

Elm is a functional and statically typed programming language, purpose-built for SPAs. You don’t have to understand this. The gist is that it enables us to deliver a more reliable and generally higher quality product compared to other JavaScript frameworks.

Meet the Team

We are engineers, designers, and marketers. Together we've been helping SaaS companies in the Munich Area succeed since 2016.

Christoph Schiessl

Christoph Schiessl
Head of Development

Full-stack developer with more than a decade of experience in the software industry. Specializes in building web applications with Ruby on Rails and JavaScript. Has encountered many different business and domain models while working with clients across a broad range of industries. Extensive experience in startup environments. Built both monoliths as well as microservice architectures. Perfectionist with a passion for learning. Can be found reading non-fiction books or watching documentaries in his spare time. Fluent in German and English.

Michael Ruppel

Michael Ruppel
Head of Design

Talented designer with many years of professional experience. Knows everything about UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) design. Specializes in building user interfaces for SaaS applications with Sketch and Figma. Learned how to run a business while working as a self-employed solo-designer. Never misses any details – not even a single pixel. His work has lead him as far away as Kenya, where he designed an iOS app for a large African bank. Can be found in the gym in his free time. Fluent in German and English.

Felana Razafindrabe

Felana Razafindrabe
Head of Marketing

Fantastic marketer who enjoys building lasting relationships with our clients and finding the right audience for their SaaS applications. Knows how to manage large teams and projects due to her extensive experience as a team-lead in the health-care industry. Also, she mastered the art of photography. Loves traveling. Can be found in Madagascar or another island across the globe in her spare time. Fluent in German, French, and Malagasy.

Ready to Start Your Project?

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