An app-building platform made in Dublin with global corporate appeal

START-UP NATION:Dublin-based mobile app developer Furiious Tribe

WINNING a contract with a major multinational telecoms player such as Vodafone is impressive for a small Irish start-up. When that contract is an exclusive one with the potential to go international, it suggests the start-up in question has something special.

The deal with Furious Tribe makes the Dublin company Vodafone’s preferred provider of mobile apps to its corporate customers, and it has been a game changer for the young firm, according to chief executive Patrick Leddy.

Furious Tribe was founded by Leddy in 2003 while he was a student at Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. The business, initially focused on web design, was a sideline for Leddy while a student. But, after graduating, he got space at IADT’s Media Cube incubator facility and focused on the business full time.

“We didn’t have a lot of work at the beginning so I began to speak at events and conferences to ramp up our marketing,” explains Leddy, whose appearance at a conference in the UK led to Furious Tribe’s first major breakthrough.

A call came through from the Chilean subsidiary of multinational insurer RSA asking if Furious Tribe would develop a mobile app for it. The project was a success, and it was rolled out to other RSA subsidiaries across the Americas.

“It showed a tiny Irish company had the ability to do work internationally,” says Leddy.

With RSA as a calling card, Furious Tribe was able to win other contracts in the financial services sector with international players including Citi (Malaysia Singapore) and Nedbank (South Africa).

But Leddy realised quickly that Furious Tribe would be better using its experience of building apps in a platform that would enable customers to manage the apps themselves. Its Aptivate platform enables customers to create an app and roll it out for a variety of mobile devices.

“Unlike our competitors, which all have very technical solutions that don’t add a lot of value but actually add complexity, our platform allows a non-technical user to build apps,” he explains.

Although Furious Tribe initially provided its product and services to all comers, Leddy says the focus is now on large corporate customers. “We’re consulting to corporates anyway, so it made sense,” says Leddy. “We are better-equipped to deal with a small number of large companies.”

Furious Tribe employs 22 staff. The business is “cash-flow positive”, according to Leddy, and has not taken any outside investment, preferring to “bootstrap” itself by reinvesting profits from the consulting business.

Leddy recently took part in Enterprise Ireland’s Internet Growth Accelerator Programme (iGAP), which helps start-ups grow their businesses through mentoring from Silicon Valley and local entrepreneurs. Furious Tribe was one of the three winning companies selected from the 29 who participated in the programme.

“We were trying to run as a lean start-up but pre-iGap weren’t doing a great job of it,” says Leddy. “It’s only in the last few months that we’ve become more agile. We now have morning scrum meetings where everyone says what they are going to code, design or build that day.”

Leddy, who is still just 25, said he has no plans to take outside investment in the company and wants to grow it through sales of Aptivate rather than hiring large numbers of consultants.

The company has offices in Dublin and London, a business development executive in New York and is looking at opening a research and development centre in Krakow, Poland.

“The last couple of years have been like pushing a boulder up a hill,” says Leddy. “It’s only in the last six months that things have got easier. We have a brand now so people are coming looking for us.”