# Hippo's founder built a global mobile development team using Draftbit as the hub

A 120+ screen social shopping network that aims to transform online purchasing. The Hippo Social team used Draftbit to establish a synchronized mobile development operation spanning 3 countries.

6+

simultaneous collaborators

4 mo

to assemble team and launch v1

3 days

average onboarding time

## The challenge

The Hippo Social team possessed strong web development expertise — with 30+ websites built — but lacked mobile app experience. Leadership needed a platform enabling web developers to quickly onboard a mobile team without sacrificing collaboration.

## The solution

CEO Derek Pappas selected Draftbit as the collaborative hub. The platform allowed junior developers with no prior mobile experience to ramp up quickly and work in real-time with the existing web development team.

> "We can see the changes that others are making in real-time. We can test in real-time. And we can iterate in real-time. That's unheard-of in traditional app development."

> "We literally wouldn't exist without Draftbit."

## Looking ahead

The team plans to shift focus toward growth while continuing app iteration, with an ambitious goal of listing products from 1 million stores and brands.

## Tech stack

Scala/SPARK, Python, Docker, SLOR, Postgres, Cassandra