Ackee and Digital Ant have joined forces to create COLAAB: a one-stop shop to test both product and market viability. We’re guiding established startups* through the journey of bringing their project from an idea to a validated MVP (minimum viable product) that investors will be eager to fund.
Both of our agencies have already done several similar projects together and have developed a good rhythm in our cooperation. So it only made sense for us to offer this comprehensive service under a single brand to help startups looking for a single partner to bring their product to market.
Štěpán Heller and I founded Digital Ant in 2012 while we were still students at the Czech Technical University in Prague. I left the school before too long, but not before developing some deep and impactful friendships with some of the other students.
We obviously didn’t know it at the time, but the guys from Ackee also founded their agency that same year. They weren’t focused on marketing, but on mobile app development, which was an emerging market at the time.
We've all grown a lot in these last 9 years. Ackee is one of the top development companies in the country, and they’re doing much more than just doing mobile apps these days. On our side, we've managed to make a name for ourselves in a pretty crowded market containing hundreds of online agencies. We did that by being adaptable, expanding into new markets, focusing on new and innovative companies, and by being laser-focused on growth.
Our two agencies are also united by our experience in foreign markets. Ackee set up an office in Berlin, and I’ve spent time representing Digital Ant in Hong Kong (back when it was still quite free). These days my agency also works primarily for international clients.
Earlier this year, after completing one of our many projects together, Martin and I were walking in the Karlín business district of Prague. We both agreed that we wanted to give our collaboration a new dimension — and with that, COLAAB was born.
*) For teams that are just starting out and are looking for help on how to actually build a startup, we recommend starting, for example, in the StartupBox project.
