Mobile apps design and development company Two Toasters, turns five years old this month.
Co-founder and CEO Rachit Shukla says that when the company launched in 2008, the primary motivation was to “get to get our feet wet” in what what could be a revolutionary change in technology.
“We didn’t really grasp how big that change would be, most people didn’t understand how big the mobile ecosystem would really be,” Shukla said. “But I think we’ve done alright,” said Shukla.
The company, now based in downtown Durham, has grown from three founders in 2008 to a current staff of 24 and is expanding with a New York City sales office. Two Toasters started with its first office in Carrboro. But it began to attract New York clients about 18 months into growing the business and decided to test a second office location.
Originally designed as a three-month trial, Shukla says, “we found that the combination of having a sales office in New York and great access to talent in North Carolina made for a really good combination that not very many companies have been able to leverage.”
He’s been running the New York office ever since.
“We couldn’t do this without the talent we have in North Carolina,” said Shukla.
After two years, the company decided to move into the American Underground in Durham, in order to be among a greater concentration of startup activity.
“Being in Durham has helped us attract talent, and in many cases, retain talent,” said Shukla. The company decided to leave the Underground due to an increase in the number of employees – the company ran out of space to house its employees.
The current office rests above an old-style speakeasy, and boasts big windows, a thinking-nook with beanbag chairs, a ping-pong table, and a traditional style executive boardroom with an untraditional full-length whiteboard (plans for the future were taking shape across the board, so we didn’t photograph it).
Let’s face it – given the ever-changing nature of the economy, and given the start date of Two Toasters, chances of lasting five years and experiencing business growth year-over-year were slim.
“One of our biggest challenges was to continue to grow in such a way that we were a sustainable business,” said Shukla, especially given that the company founders started the company with virtually no “emergency fund” buffer.
“How do we set ourselves up for the next stage of our growth?” asked Shukla, when discussing the future plans for the company. “In the next six months, our focus will be internal,” said Shukla, “we have a great desire to optimize with the resources and team we have right now.”
The company has grown organically – never taken outside funding – an impressive feat for a company that continues to grow and expand. “Fundamentally, all of our partners are really invested in having a business that is efficient and continues to build higher-quality products,” said Shukla.
The company boasts an impressive client profile – many of which have been acquired. While Shukla is quick to credit the hard work of those startups and their teams, he did point out that in many cases, those companies were built around products which Two Toasters built for use.
“In a lot of cases, these companies were built around the product that we created,” said Shukla, “so I would say that we’ve had a huge part in formatting those products.”
For example, Go Try It On, a Two Toasters client, was acquired by Rent the Runway on June 25, 2013. Go Try It On boasted 400,000 iOS users prior to the acquisition, according to reports on TechCrunch.
Two Toasters also designed the Android app for AirBnB, which allows homeowners to rent their homes or rooms in their homes to travelers. AirBnB is a darling in the tech world, having exploded with a user-growth curve that would make any tech startup jealous (okay, maybe not the developers of Angry Birds).
“What we’re seeing,” said Shukla, “is that as the mobile ecosystem has matured, the needs of our clients have also changed.” Initially, when Two Toasters launched the business, clients had an overwhelming desire to “get an app out there” because client competitors just launched an app.
Now, companies realize that a mobile strategy requires a significant amount of time, said Shukla. And they turn to Two Toasters when they realize that their internal teams can leverage Two Toaster’s expertise in order to increase the effectiveness of their solutions.
“We’re not a typical agency,” said Shukla, “and on the flip side, we’re not a pure development shop.”
“We’re in the middle,” said Shukla, “we’re a product design company. We partner with our clients on an equal basis to help them define their product and build it in such a way that enables it to be sustainable for the client in the long run.”
“Not very many companies that build apps take this approach,” said Shukla, “and it’s been a differentiator for us.”
Two Toasters is hosting a party on August 2nd at Motorco in downtown Durham to celebrate its 5th anniversary. The event will run from 6 to 9 p.m. and is open to the tech community. RSVP online and wish the Two Toasters team another 5 years of growth.
