moonbird teams up with Dashdot: “We felt like Dashdot was part of our own team”

When sibling duo Stefanie and Michael Broes founded their tech startup moonbird last year, they reached out to us with an important question: could we help them develop a device to create personalized breathing exercises? Stefanie Broes shares the story about our successful collaboration on this project, which Dashdot was thrilled to sink its teeth into.

MVPs are built on trust

Breathing exercises are a time-honored way to relieve stress, anxiety attacks and burnout: something that people are suffering from more than ever lately. The problem is, a lot of people don’t breathe the right way, which makes their relaxation exercises less effective. “To help people get to a calming flow, we wanted to develop a device and digital technology that calculates and displays everyone’s highly personal breathing rhythm,” says Stefanie. “We didn’t have the tech knowledge we needed in-house, so it was clear from the start that if we wanted to develop a good minimum viable product (MVP), we would need close support from a strong digital partner.”

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last months, it’s that everything is built on trust

No sooner said than done: when Stefanie and her brother Michael got in touch with Dashdot, it felt right from the start. “It really struck us how Dashdot began by just listening to us,” says Stefanie. “That created an instant click and the trust we needed. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last months, it’s that everything is built on trust.”

Co-creation conquers challenges

Of course, every new collaboration comes with its own challenges to overcome. Stefanie believes everything depends on how you deal with them. “As a startup, we of course had a maximum budget, which we had to keep a close eye on,” she explains. “Dashdot helped us figure out how we could get a maximum return out of a limited budget, and suggested dividing the work into modules or pieces. That was a stark contrast to other app developers we talked to, who simply submitted us a quote of four times the amount.”

Whenever we had questions, they were super helpful, supportive and available

The results didn’t lie: Dashdot delivered an MVP that was as intuitive and user-friendly as possible, at the sharpest possible price. “That involvement paid off,” says Stefanie. “We felt like Dashdot was part of our own team. Whenever we had questions, they were super helpful, supportive and available. They really got that this was essential for a startup that wants to gear up as quickly as possible, especially in the beginning.”

Ready for the next level

Since that initial push, moonbird has achieved some key milestones. Dashdot facilitated their transition to an in-house digital development team. This assistance contributed to moonbird's successful seed funding round, team expansion, and global operational scale-up.

“These were busy times, but it’s very satisfying to have gotten to where we are today, thanks in part to Dashdot’s support,” says Stefanie. “We’ll take the app development on internally from here, just because as a startup we have to stay very lean and mean operationally. But if we do decide to partner up with anyone again in the future, Dashdot will be the first company we turn to. We can’t say enough good things about them!”