Helping Madefire scale an engineering Team and Save 40% on Hiring Costs

Madefire was founded in 2011 by Ben Wolstenholme, Liam Sharp, and Eugene Walden. It is a technology-enabled content company and the creator of the award-winning Madefire App. Madefire’s primary goal was to provide creators and publishers with a cutting-edge platform, the ‘Motion Book Publisher,’ enabling a digital-first approach to cross-platform publishing in multiple formats.

Beyond regular comics and graphic novels, Madefire introduced its unique Motion Books — a mix of animations, sound effects, music, and interactive visuals. Readers could pan across scenes and tap to move the story forward, making it feel like a combination of a comic book, an animated movie, and a video game.

Taking things further, Madefire became the first comic book platform to step into virtual reality. By bringing its motion comics to Samsung Gear VR, the company gave users a chance to experience stories in 3D.

Like many startups in Silicon Valley, Madefire faced the challenge of finding and retaining high-quality engineering talent. The competition for developers in San Francisco was fierce, with big companies like Google and Facebook monopolizing the talent pool. The founders wanted to build a strong technical team but were deterred by high costs, talent turnover, and lengthy hiring processes. They needed a reliable partner to help them build a remote team with the same level of ownership and engagement as their in-house employees.

Unlike traditional outsourcing models, we offered a team extension solution—building remote teams that feel integrated with the client’s core operations. Madefire’s founders felt that StartupSoft shared their values and ambitions, seeing them as strategic partners rather than just service providers.

The goal was to build a high-performing team that felt integral to the client’s vision. Within six months, StartupSoft successfully scaled Madefire by hiring five front-end and graphic engineers. The team in Ukraine worked on critical elements of Madefire’s platform while maintaining a high level of collaboration and transparency with the Silicon Valley headquarters.

By incorporating animation and sound into its Motion Books, our joint team delivered a one-of-a-kind experience that stood out from traditional formats. It wasn’t just about reading a story — it was about engaging with media in a whole new way, and audiences embraced it wholeheartedly.

Madefire’s partners and clients included DC Comics, Blizzard Entertainment, Marvel Comics, FOX, Apple, BOOM!, DeviantART, Microsoft, TNT, IDW, Archie, Valiant, Kodansha, Oculus, Framestore, and Technicolor. Their work on Overwatch comics and Motion Books added depth and richness to the game’s universe, offering fans a more immersive way to explore its world and characters.

By partnering with StartupSoft, Madefire overcame Silicon Valley’s talent constraints and built a dedicated engineering team in Ukraine. This collaboration saved costs and allowed Madefire to focus on its core mission without worrying about the challenges of remote work.

• Madefire saved 40% on engineering costs compared to hiring locally in San Francisco;
• Unlike Silicon Valley’s high turnover rates, the remote team in Ukraine showed strong retention, providing stability and continuity in product development;
• The app had a five-star average rating from over 1100 user reviews;
• The full catalog of DC titles included 30,000 comics, graphic novels, and Motion Books created by top creators and publishers.