Innovation agency Direct People buys into IT company Viable One

“We want to deliver results in the form of paying customers to our clients. Therefore at Direct People we have responsibility to the client not only for the idea and design, but also for the actual implementation of the new product and service, as well as its commercial success. In order to do this it is essential to have trust, speed and effectiveness, but also the possibility to have production capacities under our own control. For this reason we bought a share in Viable One,” states Petr Šídlo, partner and commercial director of Direct People.

“In the first 12 months of our operation, it became obvious that concentrating solely on the reliable provision of services and solutions is not enough. It is essential to choose your project carefully and set effective cooperation with the client. I believe that cooperation with Direct People will help us find a way to interesting projects, as well as double our development capacities and company turnover this year,” states Otto Kalivoda, the founder and until now the sole owner of Viable One.

Both companies already knew each other. They cooperated on Práce za rohem (Work Around the Corner) a large project for LMC/jobs.cz. As part of this project they developed an application of the same name, which became the largest app on the Czech jobs market in just eight months from its launch and was the most downloaded app in the Czech App Store for several months. This experience demonstrated that closer cooperation and a harmonised working culture accelerates and strengthens innovation even in the implementation phase.

However, Viable One still retains autonomy in its own services, and will continue to develop its own commercial activities and focus on its own projects and clients. That is why the share of Direct People did not exceed 50 %.