Agency Enterprise Studio, a Venice-based product and venture studio, is addressing the tech employee shortages amid the flurry of layoffs that have taken place within Web3 companies over the past few months by creating products that help tech companies integrate NFT membership, blockchain-based storage and other Web3 products.
AE Studio focuses on software development to launch and develop new products, expand existing feature sets or integrate data science and machine learning into products.
According to the company, its biggest demand is in the Web3 and NFT space as more companies, creators and investors are looking to launch their own Web3 projects.
The studio is made up of developers, engineers and data scientists building technology products for clients and partners. Clients of AE consist of large enterprise and corporate companies and startups, plus entrepreneurs and influencers.
Santa Monica-based e-commerce company ReCharge acquired a text message subscription management tool built by AE Studio, called ElectricSMS, in a multimillion-dollar cash and equity deal. Now rebranded as ReChargeSMS, the system gives customers the ability to skip, revise, renew and reschedule their subscription services through a text chat and is used by brands including Olipop and Super Coffee.
Despite the newness of Web3 products, corporations are moving forward with plans to integrate NFT memberships, blockchain-based storage and more, according to AE. This work is being conducted by specialized developer agencies, since the Web3 talent pool is small and huge companies are hesitant to hire the hundreds of developers needed to build this technology internally.
Melanie Plaza, chief technology officer at AE Studio, said it’s challenging to develop in-house tech teams.
“I think there’s definitely been a culture in tech in the past that’s been very biased to having in-house tech teams,” Plaza continued. “That’s what has been considered the gold standard, but we’re seeing a shift more towards hiring agencies … ”
She said another reason companies go to agencies for talent is flexibility.
“When you hire an in-house team, you have people that are now on staff,” Plaza explained. “Not only is there more in your overhead in terms of managing and all of the additional costs associated with that, but if you decide you don’t need one developer for a couple months, you cannot fire them. Or, if you really need an urgent developer, hiring and finding good candidates is a difficult and time-consuming process.”
