Interview with Georgina Lupu Florian, Founder & Co-CEO at Wolfpack Digital

Welcome to this exclusive interview with Georgina Lupu, Founder & Co-CEO at Wolfpack Digital. Georgina leads a team of over 80 talented professionals in Cluj and Dublin.

With over 200 completed projects and accolades such as a Webby Award for Responsible Artificial Intelligence, it has built a reputation for seamlessly combining beauty with performance in digital products.

In this interview, Georgina shares her journey, the story behind Wolfpack Digital’s success, and offers a glimpse into the person behind her leadership role.

Thank you, Georgina, for accepting our invitation.

To begin, Georgina, tell us a bit about your background — your childhood, studies, and how your career has developed over the years.

I have always been curious about various subjects: from mathematics & physics, and all the way to biology, creative writing, or psychology. As a child, I truly enjoyed school and had very good academic results. It was hard for me to decide what career to pursue, especially since I was born in Romania and when I graduated from high-school, there weren’t many options in terms of academic paths suitable for someone multidisciplinary. Consequently, I ended up pursuing two bachelor's degrees: one in engineering and one in psychology. I then left for London, where I pursued an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering with Business Management at King’s College London, and then I started working as an iOS developer. I also pursued an MA in PR back in Romania, and later started working for a hot IoT startup based in London, building smart jewellery, along with taking on various freelance projects where I would assist clients with both mobile development and UX/UI design.

I realized early on that, although I was working for a super exciting and innovative company as my main job, I remained much more motivated in the long run by having more diversity in what I do: impacting more lives & businesses through technology, and focusing on varied industries, while touching a broader spectrum of the digital product development lifecycle.

This is when all the dots connected for me, and I decided to move back home and start a boutique agency, Wolfpack Digital, 10 years ago, with the mission to bring performance & beauty to the world through technology. The name of the company is inspired by my surname, meaning “Wolf” in Romanian, and we are indeed inspired by a “wolf pack”, as we aim to be agile, performant, playful, dedicated, and communicative. We build powerful web and mobile apps start-to-end for startups, scaleups, and enterprises in finance, health, beauty, transportation, etc.

Wolfpack Digital has grown from a small startup into an award-winning agency. What’s been the secret behind this success, and what does winning a Webby Award mean for you and your team?

I believe the most important ’secret’ is the willingness to learn and adapt continuously. The ’lean startup’ principles work really well to do so and validate your every growth iteration in small steps, however at some point a more strategic approach becomes more useful.

When Wolfpack Digital reached a team of 50 people, for example, we had to completely rethink our management structure, and that is when I realized that my company had become the biggest company I had ever worked for. Now this is a point where a trial and error approach may prove to be too risky and taking sound advice from mentors/consultants/books works better than going straight to experimenting in the real world, which will be done nevertheless in a sandboxed manner. Overall, scaling is a journey of continuous adaptation as the company levels up, and it is an experience of building sustainably and adding one brick over the other, starting from a solid foundation. The founder and managing team also need to evolve, in terms of competencies, knowledge, and resilience.

The recognition we received along the way through various awards for app development or app design enables our team to celebrate our hard work, and comes with great satisfaction, although I believe the greatest satisfaction comes from enjoying what you do and seeing the real-life impact of your work. Still, it adds up to our motivation and energy in big ways.

The Webby award for Responsible AI we got in 2024 for our work with EqualityAI in a beautiful ceremony in New York City, accompanied by some of the biggest names on the Internet, was such an incredible milestone because it is a testament to our commitment to bringing performance & beauty to the world through technology. We are deeply grateful to both our team and our partners for making this happen!

Some of your apps now have millions of users. Can you tell us about one that had a particularly big impact, and what made it so successful?

Many of the apps we’ve built have had an incredible impact on people’s lives: some help patients in small clinical trials by significantly improving their quality of life, and this feels as impactful as seeing an entertainment app getting used by millions of people. In that sense, impact can be measured and felt differently on a human level. Yet it is true that notoriety and large-scale use is highly rewarding for us as app designers & developers.

A couple of examples cross my mind: Voxa, an app for audiobooks in Romania, that we built the first version for, has become super popular in our country, with people and children benefitting from the gift of listening to books, and thus contributing to learning. The second example is Passenger Assistance by Transreport, which is a project we worked on for several years, and that has helped book millions of assisted train trips by people with disabilities in the UK. We have also worked on a project for Walgreens Boots Alliance, essentially an app connecting to a skin-scanning device which recommends the best skin products for the user based on a thorough analysis, which has been used by hundreds of thousands of users.

I believe what makes these projects successful in general is a smooth and user-friendly design and experience bearing the customer in mind at all times, a high-quality product, which requires premium technical execution, and a deep understanding of the market so as to propose the best features. The diligence and adaptability of all stakeholders working together as one team is also a key factor in ensuring success.

Every company faces challenges along the way. What have been some of the toughest obstacles for Wolfpack Digital, and how did you and your team overcome them?

Growing in a more accelerated fashion for a while meant that we had to focus more on keeping our culture in place, and we did this by remaining mindful of who we are at our core and by intentionally introducing various coherent actions: sessions with the team for company values reminders, tailored culture interviews for new hires, gamified internal challenges that are very much related to our ethos etc.

Another challenge came when one of our biggest partners had to scale down their team, and this massively affected us. We adapted by actually beginning to invest in our online marketing, which paid off in the long term, by offering another pillar to rely on, besides our recommendations-based lead-generation.

Team-wise, some of the best people who had been with us since almost the beginning of our company felt lost at some point, as there was no clear, visible career path for them. This motivated us to create our internal career development program.

Overall, I believe that the main key for overcoming challenges is to embrace them with curiosity and an anti-fragile mindset, where instead of catastrophising, we focus on the good that can be extracted from whatever it is that occurred.

With offices in Cluj and Dublin, how does having a presence in these hubs influence your company’s growth and culture?

We are proud to be a Romanian company, based in Cluj, in the heart of Transylvania, as our country is traditionally a strong tech hub, and for tens of years our country has given the world many great STEM experts (mathematicians, engineers, etc.). Our culture is European, in every sense possible, and we believe in the value of the interconnectedness of the world. We’ve worked quite a lot with US-based companies too, and also with companies from Asia or Australia.

We’ve always had good chemistry with Irish clients and our Irish portfolio expanded quite a bit in the early days, which is why we also decided to open a branch in Dublin. The two cultures - Irish & Romanian - are similar in more ways than one: from the passionate flair, to a down-to-earth and resource-conscious approach, probably fueled by the historical background of fighting hardship.

However, our culture is heavily marked by our love for colour and diversity, so we see ourselves as a very open company for international collaborations of all sorts, and we believe that we are ultimately citizens of the world. We always meet others with curiosity and openness to learn. So I would say this part influences who we are far more than our origins.

Wolfpack Digital is proud of its motto: “Powerful Web & Mobile Apps Start-to-End.” Could you walk us through what makes your end-to-end approach stand out?

We cover all the steps involved in developing an app: from ideation to design, coding, launching, maintenance, etc. We follow lightweight and effective processes along the way, and we adapt them to serve our clients optimally. Most of the projects we’ve worked on so far have involved setups where we acted as the sole technology & digital product partner for our client on that project, which means, of course, having a lot more responsibility, paired with the associated satisfaction. This has allowed us to refine our product management & strategy skills, in parallel and integrated with our technical skills.

The “Powerful” bit comes from our intent put into practice of choosing the most suitable technologies and approaches for the business case at hand, keeping in mind essential aspects, such as time-to-market, scalability, budget constraints, etc. In the end, powerful apps and solutions are the ones providing the best return on investment, and this, of course, involves understanding really well what the target impact is, and making sure we get the absolute best out of the invested resources.

Your team has delivered over 200 projects across fintech, healthtech, greentech, IoT, and more. How do you ensure Wolfpack Digital consistently delivers both speed and quality?

In a nutshell, strong processes along with competent people are what allow for consistent delivery of both speed and quality. I am a strong believer in the Agile “people over processes” approach; however, if you want to reduce uncertainty and stay focused on quality and risk mitigation, processes that are as lightweight as possible are key to ensuring success.

Keeping an optimal balance between structure and adaptability keeps speed on the table as something we offer. For example, not skipping steps in our app development process ensures that every functionality gets properly tested to meet acceptance criteria.

Some of the domains where we’ve gained expertise, such as fintech or healthtech, are highly regulated, and therefore the app development process needs to be adapted when working with startups, scaleups, or enterprises on projects in these areas. For example, documenting certain steps in the app development process thoroughly according to specific templates so as to fit the requirements of a certain certification (e.g. the IEC 62304 standard for medical devices) is an important part of serving these industries. So far, we’ve delivered more than 30 projects in these domains. It’s essential to keep and improve on the knowledge earned previously.

Leading a 70+ member team is no small feat. How would you describe your leadership style, and how has it evolved over the years?

I am a firm believer in transformational leadership, where one seeks to convey our mission and the meaning of what we are building together to the team, so that they feel inspired and aligned. I still see this as crucial, as I saw it in my first days. However, the sole responsibility of motivating the team cannot rest with the leader, and the team needs to be self-motivated to a high degree too! I believe that in the past few years, I have overall evolved from a “servant leader” who used to sometimes be too empathetic, to the detriment of people’s growth through challenge, to a more balanced one, by embracing a more pragmatic approach, where I also challenge people and tell them the truth always, kindly. This has helped both me and my team immensely. And it has also helped me empower other leaders and managers in our team.

You co-founded Women in Tech Cluj and serve on several influential boards. What motivates you to dedicate so much time to community building and advocacy in tech?

I strongly believe that strong ecosystems, including entrepreneurial and tech ones, benefit everyone connected to them in the end. Thriving ecosystems are always the ones that combine collaboration, competition, and diversity. Therefore, through paying it forward and back, we can nurture such ecosystems, and this belief has guided me in being involved in mentoring, judging, and supporting communities and innovative teams in the past few years.

I also find it rewarding on a personal level, as it aligns with my values. All in all, every good deed gets repaid in the end, although the exact form may not be clear in the beginning. And this is not magic, it simply is a consequence of the physics of the world we live in, when viewed in a systemic fashion.

Speaking of how strong ecosystems benefit everyone, which makes them worth investing time and resources in: For example, if we help young tech entrepreneurs in our home city be successful with their projects, this may result in a higher notoriety for our region, which may later result in clients or investors looking at our city when considering the companies they are interested in, and, automatically, benefit our company too.

Diversity is also essential, and it’s a proven fact that diverse teams provide superior financial results, so it’s worth investing in empowering disadvantaged categories to ensure equal opportunities, because this will result in better ecosystem-related economic indicators, which is something we all benefit from. And the examples can go on and on.

When you’re not busy running Wolfpack Digital, how do you like to spend your free time?

I have a 6-month-old baby at home - my son, who has opened a new universe to me. I currently spend most of my time with him and my husband, who is also my partner in business. Besides this brand new chapter of my life, which is both fulfilling and challenging, I love running and reading mystery novels in my personal time.

On a lighter note — if your life were turned into a movie, what genre would it be, and who would you want to play you?

Thanks for this playful question, love it! :) It would probably be a psychological movie, of the coming-of-age or ’bildungsroman’ sort. Looking back (and also forward), the most interesting part of my journey is the way I was and am deeply transformed, by the experiences I lived so far, both intentionally and reactively, and how embracing the growth mindset has been a catalyst to overcoming some difficult challenges, which in the end made me who I am today. And the work is not yet done, of course! It would be action-filled to match the fast pace I’ve lived in so far, and it would also contain scenes with a cozy atmosphere while meeting various cultures. The first actress to cross my mind would probably be Keira Knightley.

Georgina, before we finish, what advice would you give to the TechBehemoths community about succeeding in today’s digital world?

My main advice is to stay curious and learn from every experience you create or encounter. Stay true to your personal values along the way, as this builds trust in the long-term. Also, make sure you care about the results as well as the journey, making sure you build sustainably.

Thank you so much, Georgina, for sharing your insights and experiences with us today. It’s been a pleasure learning about your journey and the exciting work you’re doing at Wolfpack Digital.

Wolfpack Digital is one of the leading companies on TechBehemoths. If you like this interview and think that Georgina and her team can help your business, don't hesitate to contact them via TechBehemoths or discover the agency on social media: LinkedIn