The mobile industry looked very different ten years ago. So did Bitrise. To mark a decade of building alongside mobile teams, we're sitting down with the people who've been here from the start, hearing what's changed, what hasn't, and what's kept them building. Our third and final Decade Club interview: meet Krisztián Gödrei!
1. How it all started…
Q: What attracted you to Bitrise when you first joined?
Actually, I didn't join Bitrise directly. I joined Barnabas and Viktor's previous company, Bitfall, about 13 years ago. That's where the idea for Bitrise was born, rooted in the everyday struggles of mobile development projects we were working on at the time.
Releasing new app versions was tedious and time-consuming, and getting the latest build into the hands of clients was unnecessarily complicated. I felt those pain points firsthand, and since there was no real solution available back then, I was motivated to help build something better.
Beyond the problem itself, I enjoyed working with the team. So when the Bitrise journey began, it felt like a natural next step to be part of it.
2. Ten years in, the journey so far
Q: What’s your proudest Bitrise moment from the last decade?
There are many things I’m proud of, but one that stands out is being able to adapt to the changes over the years and remain a useful member of the team.
One specific achievement I’m particularly proud of is implementing Xamarin (cross-platform app development framework owned by Microsoft) support. It was a long and complex process. At the time, there was no detailed public documentation describing the structure of Xamarin projects well enough to build a reliable project scanner and the necessary steps. It took a lot of trial and error, countless experiments, and gradually piecing things together before we finally had a solid understanding and a working solution.
Q: What’s one thing you’ve learned over the past 10 years that surprised you or changed the way you think day to day?
Something that has shifted my perspective over the years is learning to be patient with good ideas. Early on, it was sometimes frustrating to see a great idea sit on the shelf. Not because it was bad, but because priorities and resources simply didn’t allow for it at the time.
What surprised me is that if you stay somewhere long enough, many of those ideas eventually come to life. A great example of this is Bitrise Pipelines. It was something we had envisioned years before it was actually built. Seeing it finally come together was a reminder that good ideas don’t disappear; sometimes they just need time.
3. Values, beliefs and what motivates you
Q: What do you love most about your work, and what keeps you motivated every day?
I love working on complex and challenging problems. I enjoy the whole process of it: brainstorming ideas, planning the approach, and then actually building it. Over the past ten years, I've been fortunate to work on meaningful projects almost every day, and that steady flow of interesting work has kept me engaged.
But equally important are the people. With very few exceptions, I've truly enjoyed working with my colleagues at Bitrise. The people here are smart, thoughtful, and supportive. It's an environment where you can learn a lot, and I've picked up something valuable from almost everyone I've worked with.
4. Culture: what it’s like to be part of Bitrise
Q: If you had to sum up the culture at Bitrise in one word, what would it be? And why?
Supportive.
Whenever I've needed help, there have always been open doors, no matter who I’ve turned to. And I try to practice that same mindset myself. It's a place where people genuinely look out for each other.
It's also a culture where it's okay to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them and take steps to make sure they don't happen again. That combination of support and accountability is what makes it a great environment to grow in.
Q: What's the biggest change you have seen at Bitrise in the past ten years?
The journey has been one big, continuous change, from a handful of people to 160+ now. The office, the people, the structure of the company, the teams have all evolved along the way.
Funnily enough, the one thing that stayed constant for the longest time became a running joke among colleagues. It was when we started hiring native English speakers and made English the official company language, English classes were offered to support everyone through that transition.
And those classes just... kept going. For years, they were almost untouched amid all the change. We'd joke that English lessons were the only permanent fixture at Bitrise. They've since wrapped up, but for a long time, that was our one reliable constant.
Q: What’s a moment that made you think, “this is why I work here”?
Rather than a single moment, it’s been a recurring feeling over the years. Time and time again, we’d reach a new milestone: more users, more feedback, a sense that what we are building is making a real difference.
5. The next chapter
Q: What excites you most about the next decade at Bitrise?
I'm curious to see how we evolve over the coming years, and in particular, how AI will shape both our product and the way we work. It feels like we're at the beginning of something significant, and I'm excited to be part of figuring out what that means for Bitrise and our customers.
Q: What’s the one thing you hope never changes, no matter how big Bitrise gets?
The culture. The way we support each other, the way we handle mistakes, with honesty and a focus on learning rather than blame. I hope that spirit stays intact no matter how much we grow.
Beyond that, I also hope we keep our ability to follow market changes and shape the product in a way that delivers real value to as many users as possible.
6. Final thoughts / reflections
Q: If you could travel back in time to your first day, what would you tell yourself?
"It's going to work out."
In the early years, not everyone around me was supportive of the path I was on. My wife was working at a headhunting firm at the time, and there was constant pressure to consider other opportunities elsewhere. On top of that, I was still at university, and my family kept pushing me to focus on my studies instead.
And to be fair, back then it wasn't obvious that Bitrise would succeed. We were a startup, and success was far from guaranteed.
But I was convinced it was the right choice, and I'd go back just to tell my younger self: you were right.
Q: What makes Bitrise a great place to join right now?
Honestly, I think it's almost always been a good time to join Bitrise, and now is no different. The culture, the people, the supportive environment I described earlier, those haven't changed. And there's something motivating about working on a product of your own, one that delivers real value to its customers.
Meet more of the Decade Club and hear the stories behind their ten years at Bitrise:
