Building at startup speed

01  — THE CHALLENGE

Money that sits still

Warren wants to give employees and individuals control over their financial future. The problem: most people were never taught how money works. And a Belgian salary only makes it harder, where you basically need a tax education to understand what your payslip actually means. Faced with that complexity, people freeze. Belgians are among the best savers in the world, yet billions sit on accounts losing value to inflation instead being invested in the future.

Warren's founders, all experienced tech entrepreneurs, had watched the problem up close in their previous companies. They felt the opportunity was ripe for taking. 

"We started by saying: we want to have revenue this year. We've done a lot of things in parallel, such as licensing, product development, and going to market."
Cedric De Vleeschauwer, founder and CEO at Warren.

So Warren needed a product in the market fast, robust enough to operate in a highly regulated environment, and ready to scale the moment members arrived. Hiring a team first would have pushed the launch back by months. So they brought in In The Pocket to build the product, while they built the business around it.

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02  — MAKE IT GREAT

Delight in the details

Warren gives every employee a clear view of their pay, benefits and pension, in an app that explains it in plain language. Until now, that kind of clarity took a private banker or an accountant.

Its AI coach works from each member's actual pay, benefits and mobility budget. It explains how each benefit works, answers questions, puts options like buying or leasing side by side, and shows what each choice means in net euros. The member makes the call.

When a question needs a specialist, members book a video call with an independent expert in 9 domains, such as insurance or property. Those consults are recorded, transcribed, and fed back to the coach, so it grows sharper around each member over time.

"The core of AI has become a commodity. Our differentiation isn't the model. It's context engineering: compensation and benefits connected to the real questions employees ask, which also reduces load on HR."
Jos Polfliet, founder and CTO at Warren.

The AI coach really had to stand out. In a market where anyone can spin up a chatbot, the experience is what makes a difference. How the app feels when you open it, how well the details hold together. In a market where Warren competes with far larger incumbents, the belief was it could win by having a product that is genuinely pleasant to use. So we obsessed over UX, sweating the details, making sure everything fits together.

Quality also meant building for what comes next. Warren plans to grow exponentially, so the architecture was set up for scale from the first version.

"Speed and quality aren't opposites. We want to move as fast as possible, but in a way that's sustainable, without making sacrifices for the future or for quality. That's how you avoid the trouble two or five years down the line."
Jos Polfliet, founder and CTO at Warren.

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03 — GET IT DONE

Rent some speed

So yes to quality, but yes to time to market too. 

"Plugging in a seasoned team let us ship the MVP while we focused on licensing and early sales," says Cedric. Assembling a multidisciplinary team takes time: finding the right people, then letting them learn to work well together. In The Pocket brought a team that already had all of that.

That experience paid off exactly as intended. The MVP reached the market on the timeline they needed. The product-market fit came quickly.

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04  — DO IT TOGETHER

Speed in everything

That speed only happens when you move fast together.

'What mattered was that our partner could plug in the startup way. They understood our context: this isn't a corporate client, it's a small team. Fast decisions, no long processes.'
Cedric De Vleeschauwer, founder and CEO at Warren.

A young startup does not arrive with tidy processes, so the way of working had to fit a small team that moves fast. Asynchronous by default, a shared Slack channel, no long weekly meetings. Feedback on a design or a feature did not go through a committee. It came through a chat thread, within the same day.

"Some clients take two weeks of study and analysis to decide which CMS to use. We decide on the spot. Your experience, our experience, a few minutes of conversation, and it's settled."
Jos Polfliet, founder and CTO at Warren.

The handover happened just as organically. As their internal team grew stronger, we phased out gradually.

"The handover went really well. Thanks for the flexibility there too, for tuning in to our needs at the right moments."
Jos Polfliet, founder and CTO at Warren.

Warren was fully on its way. 

05 — DO IT TOGETHER

Why choose?

We are often told you have to choose: go fast or go good. Warren didn’t choose: live in its first year, and built to scale for many years after. They proved you can seize the moment without sacrificing quality.