400+ white‑label apps, two focused teams, one unified stack: Takeaways from “Sebastian Auberger, CIO bei hello again” at hello again GmbH

Setting the scene: What we learned from “Sebastian Auberger, CIO bei hello again” (hello again GmbH)

In the session titled “Sebastian Auberger, CIO bei hello again,” Sebastian Auberger of hello again GmbH offered a precise, concrete look into how the company structures teams, runs its engineering processes, and chooses technology to support growth. The product mission is straightforward: enable small and medium-sized businesses to sustainably increase customer value through digital means. hello again does this by delivering white‑label loyalty apps that let consumers collect points and, alongside that, providing a dashboard for business customers that behaves like a CRM system—complete with community insights plus email and push notification capabilities.

From that product reality, hello again derives its org structure and tech choices: a fully unified React Native stack for mobile and web interactions, a single multi‑tenant server built on Django (Python), and automation wherever the demands of maintaining and scaling hundreds of apps make it necessary.

Why hello again split one big engineering team into two product‑aligned squads

Roughly ten months prior to the session, hello again made a deliberate organizational move: the former large TEV team was split into two sub‑teams. The reason was practical and engineering‑driven: the single team had grown too big and efficiency suffered.

Each team now aligns with a product line:

• Mobile App and Web App Team: This team owns the consumer‑facing digital products—mobile apps and web apps—where end users directly interact.
• Dashboard Server Team: This team builds the server‑side backend components and the dashboard for business customers—“like a CRM system” that provides community insights and supports bulk communication via email and push.

This separation mirrors the actual product surfaces: end user experience on one side; the B2B control center on the other. For candidates, that means two well‑defined domains in which to go deep—either the consumer‑facing experience or the multi‑tenant backend with CRM functionality.

Onboarding with intent: Early productivity by design

Auberger described onboarding at hello again as a mix of human support and early, focused technical responsibility. There are lucky moments—like a recent company trip to Schladming where two new joiners enjoyed a “super onboarding”—but he is candid that this isn’t the norm. In the standard flow, a structured path balances orientation with early delivery.

Key building blocks of the onboarding approach:

• HR‑led orientation: Understand the company, meet the people, grasp the processes.
• Early entry into development: hello again runs two‑week sprints and prepares simple, low‑dependency tickets that can be solved without deep domain knowledge.
• Clear goals for the first weeks: Newcomers get explicit explanation of their tickets and near‑term targets.
• One‑on‑one architecture sessions: Team members walk newcomers through the architectural setup and domains.
• Peer‑programming sessions: Two to three sessions are explicitly scheduled. The goal is not to “learn coding” per se, but to internalize workflows, tools, and debugging habits—shoulder‑surfing with a purpose.
• Early wins: The target is to “deploy something live” soon that the newcomer built themselves.

From an engineering employer‑branding perspective, this is powerful: hello again’s onboarding steers you toward quick contributions and visible production impact, with structured knowledge transfer and hands‑on collaboration.

Product architecture: 400+ white‑label apps, one server instance

hello again’s model is white‑label to the core: every customer gets their own app. Auberger notes they currently have “just over 400 customers”—which means “over 400 apps.” For engineering, that translates into a clear mandate: manage, maintain, and update hundreds of apps—and be ready to scale beyond that baseline.

To make that possible, hello again emphasizes mechanisms that are particularly attractive to technical talent:

• Automation deliberately built in: Auberger highlights “very strong technological mechanisms” and “many automatisms” that invite deep technical exploration.
• A unified mobile stack: React Native across the board—no parallel native developer teams. As Auberger puts it, everything runs “on the JavaScript level,” which increases speed, iteration frequency, and quality improvements.
• Multi‑tenant backend: Unlike the app landscape, the server is a single instance. That brings multi‑tenancy challenges to the forefront—security, data privacy, clean data isolation, and the discipline to ensure databases “communicate the right way.”

The server foundation is Django (Python). Auberger describes it as easy to learn yet nuanced when it comes to performance optimization. For engineers who enjoy pairing product responsibility with under‑the‑hood depth, this is a clean but demanding playground.

Process essentials: Two‑week sprints, low‑dependency tickets, fast learning loops

hello again operates in two‑week sprints. What stands out is how purposefully the organization shapes ticket design to favor quick impact and learning: newcomers are given tasks with few dependencies so that meaningful contributions are possible without extensive domain ramp‑up.

Alongside that, the organization institutionalizes knowledge transfer: one‑on‑one architecture explanations and explicitly scheduled peer‑programming. Auberger stresses that these sessions focus on workflows, tools, and debugging rather than syntax—habits of practice that separate professional engineering from code‑along tutorials.

In aggregate, the process reflects what scales: smaller, decoupled steps; clear short‑term goals; structured knowledge sharing; and a strong bias toward early, deployable results.

Tech stack, plainly: React Native and Django/Python

The stack is both simple and potent:

• Frontend/mobile: React Native, entirely on the JavaScript layer. hello again runs without native platform developers. The payoff: “enormously fast” feature delivery, iteration, and quality improvements.
• Backend: Django on Python. Multi‑tenancy, security, data privacy, and clean domain boundaries are constant companions; performance matters and requires craft.

This combination enables end‑to‑end speed while leaving room for meaningful depth in the backend. If you want to work where product iteration pace is high but the problems—tenant isolation, data architecture, and performance—are genuinely non‑trivial, this landscape fits.

The product leads the organization—by design

Auberger is explicit: product development at hello again is not a side function—it’s foundational. The company lives from building “digital, simple, understandable, innovative products,” and that priority permeates all departments. The result is a place where engineers can have real impact.

He also underscores a culture of collaboration at eye level—ideas are welcome, and engineers can “benefit greatly from the outcomes.” For practitioners, this translates into short feedback loops, product proximity, and the satisfaction of seeing deployed work drive tangible results.

Growth as a learning promise: New teams, new constructs, new expertise

hello again is a growth company. The last four years have brought strong expansion, and the development team has scaled along with it. For engineers, this reads as a commitment to continuous learning:

That means opportunities to take on new responsibilities, explore fresh architectural approaches, and engage with scaling challenges that evolve as the customer and app base grows.

Research collaborations: Data Science and scalable app testing

Another noteworthy ingredient is hello again’s proximity to applied research. The company maintains collaborations with universities of applied sciences in Upper Austria, including FH Hagenberg. These collaborations create opportunities to work on projects that tie immediate product needs to academic expertise.

For engineers, this introduces a stream of new methods, tools, and practices—particularly around test scalability for a rapidly growing white‑label landscape—while keeping the work grounded in real product outcomes.

Why engineers will find hello again compelling

From Auberger’s account, several concrete reasons stand out:

• A unified, production‑proven stack: React Native (JavaScript) and Django (Python) enable fast iteration with genuine backend depth.
• Real scaling challenges: 400+ white‑label apps, a single multi‑tenant server, and a growing customer base—scaling problems you can actually sink your teeth into.
• Automation as a principle: “Strong technological mechanisms” and many “automatisms” are part of daily engineering practice—ideal for those who enjoy deep technical dives.
• A clear path to early contribution: Two‑week sprints, decoupled tickets, one‑on‑one architecture sessions, peer‑programming—and early live deploys.
• Product proximity and impact: Product development is top‑priority and cuts across all departments; ideas matter and translate into outcomes.
• Growth as opportunity: New teams and constructs create room for development and specialization.
• Research as an amplifier: Collaborations with universities of applied sciences, Data Science projects, and a new effort focused on scalable app testing.

If you want to actively shape your learning curve while working on technology that’s both fast‑moving and substantial, hello again offers not just interesting problems but also the structures to grow.

Collaboration and expectations: How hello again sets engineers up for success

While the session didn’t enumerate hiring checklists, it clearly sketched the working style and expectations:

• Proactive learning: Architecture walk‑throughs and peer sessions are there to be used by those eager to take responsibility quickly.
• Craft matters: Debugging, tooling, and day‑to‑day workflows are central. Two to three hours of focused peer‑programming can be a “huge step forward.”
• Security and privacy are integral: Multi‑tenancy requires rigorous isolation and clean data flows; this is part of the work, not an afterthought.
• Outcome orientation: Value is defined by deployed results—early production wins are encouraged and enabled.

In both teams—Mobile/Web and Dashboard/Server—you’ll find an environment set up for focus, clarity, and impact: clear product lines, short paths to decision‑makers, and a stack that balances speed with depth.

Closing thoughts: Product‑driven scaling and solid engineering craft

The picture that emerges from “Sebastian Auberger, CIO bei hello again” is coherent: a company whose product (white‑label loyalty apps and a CRM‑like dashboard) shapes the organization; engineering that leverages a unified stack for speed; and a culture that designs onboarding, peer learning, and early impact on purpose.

With 400+ apps, a single multi‑tenant server on Django, and an all‑in React Native approach that avoids parallel native codebases, hello again is meeting its next scaling phase not with added complexity but with clear principles and targeted automation. Add to that the elevated status of product development across the company, active research partnerships in Upper Austria, and a commitment to collaboration at eye level where ideas translate into results, and you have a compelling environment for engineers.

For tech talent seeking real product impact, technical depth, and fast learning cycles, that is a strong proposition—exactly as Sebastian Auberger laid it out.

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