Turning an internal project into a new business means taking something born to solve a company's own problem, a tool, a process, a prototype, and making it a product or service with its own customers: it is one of the most frequent ways technology startups are born. On 2 December 2020 WWG discussed it in its first webinar, organised with Startup Geeks, the largest Italian community dedicated to startups, under the title "Turning an internal project into a new business: the agile approach explained by WWG". This article was the press release for the event; in 2026 we rewrote it around the topic, which is still current, with the themes covered, links to our in-depth articles and the story of the collaboration with Startup Geeks.
TL;DR
- The December 2020 webinar was WWG's first and the first result of its partnership with Startup Geeks, a community that trains and connects Italian startup founders.
- The speakers: Mohamed Deramchi, founder and CEO of WWG, Riccardo Bracco, business developer at WWG, and Alessio Boceda of Startup Geeks.
- The case presented was App Config, an internal WWG project that became a product thanks to the agile method.
- The themes: flexibility, resilience, openness to change and continuous improvement as daily practices, not slogans.
- The path from internal project to product takes three steps: validate the need outside the company, build an MVP, measure before investing.
What was the webinar with Startup Geeks about?
It was about how a company, or a group of people inside it, can turn a project born for internal use into a new business, using the agile approach to reduce risk: short cycles, a minimum product put in front of real users, decisions based on what is measured. The concrete case was App Config, an internal WWG project that became a product, presented as a measurable example of the results achievable with the right mindset.
Flexibility, resilience, openness to change and continuous improvement, we wrote in the release, are recurring themes in business discussions, but people often make the mistake of treating them as concepts far removed from daily activity without grasping their impact on management. The webinar, online, open to all and as agile as possible, set out to show them at work. The speakers were Mohamed Deramchi, founder and CEO of WWG, Riccardo Bracco, business developer at WWG, and Alessio Boceda of Startup Geeks.
How do you turn an internal project into a product?
In three steps: check that the need exists outside the company too, build the smallest version an external customer can use and pay for, and measure usage before investing in the full version. An internal project has an advantage, it has already been used by someone, and a risk, it was built around the habits of a single company.
| Step | Question to answer | Typical mistake |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Validate the need | Do other companies have the same problem, and are they already paying for it somehow? | Assuming the market thinks like your own company |
| 2. Build the MVP | What is the smallest version an external customer can use on their own? | Taking the whole internal tool outside, with all its exceptions |
| 3. Measure | Who uses it, how often, and would they pay for it again? | Measuring features released instead of usage |
The method is the one we describe in our guide to what you don't know about a good MVP and in our article on how lean startup beats old school. For fashion startups, in a sector that judges within a few seasons, the rules are in our article on fashion startups.
What is Startup Geeks and why did WWG partner with them?
Startup Geeks is the largest Italian community dedicated to startups: in 2020 it had a database of more than a thousand startups, a social audience of over thirty thousand people and a premium subscription community, and it offered early-stage founders training, services and a network to grow, with the goal of becoming the online reference point for anyone wanting to launch and grow a startup. In May 2020 it had launched Startup Builder, a twelve-week online incubation programme for projects being validated. (startupgeeks.it)
WWG joined the group's network of more than fifty partner companies to make its experience in software development, apps, e-commerce platforms, CRM and ERP available to professionals trying to connect technical and business functions. The webinar was the first step of that brand partnership. The registration links from the time are no longer active and have been removed; anyone who wants to talk to WWG about a project to launch will find the contact at the bottom.
Do you have an internal project that could become a product? Talk to a WWG engineer at business@wwg.it.
Sources
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
WWG's first webinar, held online on 2 December 2020 with Startup Geeks, titled "Turning an internal project into a new business: the agile approach explained by WWG". The speakers were Mohamed Deramchi and Riccardo Bracco of WWG and Alessio Boceda of Startup Geeks; the case presented was the internal project App Config, which became a product.
By validating the need outside the company, building the smallest version an external customer can use and pay for, and measuring usage before investing in the full version. The agile approach, with short cycles and data-based decisions, reduces the risk of building a product around the habits of a single company.
The largest Italian community dedicated to startups, offering those who want to launch or grow a startup training, services, a subscription community and an online incubation programme. WWG joined the group's network of partner companies in 2020, and the webinar was the first result of the collaboration.
