Did you know that all the items you receive when you place an order are actually from the Bitcraze office? In the beginning, we had the shipping handled by a third party, but it caused some problems and we decided to have this side of the business closer to us- namely, right here at the office in Malmö.

We have a “warehouse” with our products in our flight lab, and thrice a week someone takes the order, fulfills them, packs them and hands them over to FedEx. So how does this work exactly?

Well, a lot of this is possible thanks to our internal system, a Raspberry Pi, and three printers. When we fulfill your order, we have a lot of things to take into account. The weight of the shipment, the number of batteries it contains, what kind of shipment you ordered, the destination country, the kind of labels that are needed…. Thankfully, everything is handled by our internal system, and with one click we have everything we need. If you booked a FedEx shipment, our API books the FedEx shipment immediately and prints it.

We actually have three different printers. One prints the packaging list that we put in your package, along with one that helps us know what to pack. It’s a regular, office printer. The second one prints the shipping label. A third one is used for packages that contain batteries: those are, of course, heavily regulated, and we need to label them correctly to ensure the safest way to transport them. Hence the need for a third printer, which prints somewhat smaller labels. Some of us actually followed a course to be able to handle a shipment containing more than 2 spare batteries per drone… It is then considered a “Dangerous Goods” shipment by FedEx and has to be treated, labeled, and sent following a precise protocol.

Here they are in action:

Once everything is printed, the “only” thing left is to actually pack the box! It’s what takes up the most time. We select your items (without forgetting the stickers!), place them in the box that should be the right size, and try to pack everything so that it is safe to transport to the other side of the world. We then hand everything to FedEx which takes it from there. We try, as much as possible, to ship within 3 business days. That usually means packing and sending on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays – though conferences or holidays can shake this up a bit.

The obvious advantage of having everything set up here is that we have a lot more control over this important side of the business. We have an eye on stock, on how the package looks like, and have an idea of where we actually send our products! The downside is that it takes a lot of time away from development. But these past couple of months, we’ve done a lot to improve our experience while packing. Those include an already filled-out Customs Notice for postal packages and a quicker way to handle packages that have more than 2 spare batteries. But the biggest change is that we have hired someone to help us part-time. Sofia started a week ago and she already has helped take care of the shipping part of Bitcraze. So welcome, Sofia, to the Bitcraze team!

I talked about it here already in October, but there is a lot we want to do here at Bitcraze- and not enough people to do it. So, we’re still looking for a new team member! You can read more about our requirements here; if you’re a polyvalent developer interested in hardware, with an open mind and the willingness to move to Malmö, don’t hesitate to apply by sending us an email: job@bitcraze.se.

We’ve actually also started the search for another job. But first a little background: each morning, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, we pack and ship our orders. Someone takes 1, 2, or even 3 hours to make sure every order passes the door. In 2022, the median time between when you would buy our products and the moment it’s shipped was 1 day. It’s something that is usually common in a big company with a whole warehouse and a team dedicated to that… But at Bitcraze, the warehouse is actually a space in our flight arena and we’re only 6 people. To have more time for development, we’re now looking for someone, ideally a student, to help us out a few hours a week packing and shipping. So if you happen to know anyone near Malmö that fits the description, send him this blog post!

And, since I don’t want to tell you the same thing that I talked about in my last blog post, and it’s International Worker’s Day, I’ve decided to make an extremely subjective list of all the awesome advantages there are working at Bitcraze. So here are perks that you get at Bitcraze that you’ll get nowhere else:

• The flexibility to do what you’re most passionate about, and the encouragement to do so. You love printers? RUST? You get excited talking about a new LED or cool stickers? You’ll get the opportunity to fulfill your geekiest dream here (those are all examples I’ve witnessed)
• The occasion to actually shape the company we’re working in. Your interests, your passions, and your knowledge will find their place and you’ll have the possibility to make decisions on the future of Bitcraze even after the first day- my first day working here was at a quarterly meeting where we decided on a lot of things I didn’t even understood yet.
• Fun Fridays, where you get to work on whatever you fancy; one day a week where productivity is not a demand and you can just get going on creating the newest prototype – and if it doesn’t work, at least you learned something!
• A demo every 2 weeks, where you can actually be impressed by a blinking LED (again, true story; and it was really impressive)
• Awesome colleagues that will almost never steal the stuff on your desk (unless Kristoffer labels it, which is now known as the “please borrow me” label)
• Falafel Tuesdays – when you can debate which is the best falafel in town while eating the best falafel in town.
• Sometimes, there is karaoke or VR games or bowling – we usually invent a pretext to enjoy some after-work together.
• Daily inspiration both from the way we work but also the awesome stuff people do with our products.
• The occasion to learn at least a new thing a day – wether it’s how your body reacts to sugar, how FedEx handles the taxes in Japan or what is the best way to make your Crazyflie make a loop.
• While this is not Bitcraze-specific, the Swedish coast – kind of like Palm Beach without the heat (and the palms) and the general nature surrounding Malmö. Or if you don’t like nature, the possibility to enjoy a big city (Copenhagen, across the bridge) while living in a quiet area.

I hope I picked your interest, or at least gave you some insights on what it’s really like to work at Bitcraze!

Since last March, some members of the Bitcraze team went away. Jonas left, and Arnaud took his parental leave. We welcomed an intern, and eventually Arnaud came back but our 6 person team feels a little short.

At Bitcraze, it always seems that there are not enough hours in a day to do everything we want to do. It’s even truer now, when the day-to-day maintenance is longer and it feels like we don’t have the time to dive into our new projects – even though we still manage a lot of new things, like the motor upgrade kit or a conference in Japan.

But if there is not enough man-hour per hour, one solution is simple: hire a new person ! Since this summer, a job post has been up in our webpage. We are officially actively looking for a new teammate !

So, who are we looking for exactly ?

Well, we’re looking for someone that is open, honest, and passionate about technology. That last part is easiest to determine: you must be interested in everything technological, and more specifically embedded systems. At the moment, we’re mostly looking for someone that is interested in the manufacture part of the process, but also in embedded software. However, if you’re a developer with some Python knowledge, and a passion about hardware, you’re might be a right fit as well! Generally speaking, someone with a lots of different interests that would fill the holes we have right now.

And that’s why, frankly, writing a job post is not an easy feat here. In Bitcraze, no one is the manager or “boss”, and we all decide together on what to work on. No one has a definite part, and we talk more easily of passions than fixed role . So, we don’t know exactly now what profile would be the best for us, as it’s more about what you’re willing to do than what you can accomplish. Right now, we’re in need of someone with hardware passion; but maybe we also need someone with a totally different interest that we don’t know about – because we ourselves are not interested in it and didn’t think about it.

The way we work is something that asks for a specific mindset, and we want to make sure that every prospect has the same mentality. Being open-minded, and ready to take on a lot of different tasks and roles, is a very important part of the daily life at Bitcraze, and something we’re searching for in every candidate we meet. And that covers the open and honest part !

In Japan, we came across a shrine dedicated to matchmaking. It is said that the goddess Kuchiire Inari Okami ties together people – whether for marriage or job hires. We made a small offering to her – you never know what can help.

Of course, a more effective way to help us would be to send us your CV at jobs@bitcraze.io and tell us who you are !

By the way, some of us are still in Japan (while the others are recovering from jetlag) so the company might still be running a little slowly this week.