Small Business Success Stories

The power of Apple.
Put to work.

Small businesses everywhere use Apple technology to optimise and scale seamlessly and securely.

Dance

This e-bike subscription company uses Swift to crack the code for speedy growth.

This e-bike subscription company uses Swift to crack the code for speedy growth.

Watch the film

Dance is an e-bike subscription service founded by Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss, Alexander Ljung and Christian Springub in 2020. Their goal is to give people friction-free access to electric bikes — making cities more about people and the planet, and less about cars. To fulfil the company’s mission, they needed a platform that offered flexibility and security in order to scale. That’s why they decided to use Apple products from day one.

From the beginning, we chose Apple because it has the best technology for building a business like Dance. Swift has allowed us to create innovative apps for our teams and customers.

Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss, Founder and CEO, Dance

At the head office in Germany, every employee uses Mac to support collaboration and productivity. Designers and developers work on Mac to create and test prototypes. In the workshop, mechanics use iPhone to access an e-bike’s service history by scanning a QR code attached to each frame. And everyone uses iPad to manage time sheets and shifts, simplifying workflows. Even Dance’s customers can use iPhone, to contact the maintenance team and schedule roadside repairs directly through the app.

When Dance employees needed a custom-built app to streamline workflows for their mechanics and operations team, they built it in Swift, Apple’s powerful and intuitive programming language. Nynke de Boer, one of Dance’s early employees, was able to learn Swift in a few weeks and create the custom-built iOS app in a matter of months. Dance also used Swift to build an app for customers to manage their accounts and view real-time journey data from their e-bikes. Swift makes it easy to continuously update the app to meet new business needs as the company grows.

Apple devices have allowed us to build an amazing product. The platform gives us the flexibility to innovate and stay on top of our business’s rapid growth and changing needs.

Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss, Founder and CEO, Dance

Dance has rolled out its e-bikes in five major European cities to date. It relies on the built-in security of every Apple device to protect company and customer data as it continues to scale quickly. Staying nimble with the most powerful and flexible tools in an evolving work environment is why Dance chose Apple. And its business only continues to pick up speed, reaching new riders every single day.

The Dinner Ladies

They scaled up from scratch. With iPhone, iPad and Mac.

They scaled up from scratch. With iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Watch the film

Sophie Gilliatt and Katherine Westwood founded The Dinner Ladies, an online meal delivery service, to bring nutritious, home-cooked frozen meals to busy families. What started in their kitchen grew quickly, and they realised they needed a powerful technology solution to keep up. Supported by Apple’s ecosystem of products, they went from cooking 20 meals per week to over 90,000.

As we grew, the biggest problem was communication around consistency and product quality. That’s where Apple technology supports our business — we couldn’t have scaled without it.

Katherine Westwood, Co-founder, The Dinner Ladies

Gilliatt and Westwood love using Apple technology in their personal lives. In their business, Apple products help The Dinner Ladies run efficiently, safely and economically. As orders grew through the pandemic, Apple devices enabled Gilliatt and Westwood to manage day-to-day tasks remotely. They log recipes and plan menus on Mac, create employee rosters on iPad and use iPhone to track deliveries — saving time and money.

Employees also find Apple’s intuitive, user-friendly platform simple for sharing data with team members and communicating with vendors. And Apple devices can sync with third-party apps and products, so staff can easily monitor food storage temperatures remotely, ensure quality control on iPad and optimise delivery routes on iPhone.

When technology just works — and we’ve found that to be the case with all of our Apple devices — it just makes us so much more efficient.

Katherine Westwood, Co-founder, The Dinner Ladies

Apple products help The Dinner Ladies streamline operations from stovetop to send-off. Their prepared food has skyrocketed in popularity, bringing busy families together by giving them more quality time at the dinner table. And the reliability of Apple technology frees up time so these talented co-founders can focus on creating innovative and nutritious recipes, which remains the heart and soul of their business.

Fellten

iPad supports an electric vehicle conversion company. From concept to craft.

iPad supports an electric vehicle conversion company. From concept to craft.

Fellten is one of Australia’s largest electric conversion workshops. The company upcycles four-wheel drives and classic cars into working electric vehicles, so people can enjoy off-roading and driving while reducing their environmental impact. Its mission: drive Australia towards a greener, cleaner future.

Without Apple, we couldn’t do what we do. We couldn’t run our business or make extremely concise, beautiful things cost‑effectively.

Dave Budge, Chief Product Officer, Fellten

Across the business, the Apple platform and iCloud services let Fellten move effortlessly from one job or device to another. In the concept stage, the teams use iPhone, iPad Pro and Apple Pencil to scan the original vehicle, create mood boards and design 3D models that can seamlessly be imported to Mac. Engineers use Numbers and OmniGraffle to plan electrical wiring diagrams. And every stage — from concept to build — is documented with iPhone.

Apple’s commitment to sustainability and 100 per cent carbon-neutral operations made the choice of products to invest in a natural fit. Supported by Apple products, Fellten is reducing emissions by creating efficient and paperless workflows. And rather than sourcing custom components from around the globe, Fellten’s engineers design them on MacBook Pro and then make them by hand or send the designs to 3D printers for manufacture.

Fellten marries hand-built craftsmanship with 21st-century manufacturing — a process driven and supported by Apple technology, from start to finish.

Dave Budge, Chief Product Officer, Fellten

Apple technology underpins the entire manufacturing process, enabling Fellten to carry out its mission. By offering a reliable, efficient and secure platform, Apple makes it easy for Fellten to scale at any point. By implementing Apple technology, Fellten has sped up and simplified production — without sacrificing quality or craftsmanship.