I’ve been working with and for IT teams for 20+ years, and it’s fascinating to see the evolution and increasing expectations put on IT, from infrastructure-heavy duties to digitalisation and cloud-first strategies. For me, IT teams have always been the unsung heroes of a successful organisation.
Before Starhive, I founded and sold two different companies, both of which helped IT teams become more efficient. One of the companies was Mindville, where we developed an IT asset management app for Atlassian Jira. Used by IT teams in over 2,000 organisations, this proved the importance of having your asset data in order, regardless of industry or company size. Mindville was acquired by Atlassian in 2020, and the product is now known as Assets, which is now part of Jira Service Management Premium.
The Starhive journey so far
We started Starhive with the initial ambition to help retailers get their products to market faster with better control over their product data. We started by building a PIM (Product Information Management) system to manage every aspect of gathering, organising, and publishing product data to sales and marketing channels.
However, we realised that what we had really built was an exceptional platform for storing and managing any type of business data. We also discovered a common challenge organisations face: while they have data warehouses, using the data still demands significant technical expertise. They either connect the data to other tools or build internal solutions with the data. This sparked an idea—what if we could help teams manage their data and create intuitive frontends that make data modification accessible for everyone in a single platform?
So, in 2024, we embarked on a mission to provide customisable frontends on top of business data stored in Starhive. And we’ve seen some fantastic (and surprising) implementations, from pixel-perfect on-brand request forms and holiday tracking systems to branded real estate listing sites and booking systems for B2C actors. This is a game-changer: organisations can take back control of their software. Time is fast running out for vendors offering inflexible and hard-coded user experiences.
For 2025, we’re returning to our roots—helping IT teams do the best work of their lives when providing software solutions for their organisations. Starhive is still a competent PIM system, but our platform has grown to address any use cases IT may need to implement with flexibility and usability as our north star.
So, how does Starhive help IT teams?
IT teams need a single, collaborative environment to meet the software needs of their business. These business needs come from many different departments. HR might need a solution for prospecting and onboarding candidates. Legal might want to offer its services in procurement and contract negotiation. Marketing might need a self-service portal for brand content and sales enablement. IT also needs a system to manage their incoming requests, manage changes, track assets, and more.
While every organisation has unique requirements, there are a few cornerstones that always need to be addressed and managed by IT:
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Data and asset management
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Processes design and service management
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Providing solutions to solve business problems that are effective and easy to adopt
Starhive is the platform for those IT teams.
Starhive is a platform where you can not only manage your business data, but actually create solutions or business apps on top of your data that are perfectly tailored to your organisation.
You have full control over the data model, processes, and look and feel of your internal tools built in Starhive. You can take our building blocks and put them together to create business applications within hours that meet the needs of your stakeholders.
You get the benefits of building with the simplicity of buying off-the-shelf. No more data silos, no more bad business data, no more inefficient service management, and no more software that requires a massive shoehorn to fit your business reality.
What makes Starhive stand out?
We hear from customers that they appreciate the total flexibility that Starhive offers. Compared to other platforms, we don’t force customers into what we have decided to be the best practice. Sure, we have templates with test data so you can get a flying start with everything from ITSM to a company holiday request app. But our templates are just examples of how Starhive can be configured to fit your unique needs.
Another highly valued and unique capability is that users can create on-brand internal frontends for their data and package them into ‘apps.’ This can be achieved either by using API connectors to build beautiful-looking user experiences within hours—with or without AI—or by leveraging Starhive’s interface builder for a completely no-code experience.
Lastly, we receive great feedback on Starhive’s scalability and affordability. Compared to our competitors, we’ve succeeded in being very competitive in both those aspects.
The future
2025 is an exciting year for Starhive, packed with groundbreaking new features, such as more customisable interfaces in Starhive, and AI capabilities. We’re now doubling down on areas like Service Management and Asset Management. This focus, together with our unique solution for great user experiences, is what modern IT teams need as they continue to be the heroes of organisations.
Let’s make 2025 the year when we give IT teams the recognition they deserve and the power to create internal solutions the way they want to.
All the best
- Tommy
Tommy Nordahl
CEO
