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Building these days seems like a breeze. You sign up for a chatbot, give it a request, and in a few seconds, you have some code. But real founders know that it’s not that easy. AI has made coding faster, but architecture, debugging, edge case management, and all the stuff that used to take a team are now squarely on the shoulders of one person: the technical co-founder.
Artur Balabanskyy, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of product studio Tapforce, knows this pain. He helped usher more than 40 consumer apps to market and beyond, and he knows that no matter what the LLM says, coding takes brains, patience, and energy, and burnout is still very, very real.
“The truth is that most entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed, and in my experience, that’s especially true for first-time founders,” Balabanskyy said. “It doesn’t have to be that way, though. At Tapforce, we put some rules in place to ensure that even with massive code deployments and tight deadlines, we can still build lean and clean products for our clients.”
Burnt out? You’re not alone
The numbers don’t lie. A 2025 study by Sifted found that 83 percent of founders reported high stress in the previous year. Seventy-five percent said they had experienced anxiety, and 54 percent reported burnout. Many said they had sacrificed their social lives, vacations, exercise, healthy eating, and time with their families to keep up with the demands of their roles.
Going deeper, a report from University College London’s School of Management shows the same pattern. It found that 93 percent of founders suffer from strained mental health, with anxiety levels five times the national average. Research also shows that when founders’ well-being and satisfaction fall, so does business performance. Strong companies depend on leaders who protect their home lives, not only their work.
The Tapforce Method
Balabanskyy built Tapforce with founders in mind. His goal, quite simply, was to build a company that founders could trust completely. With Tapforce, every aspect of the platform, from the user experience to its cybersecurity, gets organic treatment with real developers. Unlike other product studios, which offer limited, one-time deliverables or short-term fixes, Tapforce forges enduring partnerships with founders and takes a long-term approach.
This partner approach is part of what makes Tapforce more appealing to founders than, say, an offshore development company. Balabanskyy knows that founders need a break.
“A good way of thinking about what we do is that we provide a ‘co-founder as a service,’” Balabanskyy said. “First, we cut through the noise and show you exactly what it will take for your app or website to succeed. Then we take on much of that work for you and execute at the highest level.”
“When I partnered with Tapforce, I felt for the first time that I had a true technology partner… that I could really rely on and depend on to create the technology stack that we needed,” said Mark Krassner-Wave, co-founder of fertility, pregnancy, and motherhood app Expectful. “They didn’t just deliver the base of what we needed, but actually conscientiously developed our stack in a way that positioned us for real, long-term success as a company. They’ve worked with some incredible companies, and they really understand startups and what it takes to make them work from a technological and strategic perspective. They’ve already gone through the learning curve. They knew exactly what my company needed, and they never missed that.”
As Andrew Mao, co-founder of cooking education app Parsnip, liked Balabanskyy’s depth of experience.
“They’ve launched over 40 consumer apps, so when you work with them, you don’t just get the engineering. You get the data collection, the marketing, and the go-to-market experience, too. You get to avoid making all the mistakes that other new businesses typically make, and that’s like magic. It’s like the ability to see around corners,” he said.
Much more than a product studio
In addition to helping founders build, Balabanskyy prides himself on sourcing a team that offers continued support after launch, helps hone and refine the product, and capitalizes on new opportunities. Part of the reason they are so invested in your long-term success is that they often work for an equity stake, meaning your accomplishments become theirs as well. In addition, they frequently help their clients reassure prospective investors during funding rounds.
“The Tapforce team, to their credit, did an incredible job of building trust with our investors,” Krassner-Wave said. “The investors got references for people that Tapforce had worked with in the past and had amazing things to say. They also really resonated with the fact that the Tapforce team was able to answer all of the questions that they surfaced in a very competent, conscientious way.”
Established companies also turn to Tapforce to hone their offerings, add new features, improve their user experience, or scale.
“No matter where your company is in its lifecycle, we have the experience to help you level up,” Balabanskyy said. “You don’t need to work harder. We help you scale smarter.”
Time to bring in the dreammakers
Tapforce is more than a typical product studio. Whether you are starting a new technology company or growing an existing business, Balabanskyy and his team bring a mix of engineering skills, business acumen, and real-world operating experience. They focus on building products that work, ship, and scale.
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