Managing remote teams really shouldn’t feel like a maze. Yet, over the years, we watched our staff and partners spend hours piecing together fragmented HR, Finance, and Recruitment data—spread across spreadsheets, inboxes, and disconnected systems.
At Gapstars, we knew there had to be a better way.

That’s why we built Cosmos—not as a public product, but as a purpose-built platform created exclusively to simplify how our partners manage their teams, informed entirely by the pain points they shared with us.

“Cosmos was built with one purpose in mind—to make it easier for our partners to manage their teams, based on what they told us they needed. Every feature is shaped by real feedback, with the goal of simplifying their day-to-day operations.”
– Hugo Hemmen, CEO, Gapstars

Why Cosmos? The Problem We Set Out to Solve:

Through months of partner conversations and our initial pilot program, three recurring challenges became clear:

1. 1. Lack of Visibility & Transparency
      Partners needed to manually track team information—such as contract timelines, join dates, and team updates—using their own spreadsheets or inbox searches, often without clear, real-time visibility.
   2. No Real-Time Recruitment Insights
      Tracking recruitment metrics relied heavily on manual updates, usually shared through conversations with Account Managers. There was no central, data-driven view of these key insights.
   3. Limited Learning & Development Oversight
      Tracking learning progress, requesting development courses, or understanding overall team growth required back-and-forth emails and fragmented communication.

“We saw firsthand how scattered information slowed down decision-making. Cosmos was our way of turning sometimes messy, manual processes into one clean, transparent system.”
– Reinout Waalkens, Account Manager, Gapstars

A central hub to manage your Gapstars team – built for transparency & efficiency.

 

Building Cosmos: Why This Wasn’t Easy

On the surface, Cosmos might look like a simple dashboard—but the real power is under the hood, as we have built integrations with all our key systems to make it seamless.

One of the biggest technical challenges our team faced was integrating and standardizing data across four major systems our partners and teams use daily: Recruitee (recruitment platform), MyCademy (learning & development), BambooHR (people management) & Exact Online (finance & invoicing)

Each of these platforms has its own API structure, security protocols, and update methods. Creating one unified, real-time view meant engineering a complex, but elegant solution.

The Technical Puzzle We Solved

Data Integration Across Diverse Systems
Each system spoke a different language. We had to pull data from different formats (XML, JSON), with unique authentication flows and rate limits. Our engineering team, led by Gihan De Silva & backed by Harsha Soysa, and Sukith De Silva, developed a standardized data model to ensure a seamless experience for the end user.

Real-Time Synchronization & Data Freshness
Some platforms didn’t even offer real-time data. Others provided outdated or incomplete information. To solve this, we built automated pipelines using Cloud Scheduler and ETL processes, ensuring data across HR, Finance, and Recruitment was always fresh and accurate.

Data Security at the Core
Given the sensitive nature of the information Cosmos handles, we prioritized data protection every step of the way. From secure authentication protocols to role-based access controls and strict data privacy policies, our team built Cosmos to meet high standards of security and reliability.

(And yes, there’s a lot more happening behind the scenes to keep your data safe.)

“Bringing together fragmented systems, real-time updates, and strong security without compromising on performance—that’s what made Cosmos such a technical achievement. Our goal was simple: make something complex feel effortless for our partners.”
– Gihan De Silva, Head of Engineering & Product

The Cosmos build team – from architecture to execution.

 

What Cosmos Will Enable

With Cosmos live, it is immediately addressing some of our partners key pain points:

One-Stop Team Information Management
Access essential details about your Gapstars team—contracts, start dates, leave statuses, and more—in one place, without the admin chaos.

Recruitment Activity Insights
Gain metrics on hiring progress, average hire times, and candidate feedback—without chasing for updates.

Learning & Development Visibility
Understand what courses your team is engaged in, track progress, and request new learning paths—all from your dashboard.

Actionable Notifications
Receive timely alerts on contract renewals, leave approvals, employee onboarding, and more, without relying on fragmented email chains.

No more scattered follow-ups – Cosmos keeps you informed when your action is needed.

What’s Next?

For us, Cosmos isn’t a project that ends at launch—it’s a product that will keep evolving alongside our partners’ needs.
In the coming months, we’ll be rolling out new features that will make team management even more effortless. From deeper recruitment visibility to business intelligence dashboards and expanded HR workflows, Cosmos will continue to grow into the central hub for all things Gapstars.

Because we believe technology should move at the pace of your business—and Cosmos is built to do exactly that. 

Stay tuned for more updates. We can’t wait to share Cosmos with you soon!