Anthroware

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the SVP of Market Strategy at Salesloft - the #1 sales engagement provider for B2B companies using Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and Hubspot Sales. My role includes competitive positioning so a win/loss survey program provides invaluable information around what drove deals in both wins as well as losses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Anthroware?

We leveraged Anthroware for an ongoing win/loss program which included quarterly "readouts" for our ELT around data, trends and insights gleaned from current customers as well as lost opportunities.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We researched the leading providers in this relatively niche industry, received proposals from several, but found the team at Anthroware to be a difference maker from the other providers. It was immediately clear that they aligned with our culture and values, and their pricing was reasonable for the services we required.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Anthroware performed 15 surveys per quarter with individuals who recently decided to purchase Salesloft as well as those who choose to purchase from a competitor. Anthroware provided a survey template and worked closely with our team to tailor it to our industry as well as for the insights we were looking for during a particular quarter.

What was the team composition?

We had an incredible team of Logan (sales), Allis (analyst) and Jon (founder) who not only gave us the "what" but also helped us understand the "why" and "so what" findings from our survey results.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our results were more "qual" than "quant", however the impact was huge. The feedback from the Anthroware team during our quarterly "readouts" with ELT helped align our teams around buyer sentiment, effective messaging, our competitive strengths...and weaknesses, and helped our ELT refine our strategies.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. The mechanics were simple: We would identify what type of customers to survey based on things like segment, geography, win / loss type We would pull those records out of CRM and provide them to the Anthroware team Anthroware would reach out to the individuals and facilitate the surveys The surveys would be transcribed, annotated and consolidated into themes Those themes would be presented quarterly to our ELT.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We felt that Anthroware was both technically skilled and culturally aligned to our business values, ethics, and tone. Long story short - we knew that whether they were communicating with one of our customers or a prospect at a lost opportunity that they would be terrific representations of our brand.

Is there any area for improvement or anything that could have been done differently?

We found them to be great.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of an independent sales agency that works with multiple brands in the Outdoor Industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Anthroware?

I wanted to create a place where I could put my best foot forward to potential new vendors as well as my partners to be able to access assets to improve their businesses.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We chose Anthroware because of their unique process to get to know us on a personal level and their ability to make the website something that looks like us. Jon was extremely influential in helping us to hone our persona in a unique way that makes us more defined in our industry. There was a unique ability of Anthroware to understand our industry that immediately drew us to them professionally.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We met early on to establish the needs of our agency website. We established that the needs of our website was in fact a step beyond where we were in our vision and mission for the company.

We had multiple creative sessions to establish our persona as a company and lay the groundwork to develop a written mission statement that would help us to define how the end product would be perceived. Once the design work began, we had multiple reveal meetings to ensure that our visions were aligned.

It was incredible how responsive and professional the design team was. In our final meeting, I felt educated and comfortable managing long term the final product.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I worked with three people from Anthroware;

• Jon - CEO
• Nick - Creative Director
• Ailis - UX Designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

I have been extremely happy with the results from our website. It has increased the awareness of our agency within our field and allowed potential vendors to easily research our agency. Also, it has assisted our clients with finding the links to the resources in an efficient manner. Overall it has increased our productivity and efficiency.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team was extremely easy to communicate and schedule meetings. Our meetings were all virtual, and the best part was that they were organized, well directed, concise/efficient, and fun.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I was impressed by their ability to communicate with me in a way that I understood. I am not very proficient with web design and the way that they communicated with me and finalized the project left me in a great position to succeed in moving my business tot he next level with the next project.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

The project could always be done yesterday, but a high end product takes time and is well worth the wait.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO of a mobile app company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Anthroware?

Rebuilding existing mobile application and building out UX / UI designs with our in-house backend team in the establish budget and timelines.

What were your goals for this project?

Rebuilding existing application and build out UX / UI designs with our in-house backend team in the establish budget and timelines.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A referral for a tech founder who had not worked with Anthroware.

Describe the project in detail.

We had an existing application that need to be building. We handed new UX / UI designs to Anthroware and they worked alongside our backend team.

What was the team composition?

Anthroware appointed 7 of their 10 staff to our project despite only needing 2-3 engineers to complete the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Project was late, overbudget, and poor quality. We had to cancel three customer contracts due to the quality of work provided by Anthroware.

After five weeks of QA, one client asked if we had tested the product whatsoever before we provided it to them to test drive, then promptly canceled the pilot, citing that it was nowhere near completion.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Anthroware required our team to be in stand up meetings three times a week; however, timelines were never discussed. Anthroware staff would simply say 'No blocks' and avoid discussing timelines whatsoever.

Finances were similarly guarded. Despite numerous asked to see the burn rate Anthroware would not provide runway until two weeks before a nine-day development gap as we had pre-paid for QA before not expecting development to be double to the amount they originally estimated.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I am impressed that Anthroware is still in business. Besides thei team's ineffective resource management, their inability to meet deadlines and appalling customer success are beyond reasonable comprehension.

My favourite example of Anthroware's customer success involved Anthroware's CEO, Jon Jones, calling me when I mentioned to the Anthroware development team that we lost a contract because they had not completed the project on time with, "I don't care how you feel. Never bum out my team for being behind schedule."

Anthroware's CEO then threatened to pull the technical team off our mobile project entirely so we would lose further revenue.

Are there any areas for improvement?

After going over the established budget and timelines, Anthroware CEO Jon Jones requested equity in our company to complete the product his team was unable to complete in the established time and budget.

After we refused he extorted us into signing another contract at a higher rate; otherwise, we would lose the $200,000+ investment we had already made.

His email reads as follows:

"Aaron, I’m not sure how concerned [Investor 1] and [Investor 2] would be with you investing your own shares and not diluting their investments... Regardless, based on the posture you’re taking, it doesn’t look like that is going to work for either of us.

I have one other option that I’ve been saving because I don’t like it as much; but does take into account our risk AND gets you through the Oct. launch without messing around with equity.

Safe to say we view your equity differently than you do, so here is option B (or C, D, E... ).

Right now you’re getting a special rate because you’re pre-paying and we gave you a startup discount. It’s about 13% below our regular rate of $150/hr. The new deal is simple, we remove that and flip it the other way. Instead of a discounted rate, you pay 20% higher ($180/hr) and we move to Time and Materials billing.

Effectively, it’s expensive debt. Just lasts through MVP and you get paid, then we go back to a rate that makes sense and maybe even talk about that “Anthroware Ventures” thing with an even lower rate for members.

No equity exchanged at this time at all. We’re all just trying to cover this gap and get you squared away. Just being clear that we’re gambling with my money, so we need to see that come back somehow."

The contract we were extorted into signing came with a total that was double the original estimate. Anthroware refusing to extend repayment deadlines beyond two months despite claiming to support the growth of startups in his community.

Areas of Improvement include:

• Untrustworthy and irrational leadership
• Inability to manage time and resources effectively
• Poor communication of project finances and deadlines
• Inability to manage staff effectively
• Lack of professionalism
• Yelling at clients after losing contracts because work is behind schedule
• Extorsion for equity in our company after mismanaging pre-paid resources and not meeting schedule deadlines
• Disregard for laws and legal agreements
• Increased hourly rates after they went over budget, and we would not provide them equity in our company
• Irrational, irreverent, and unprofessional

Company Responses

The vendor responded on December 6, 2019.

We’re very sorry you had a bad experience. Our team of 3.5 engineers worked hard for you and delivered two native apps with amazing engineering in a short time.

This reply is for other vendors that this client might contact. Their developers are great! They’re good people with experience in entrepreneurship and engineering. They communicate well collaborate really well. Unfortunately, the CEO demonstrated inexperience and unrealistic expectations regarding business growth and product development.

Anthroware’s tone throughout the engagement was one of building-up and encouragement; even during our breakup call, our CTO spent time talking sales strategy and providing ideas in that regard. The CEO sung our praises loudly up until the company ran out of funding. We took great pride when the CEO stated, “Working with you guys is easier than ordering a pizza! We just say what we want and it happens!“

However, after the company ran out of cash, the CEO came to us asking us to find a way to not stop the project—to the point that they offered equity. We are a cash business with 19 employees; it’s hard for us to take risk on others’ behalf. Ultimately, we couldn’t reach an equity deal that made sense for Anthroware with that company. 

We came to other terms and delivered the apps on the prescribed timeline. We honored our warranty, fixed bugs and built one whole feature for free. It's unfortunate our integrity did not matter to the CEO, we ended our relationship with that company as soon as our contract was fulfilled.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager for a company that provides consulting services and software-as-a-service (SaaS) to school districts, states, and various agencies in the education and Health and Human Services sectors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Anthroware?

We hired Anthroware to work on various projects.  Time constraints on getting this product to market required that I augment my team with contract/temporary developers.  We worked with them on user interface and workflow designs, and the initial design and development of the product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Two of our most recent projects were a web-based software product to help organizations comply with Title I regulations, and a survey software product for students to submit about their teachers and courses.

The Title I product enables school districts and states to ensure that they are compliant with the requirements for Title 1, and to monitor the funds provided to them under this program.

Anthroware built both the survey and Title I applications and began working with us during the initial discovery and requirements phases. They worked extensively on building mockups for the user interface, which we workshopped with our internal business team until we had a product we all supported. Anthroware wrote the technical specs and did all the database architecture design.

The survey web platform has a clean and simple user interface, which was a large requirement for us since it’s meant for third graders. The Title I app has a responsive design and is consistent across mobile devices as well as desktop and laptop screens.

What is the team dynamic?

Jason Stewart [Vice President, Anthroware] was our database architect [DBA] and main point of contact, James Shaw was our senior architect, and we worked with both of them on the two projects. We had additional team members who did frontend, backend, design work, and .net dev.

How did you come to work with Anthroware?

I used to work with Jason, and I’m familiar with his work, so I knew I could trust his design decisions and ethics.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with Anthroware for about four years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Anthroware built the survey product on time and within budget, and the stakeholders were impressed with its look, feel, performance, and quick development. The client said that it far exceeded their expectations, and it’s in its third year without any major issues. The survey needed to support nearly 2,500,000 responses completed within a six-week period, and Anthroware made that possible.

How did Anthroware perform from a project management standpoint?

Initially, the project management needed improvement.  However, Anthroware listened to my concerns and responded, and we haven’t had an issue with project management since.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Whenever we’ve hit an obstacle, Anthroware has immediately stepped in to help. They have phenomenal customer service, their ethics are above reproach, and they’re willing to do whatever is necessary to finish a job. Instead of waiting to be told what to do, they’re proactive, take pride in their work, and ensure everything runs smoothly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

My only concern has been project management, but this has since improved, so I don’t have any other concerns. I love working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Anthroware offers more than just development, so take full advantage of their skills. Let them participate in the requirements phase because they're bright, insightful, and will come up with great ideas.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am on the healthcare side of a consulting company called PCG, mostly working with state Medicaid agencies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Anthroware?

We needed a software tool to help record and track data for screenings of Medicaid providers that could be modular and flexible for working in different states.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After getting to know some of the complexities of our work and considering whether they could simply update our previous applications for this task, Anthroware decided to build the new data capture application from scratch. They also included a feature that created an enhanced PDF summary of all the data captured in case a customer wanted to see it.

What is the team dynamic?

The project manager and main point of contact for most of the project was Jeff [Brand Strategist, Anthroware], who took over from the first project manager they assigned to us. They also had a developer, a database engineer, and a UX / UI specialist.

How did you come to work with Anthroware?

I knew Anthroware's CEO, Jon Jones, when he used to work here at BCG, and they have done work for us in the past. We didn't consider any other options besides our own internal team.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $225,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in December 2016 and completed in October 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Compared to our previous internal attempts at developing this type of tool, their application is must faster, better looking, and more intuitive. However, the real measure of the software will be the time it takes to modify it for work in new states, which we have not tested yet.

How did Anthroware perform from a project management standpoint?

They were a bit clunky, especially because they switched project managers halfway through which required us to spend time getting the new one up to speed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very helpful during the phase of determining the needed specifications, pushing us to define exactly what we needed out of the final product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish the development process was quicker, but I might be asking for the impossible on that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have well-defined specifications because they will force you to consider your options and make those decisions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The business is Mission Health System. We are a hospital system in Western North Carolina. We also have inpatient, ambulatory, primary care, specialty, and ancillary practices.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Anthroware?

We have 12,000 employees that are lacking the tools needed to access information and resources to do their jobs. We have tools, but they're not efficient. We have an older intranet that has some information, other interior websites that offer a different set, but there's no consolidated set of resources for employees and the teams they work on to help them do their work. We wanted to improve employee engagement, productivity, and help simplify tasks for employees. We didn't have the capabilities in-house and the staff to build it ourselves.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Anthroware developed software to help consolidate all the resources in the form of a mobile app. They're helping us get the first iteration out which includes timekeeping, filtering the most important messages an employee needs to know when they come on shift, and the consolidated view of tools and key time-keeping information. The timekeeping feature has been built as of now.

We did some extensive user studies. We talked to users and stakeholders and collected feedback from them about what's important to them, what they value the most from an app like this, and how they would rank some of the features. That helped us narrow in on the first set of features to offer. Anthroware summarized it and made a recommendation to us on the approach.

The timekeeping feature allows them to clock in and out faster every day as opposed to the current telephone-based system. There have been additional user studies and user interfaces developed around the other use cases for messaging and delivering key information to employees called My Vitals.

We haven't engineered the rest of the parts yet. We've done user studies, and made some mock-ups of the user interfaces, and developed a release schedule. We are launching timekeeping in December 31, 2017, and we'll be rolling out the other features after that.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with Jon Jones [President, Anthroware], 1 product owner, 2 UI designers, 1 UX designer, and 2 software engineers. The size of the team grew as different people were pulled in at the right time. They were able to staff up as things got busier and as we got deeper into different aspects of it. I would speak to different people directly. I didn't always have to go through one person. They were all very approachable and available. We would have weekly status meetings, and then there would be contact in-between that.

How did you come to work with Anthroware?

I wasn't a part of that aspect. They were brought on and I started from there. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent over $100,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in December of last year and we have ongoing work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They delivered high-quality work with really skilled staff. They were very authentic and genuine with us, and they quickly took ownership of the goals of the project. They were invested in it not just because it was a job, but because they cared about what we were doing and felt it was important. It was easy to work with a team that shared that same level of engagement. They were able to bring a lot of ideas to the table that were helpful to the project.

How did Anthroware perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. We didn't use and project management tools specifically; we communicated through emails, phone calls, and meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their skill set they brought to the table, from software development, user interface, user experience, and engineering. They could quickly understand what we were trying to build and why it's important to our organization.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of any.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I can't think of anything right now.