AscentCore

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a media corporation. We’re a digital media company and we’re relatively known. I’m responsible for building out all our digital platforms and distribution systems to get our company’s content to all interested parties. Moreover, I contribute to diversifying our revenue streams, creating new platforms, and helping build new business ventures.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AscentCore?

Traditional print advertising is not as strong as it was before, and programmatic advertising is sucked up by aggregators like Google, Facebook, and other providers. In order to transform ourselves and move into the future, we needed to find new revenue streams. In fact, we had an opportunity to work in lead generation in the educational space. We chose AscentCore to help build a new platform that could create a level of innovation and technology for our current ranking business. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our website had very bad technology — it was old and poorly developed. The answer to that was to create an API-based engine where we could create new rankings. We also wanted to make the entire setup blazingly fast and designed for SEO. Our goal was to build an MVP within four months. 

The team is building a product that can be used for any ranking with any data set. It’s designed with search at its heart in order to capture traffic that can be turned into leads. As a result, AscentCore provides three primary capabilities: architectural consulting services around software development, software development, and QA in the specific automation of our platform.

What is the team composition?

We work with 6–7 people from AscentCore.

How did you come to work with AscentCore?

I knew their founder for over a decade, and I was his customer and peer. When we had to launch this new product, my old vendor had gotten slightly complacent. Following that, I had to bid our project to a number of service providers and AscentCore was one of them. 

Rather than deciding for myself, I listened to the input of my entire product and technology group to pick the partner that they were most energized with. In the end, AscentCore won the bid because of their vision’s strength and the interaction that we had with them during the bidding process.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $200,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in December 2020, and we continue to collaborate. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

During post-launch, we’ve seen traffic grow consistently day over day. We track search performance on various keywords and over the first month of our operations, we’ve seen significant growth in our rankings for all keywords. Overall, they’ve been quite successful. 

How did AscentCore perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via Slack daily. Then, we typically meet three times a week. We also have ad hoc meetings to clarify details of the project whenever necessary, and we use Jira to collaborate for software development.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve been attracted by their CTO’s technological prowess and vision. That has made us confident that we’re going to accomplish the goals we set out to do — and they’ve exceeded our expectations with this. They understand our operations as a startup, and they move fast because of that. 

We also appreciate their flexible working style while we’re working on things as we move along. Other providers usually need a lot of documentation, and they require their clients to tell them explicitly what to do. However, AscentCore’s engineering team can implement successful builds despite not having clear project outlines. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Originally, they relied heavily on point-to-point communication, so they interacted specifically with individuals — that was successful. However, it created blind spots because not everybody knew everything that was going on. Since then, they’ve changed their style to a broadcast type of communications. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront about what you’re trying to accomplish and how you like to communicate. With any third-party software development provider, that’s key to success. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former CFO of a sales training company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AscentCore?

We were creating a prototype of an application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AscentCore worked on the internal coding of algorithms to interpret data and create predictive analytics off of it. They also created some reports so they could see how everything worked.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact was Cornel (CTO), but 1–2 people helped him.

How did you come to work with AscentCore?

I had worked with them before.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent somewhere between $10,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2019–March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We didn’t necessarily have any success metrics since they built a prototype. However, they helped us prove that our idea was feasible and that we could make an application out of it. It all came out better than we expected.

How did AscentCore perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well and kept us apprised of issues and concerns. Also, they delivered on time and within the budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Cornel took a very high-level concept and delivered a technical solution. Throughout the process, they added to our ideas and made them better.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The general advice that I’d give to anyone entering into an outsourced software development project would be to provide as much information upfront as possible. Also, give the team a clear idea of what you want to achieve.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Product Management of Foundry

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Foundry, an IDG company, is a media and marketing technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire AscentCore to accomplish?

• Software engineering support

SOLUTION

How did you find AscentCore?

Executive Sponsor

Why did you select AscentCore over others?

Executive Sponsorship

How many teammates from AscentCore were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

I've worked closely with the AscentCore team over the past 3-4 years building Foundry's B2B marketing software product. The scope of work has included anywhere from API integration into 3rd party systems to UI/UX design for our customer-facing application.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The projects that AscentCore was involved in resulted in supporting our revenue growth and customer retention.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

AscentCore has always delivered on time, and they've been very responsive to our needs. They are very client-focused and pleasant to work with.

What was your primary form of communication with AscentCore?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They are not reactive engineering support, but rather a technical partner that brings suggestions to the table. As a product manager, I really appreciate when engineers bring their suggestion to product development because I often have so many things to juggle and I can quickly become a bottleneck.

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

Everyone and every org has areas for improvement, I just can't think of one at this moment for AscentCore.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder, and we’re in the education space, expanding access to mental health supports for students in schools.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with {company_name}?

We needed to develop an MVP, and then continue feature work for a post-mvp product

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AscentCore built a web app for us. They started from scratch, developing it from the ground up. They took our rough concepts and designs and turned them into a reality.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a technical manager/architect, a senior frontend engineer, a senior backend engineer, and a UX/UI designer.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2022, and our partnership is ongoing.

How did you come to work with?

I heard about AscentCore via a referral.  I received proposals from 8 companies and AscentCore blew the rest out of the water. For me, it was really important that we had a company whose work product was really strong, but also flexible to our needs as a smaller start-up. They fit that.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The work they’ve delivered has been fantastic. Everything is in top shape, with minor adjustments before we have to go to production. Overall, it’s been really high quality work.

How did the company perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve never had an issue with them regarding deadlines or budgets. They’re very cost-conscious with working with us, always making an effort to make sure we stay under budget. They haven’t missed a deadline and are always ahead of schedule. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

What stands out the most about their team is their dedication to meeting our needs and bringing innovative solutions to the table.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything on that end. I’m impressed with them on that front.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They are flexible, so there is nothing to say on areas they could improve.