Blink22

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a lifestyle management company. It’s an iOS mobile application that helps users balance their lifestyle through video content, calendars, and messaging capabilities. I’ve worked on a lot of designs, strategies, and branding over the course of 10 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?

We’ve been working with Blink22 to develop and launch our product in the next six months.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Blink22 has developed our mobile app from scratch. We’re building it for iOS and, shortly, for Android and web as well. 

What is the team composition?

Moustafa (Co-Founder & CEO) is my main point of contact. Blink22 has a full development team of probably 12 engineers and a couple of designers working on the project. We also have a QA and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Blink22?

I believe I found Blink22 through a review website while I was looking for different development US-based companies. I wasn’t looking for an agency with a heavy roster of developers because we’d lose quality nor a company with only co-founders. I wanted people who could bring some ammunition to the table; maybe a team of 6–10 people would be perfect.

I got a lot of calls with a lot of different people, but the background, experience, portfolio, and age of the Blink22 founders impressed me. I’d worked in tech for over ten years, started a company in college, worked on global consulting level for a large company after college, started another company, and I’d seen a lot of people in the space of tech, but not like them.

I wanted to slowly meet the Blink22 team. I met the project manager and some of the leads, who I was very impressed with. Then, we gave them the scope of the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $50,000, and there’s another $50,000–$100,000 still coming for the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Blink22 in October 2020. The project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a realistic timeline, demos, and test scripts that we set out for Blink22 to understand and accomplish. 

We aren’t launched yet, but it’s a big piece of software. One of these pieces could be its own app — it has three that are all integrated. We’ve had to break the project down into milestones and subprocess areas. Every two weeks, we have a demo that shows a piece of functionality and later integrates onto other pieces of the platform.

There’s also QA, and we do unit, string, integration, and end testing. Unit and integration testing are big things because, as we build, we make sure the software works with other parts and is standard. We have test scripts that we follow to know if it’s working or not — it’s very prescriptive.

How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate with Blink22 through Google Meet, Google Calendar, and Slack. For project management, we use Jira, Figma for design, and SharePoint for my own personal repository. Blink22 has its own project management tool for internal purposes. It’s custom software that they've built to manage their products, and it’s integrated as a little plug-in into Slack — it can message their team automatically in Slack. It’s very impressive.

I have a weekly call with the project manager and a biweekly call with the sponsors. Everyone that’s onboard has been able to deliver, and they’ve been good about communicating. In addition, Blink22’s quality of work has been great. All development projects need debugging, but they have a good attitude when doing it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve started off in a smaller capacity with Blink22, but I’ve found that their team is highly capable, and they have excellent time management and communication skill set. I have nothing but good things to say about Blink22. They’re probably my favorite team that’s on the project. 

At the beginning of the project, I was unsettled with their project manager — with who I had a good relationship — because we were in the early stages of getting to know how they work. However, when that happened, Blink22 brought in a more senior project manager who wasn’t even billable to help oversee the meetings. 

That senior project manager has been on the project, even though he isn’t part of the effort model for their resources. Blink22 has been very quick to bring in new people when it’s needed.

We’ll keep building software with Blink22 for the next year and a half because of the contract. My mobile app will grow, and I can see our companies growing together to the point where their team would work full-time on my app. I want Blink22 to hire more people because we’re going to need a specialist.

I can see Blink22 growing and being one of the biggest companies in their region. I want to be part of that because of how well our relationship has developed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Blink22 could have consistent project management, such as meetings. I want the project to be faster, but I need to have a more realistic expectation because it’s a big platform. The project is going to take longer, but I’m comfortable with the Blink22 team, and I’m sure that they’re able to do it. It’s the most complex thing I’ve ever seen.

Any advice for potential customers?

You should have your design work scoped out. The Blink22 designers are awesome, but they need something to work off of, so have your inspiration already built out. If you can, hire a consultant to help you with business questions before bringing them onto the project. You’ll have a better vision of your product when Blink22 comes on board because as soon as they’re part of your project, they’re going to take it and run with it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product at Careem, a ride-hailing app in the Middle East. It provides a platform that spins off different verticals such as the ride-hailing app, deliveries, and mass transportation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?

We needed a company to be the software development arm for one of our verticals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re responsible for the frontend web development of our dashboards. They also provide mobile app development for iOS and Android native apps. They’ve been responsible for our customer apps and our driver apps.

What is the team composition?

There are around seven people working with us. We have a couple of people for Android, a couple for iOS, and 2-3 working on full-stack development.

How did you come to work with Blink22?

One of our colleagues used to work with some of the founders. We have an onboarding task for software houses that are going to be working with us. They passed that task and have been our development arm ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $250,000-$300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They had quite a high level of ownership over the project. They didn’t feel like an outsourced provider. They felt like part of our team, working with us to deliver the product as we hoped. The quality has been good. The engineers had mid-level experience and their work met expectations.

How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very proactive and open to feedback. We made multiple changes to our contractual agreements, and we even made requests that weren’t part of our agreement that they have fulfilled for us. They’ve been quite collaborative.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their frontend capabilities are strong.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was a little bit of turnover on their side for some of their engineers who were leaving for other opportunities. The pace of restaffing could have been improved a little bit. It cost us a couple of weeks of development.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have very clear expectations on deliverables. Have dedicated product owners or project managers to work with them. Their engineers are of mid-level experience. Hence, there are some questions that need to be answered and they need someone to refer back to.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Khatabook is a digital ledger app that allows micro, small and medium-sized businesses to keep a digital log of their financial transactions and accept payments online. I am Product Manager here and lead payments product along with leading the Khatabook's iOS app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22?

Our android app was receiving a lot of customer love and had breached 10 Million plus installs and there was a huge demand for iOS app. Hence, we looked up for firms who could deliver a high quality iOS app and came across Blink22 on Clutch website. Blink22 now handles our iOS app development and also handles few components of our core android app.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to ship our iOS app by November end of 2019 and Blink22 hit that target and since then our goal has been to build on iOS app all the features which are available on our android app. We decide on weekly sprints and Blink22 has been able to meet every sprint deadline consistently. We currently have 250k+ installs on our iOS app and have crossed 30 Million installs of our android app.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our company's co-founder Dhanesh Kumar searched online for all the high quality teams who can build an iOS app and also work on our core android app. After reviewing a lot of firms for over a month within India we decided to look for teams based in abroad and came across Blink22 on Clutch website. Dhanesh got in touch with Blinkk22's cofounder and after few rounds of calls, we decided to finalise them as our app development partners.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we finalised Blink22 as our partners, we took their tech team through our backend and explained in detail how our platform works. Post which, they started building new features for our android app, we provided them with the designs on Zeplin and added tasks on Jira to track the progress. They followed sprint diligently and kept shipping the features on time. The project included building few features on the android app plus to build and maintain complete iOS app right from choosing which platform to build our app on to backend integrations, designing of the screens, complete front end development and analytics logging.

What was the team composition?

We initially got 2 developers and 1 product manager for our android app development from Blink22's end. Then as we started our work on iOS app we added 2 iOS developers, 1 designer and their senior iOS engineer to ensure high quality gets shipped from their team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within 60 days of our iOS app launch we were trending on App Store, we hit #9 rank on all categories combined. We have been trending on #1 on business category in India since many weeks now. Our iOS app has crossed 250,000 installs and our users are loving the app with 4.9 rating on App Store.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It has been very smooth and effective. Yehia Ezzat, their product manager has been doing a great job in managing the entire project and team to keep things smooth even under very tough deadlines and ad-hoc task requests from our end. I worked closely with Nagendra, their designer to get high quality designs ready for iOS app. Their iOS developer Mohammed Allam has been an absolute rock star and we are very happy with his work and wish to keep building new features with Allam, Nagendra, Yehia and Dalia, their senior most iOS engineer who has helped us with all the difficult integrations and with such grace and friendliness.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their developers are really proficient and know their tech stack in and out. Any challenging problem we throw at them has always been handled with eagerness and curiosity to learn and solve the task at hand. Their commitment to keep proper process and frameworks to ensure smooth delivery of project requirements has been a stand out point. Kudos to them for the same.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None I can think of, we have been completely satisfied and happy with their work. In between when the work was being slowed down a bit due to bugs they immediately replaced and alloted us a senior developer to make sure the project timelines and quality don't get affected.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a two year old startup proving on-demand workspaces to freelancers and entrepreneurs. Based out of Toronto, ON with over 8000 members. I am a product manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22?

As we began to ramp up development, we needed help building our iOS and Android products, but did not have the time to hire and onboard a new employee. We were aware that there were a number of features that, if executed rapidly, could unlock a lot of value to our members.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to hire a developer (or developers) who could execute writing code in both platforms that was clean, scalable, and sophisticated. The developers needed to have vast experience in both iOS and Android, being able to navigate from Java to Kotlin (in android) and Objective C to Swift (on iOS).

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We spoke with 6 agencies that were excited to work with us. The factors that we're important to us included experience developing on both platforms, number of projects in their portfolio, and cost. The selection process was a number of interviews, detailed analysis of their portfolio, and a "sample" feature to create in order to test their code.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Blink22 is responsible for developing new features from a design spec, testing thoroughly, and being responsive when bugs are found.

What was the team composition?

The core team is 3-4 developers that are comfortable on both platforms. However, team size increases or decreases depending on number of features being built at once.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our efficiency in development time has improved significantly since working with Blink22. It once used to be a major blockers when testing new features that could unlock value, and it since has been removed as a blocker for us. Blink22 exceeded our expectations in terms of dedication to the quality of their development.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management has been excellent thus far, always meeting deadlines, working with us on expectations, and being incredibly responsive. We've communicated over Slack, Github, and Jira. No issues has ever been caused by language barrier.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Blink22 has hired incredibly talented engineers that are extremely comfortable in an array of languages and platforms.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Responsiveness can lack at times, but this is a matter of a handful of times, as opposed to recurrent issues.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was head of engineering for mass transportation at Careem, the largest ride-hailing company in the Middle East; I left the company a couple of weeks ago as the company has been acquired.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?

We were launching a new product to address the mass transportation industry, but only had a small team of 3–4 engineers; we wanted to scale up our engineering team quickly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we kickstarted the mass transportation project, we had a small unit. We decided to outsource part of our team to Blink22 to increase our development capacities. Since they’re part of the engineering board, they haven’t worked on product or features. Blink22 continues to help build the platform.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with seven engineers who specialize in different domains including mobile, backend, and web developers.

How did you come to work with Blink22?

As head of engineering for a different company, several engineers I had hired left to join Blink22. When we were looking for a partner, they were my first option because I knew they had high standards regarding onboarding teammates.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $150,000 with Blink22.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began collaborating in December 2018, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After onboarding Blink22, we’ve rebuilt the velocity of development at Careem.

How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?

Blink22 has augmented our team. Rather than sending a partner black boxes to work on, the team has worked onsite. The relationship between companies and outsourced partners is usually strained but our collaboration with Blink22 has gone well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have been good partners. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, because we were the ones managing and executing the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a part in the contract that allows for full-time employment after the initial collaboration ends.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CTO and co-founder of Y Combinator-backed grocery delivery platform for North Africa and the Middle East.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?

We needed auxiliary engineers to help build some of the products we use. We were trying to scale very quickly, and we didn't have enough internal resources at the time to hire more people in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built two internal apps from scratch, and they supplemented one of our teams on a core application. That was a native Android app for grocers to receive orders. They also built a web dashboard for customer support. In-house, they built React Native components to fill in the gaps.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of about ten. There was a little bit of cycling, but I interacted directly with their three heads. Those executives were the project managers for each part of the project, with two or three other people per team.

How did you come to work with Blink22?

We didn't know them when we initially engaged them. I looked for people online and reached out to several dozen. Blink22 was within walking distance of our main offices, so meeting with them in person was very convenient. They made a good impression and could fill in all the gaps in our deployment schedule.

How much have you invested with them?

I'd say we spent $50,000-$60,000 during this collaboration.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement started around December 2018 and ended in July 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They helped bring our crash rates down. It's a cross-platform tool, so there were sometimes issues with the Android version. They did a lot of debugging, and they did a good job reducing the number of crash reports we deal with. They contributed significantly to our uptime and the app's reliability.

How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?

They were organized and provided everything we needed. We threw a lot at them, and they came up with a well-structured strategy. Direct feedback to our customer support team was good, and they would work with our users to fix bugs during the project. We created Slack channels and Jira boards and tightly integrated our teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to scale as needed is excellent. When we gave them extra projects, they added the people we needed to complete the tasks. They had the capability to take on any assignment.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything they could improve or do differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would highly recommend them, even if we weren't local to their area. Integrate them into your team and work with them as deeply as possible. In order to maximize their abilities, really share with them. They think at a higher macro-level than other outsourcing agencies. Tell them the scope of the problem, and they'll think with you to come up with the best approach.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a freelance data scientist with 11 years of experience working on research and industry projects. I also have a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22?

I hired Blink22 for the development of a web app for analyzing marketing data.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to develop a stable version of the web app, which helps marketers save time by accessing their email metrics on Slack.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I hired them based on reviews of previous customers.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

The project was ongoing, so they had to dive into the code already implemented. They became familiar with the project very quickly and started making progress.

What was the team composition?

The project team had about four people: the project manager, two full-stack developers, and a frontend developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

It's still an ongoing project, but the early feedback has been encouraging. I'm very satisfied with this cooperation so I'm going to continue working with them.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The collaboration is excellent. We use Slack, Jira, and Bitbucket. They are easy to communicate with and adhere to deadlines. Plus, they take advantage of best practices and the latest technologies.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

What differentiates them is that they always provide guidance and support that goes beyond their assigned tasks. It feels like I have a technical co-founder working with me.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I really can't think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of WishYoo. We have a web platform as well as an iOS and Android application. We’re in the consumer products category doing, what we call, the next evolution of the greeting card.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?

We were looking for someone to help us with our Android app and solve chronic problems around implementing original features. We needed someone that could think outside the box and develop something unique.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They designed and implemented many features we had planned for our native Android application. We provided them with some wireframes for a few of the features, and for the others, they came up with the best way to adapt to our needs.

They integrated a sign-in board and everything that went around having people being able to post signatures, dedications, pictures on the same surface at the same time. There were many other features, for example, managing different profiles and classes of cards and users.

What is the team composition?

We worked with at least four people from their team. Some were on and off, while others were more on a continuous basis. We sometimes worked with a project manager, and sometimes directly with the developers.

How did you come to work with Blink22?

We posted the job posting on Upwork and they responded with an offer. We started off slow and gave them a bit of room to prove themselves, then we finally engaged with them for the whole application.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent between $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in 2016 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app has been working very well. Most of the time the Android app has been outperforming our iOS app.

How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed very well. We’re not the best company when it comes to communication, and there were lots of changes as well as back and forth throughout this engagement, which isn’t easy for developers to manage. However, their response has not only been very proactive, but also very helpful. They’re always respectful, and communicative. We use Slack, email, Asana, Google Drive, and the phone.

Among the many contractors and teams we’ve worked with on this project, they’ve been the one that’s never failed to communicate. This has been invaluable because the one thing that CEOs and founders don’t like is silence—we like response and we like to move fast, which they do.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I am a very astute person when it comes to what I want, and they have been one of two, out of 20, people that we’ve worked with that have been able to survive in our project. They’re doing a good job. They proved to be very proactive in a way they helped us solve problems.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything I would have wanted them to do differently. They worked fast, responded quickly, and the code is good.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear on what the problems are. If you communicate clearly and graphically, that is more than enough for them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder and MD of Carpool Club which connects passengers commuting to work with drivers who have spare seats in their cars, helping to address problems with traffic congestion.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22?

We needed two apps developed to allow passengers and drivers to connect in real time. Each one was for iOS and Android operating systems, so there were four apps in total. The development included a payment gateway and inclusion of specific parameters for how connections should be made.

What were your goals for this project?

To have apps that work seamlessly, within the agreed timeframe to allow the company to launch.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Through a contact I had worked with in Australia.

Describe the project in detail.

They developed the apps for iOS and Android, each for passengers and drivers. Users enter their daily commute when they are ready to travel. The apps then find drivers and passengers heading in the same direction in real time. 

Passengers buy tokens within the app to pay for trips. When trips are successfully made, the tokens transfer to the driver’s account. The driver can then use the tokens to travel as a passenger themselves or cash them in. Passengers can also apply filters to refine which drivers get offered their trip. Finally, drivers and passengers rate each other at the conclusion of each trip.

What was the team composition?

Two Blink22 developers based in Alexandria, Egypt were my contact for all work done.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The apps are working well after having gone live in January 2018.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their responsiveness was excellent.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They did a great job of taking my brief and converting it into a workflow of development work. They came up with excellent enhancements along the way, which improved the final outcome. They delivered on their brief without significant increases to work required—other than changes I initiated—and the majority of the time milestones were met.

Are there any areas for improvement?

On a few occasions, the team initiated modifications which they thought would improve the UX, but which I had not requested and were not deployed. This was due to them not understanding our local market. I was not charged for that work, but it took up time and resources. 

Although their intentions were good, it would have been better for the team to check with me before initiating these changes. However, there were other initiatives of theirs that were used, so I wasn't too concerned.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CPO of Chatla, an advertising and marketing company. We turn app events into revenue-driving WhatsApp conversations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?

We needed help building the web app for Chatla.io. We also needed to build a scalable infrastructure for Chatla.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Blink22 has handled the development and UI/UX design of our web app. The team has delivered the core web app design and development by connecting with Meta Suite to enable the following features:

• AI customer support to handle frustrated customers
• Meta/WhatsApp marketing campaigns
• Meta/WhatsApp notifications for personalized events for the end user

In addition to development and design, Blink22 has also been responsible for deployment, server setup, integrations, and maintenance.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with two teammates from Blink22.

How did you come to work with Blink22?

We found Blink22 through a referral. We chose them over other options because they offered high quality for complex projects.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$200,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2025, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Blink22 has delivered the needed features with no bugs.

How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?

Blink22 has delivered on time. If they’re a bit late, they manage to push to meet deadlines. We communicate via in-person meetings, virtual meetings, and email or messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve been impressed with their quality, collaboration, and dedication.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing they need to improve.