Brainhub

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a stealth startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainhub?

We were building our first beta product, so we needed extra help in a short period of time. We already had an internal team, but our hiring was slow, so we hired them to help us hire engineers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brainhub supported us in building a complex website. We already had an existing product built and Brainhub’s engineers served as additional support to our team. They joined our meetings and learned about our processes and existing codebase.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two software engineers.

How did you come to work with Brainhub?

Their team was recommended to us by another startup.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €250,000 (approximately $275,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Brainhub from January 2020–March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We only had a pre-launch, so we didn’t have any metrics yet.

How did Brainhub perform from a project management standpoint?

They didn’t do any project management because they only supplemented our existing team. We communicate through our weekly sprints and on Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Brainhub team was known for their JavaScript expertise.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They tried their best during our engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat them as experts who would teach your team about JavaScript's best practices.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Chief Brand Strategy and Community Partner. Our company simplifies international education via connecting students, universities and a community all in one platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Brainhub, and what were your goals?

We hired Brainhub to help us scale our engineering teams to enhance and deliver solutions for students and universities. The goal was to do a significant tech upgrade and simplify our existing architecture of web portals and several mobile applications, which manages the journeys for our key stakeholders.

We looked for the React and React Native specialists, able to transfer one of the platforms to React, with a deep understanding of the technology stack, our business vision, and goals.

SOLUTION

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

Through researching and talking to a range of companies we found on Clutch.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Brainhub took responsibility for a huge development part and for organizing their developers' pipelines. Business Analyst, Delivery Manager and Technical Advisor from Brainhub were working closely with us especially in the early stages of development and were responsible for adjusting tech decisions to meet our business needs.

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

Brainhub provided 5 skilled, knowledgeable fullstack developers. The Delivery Manager was focused on making sure everything is going in the right direction, and the Business Analyst took care of the backlog and results. The team was also composed of a Technical Advisor who combined technical and business points of view to make sure technology decisions are made with the business goals in mind.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The project ended with the production version of the Client Portal and the Account Manager Portal, and a beta version of a mobile app that had a few thousand users at the end of our cooperation.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The project was organized with Scrum sprints. Business Analyst and Delivery Manager from Brainhub made sure the team was working on the right priorities from the business perspective. In terms of tools we used Jira for tasks management, and Slack for communication, which was very convenient.

We had daily meetings, and every two weeks there was a planning session where we discussed what should be delivered next to meet the business goals. Once for two weeks, we had a review when Brainhub showed the results of a sprint and progress toward the product goal. The whole process was flexible, and the team was ready to make changes and adjustments when possible.

The sprints were short so no time was wasted and together we were able to quickly spot when something was going in the wrong direction. The Business Analyst was immediately ready to adjust the tasks allocation and Backlog.

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

We were impressed by the technical knowledge of Brainhub developers and the quality of the code they delivered. We loved the ability to contact developers directly, it facilitated communication and removed possible obstacles. Brainhub team members were very proactive.

The company was able to compose such a team that was focused on aligning tech with business needs and making the right decisions swiftly.

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

Nothing significant to add.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Collegial. We’re an educational technology provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainhub?

We brought them on to support us in the development of our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our engagement is based on a strategic, tactical, and operational level when it comes to design and engineering. We work with Brainhub. They provide a strategic perspective to ensure that the development and design are aligned with the business objectives connected to what they’re involved and engaged with. Our stack is primarily built on TypeScript, React, and Go. Our cloud environment is AWS.

What our platform delivers is a content aggregation ability. We have an open content catalog that allows for integration with various digital learning providers, whether those may be digital natives or it may be a university or other educational provider that offers virtual interactive programs or on-demand content. We provide those types of integrations that enable our product to deliver a single point of access to a multitude of different learning providers.

Another aspect is that we aggregate data from all of our providers in order to give a holistic view of an individual’s, team’s, and organization’s learning and development activity.

What is the team composition?

Our team consists of six developers, a UX designer, and a team lead.

How did you come to work with Brainhub?

We came to engage with them through a recommendation. One of our own developers had worked with Brainhub at a previous company. I was impressed with both the technical skill of their developers and the cultural aspect of how they worked — both within their own teams and with the organizations they service.

How much have you invested with them?

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

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around September 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The impact was seen as early as two weeks in. They immediately produced a very high quality of work. Everyone we have worked with on the Brainhub team has been curious, self-driven, and structured. They have a clear sense of how they work.

After two weeks of onboarding the first three developers, they proposed doing a weekend hackathon in order to accelerate a particular feature they were involved in. This was completely on their own initiative. This showed the commitment that these three individuals had for our company and the product. This was a phenomenal start to our partnership.

Brainhub is fully integrated with our team. They’re an extension of our organization and are valuable members of our team. We don’t see them as external consultants, they’re very much a partner. We have every intention of making this a long-term partnership.

How did Brainhub perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re experts on project management tools. We utilize Jira, and Brainhub is proficient with it. We do regular check-ins. Their team has very good processes for how they work and have been an inspiration to us. For context, we’re a relatively young company and have had our product in the market for about 18 months.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Brainhub brings a lot to the table. They provide quality of work and interest in what they do. What’s more, they’re nice people who are fun to work with. We enjoy having them on the team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any areas that need improvement. We’re successively increasing our commitment because we’re so happy with how the relationship is evolving.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Articulate the value that you’re trying to provide for your customers. The idea of working with something that has a higher purpose really gets your team fired up. Secondly, make sure your organization’s culture matches with that of Brainhub. There needs to be a focus on inclusion, transparency, communication, and care for each other.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager and senior developer for a telecommunications company that specializes in vanity and toll-free phone numbers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainhub?

When I first joined, they did product management for us. Since then, our partnership has grown and they’ve provided design and development support on a variety of different projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve developed a React Native website and are hosting it on AWS. They also have worked on our Android and iOS app. They generally use Atlassian tools such as Bitbucket and Jira.

When we begin a new project, I usually sit down with the CEO and stakeholders to go over our vision, define what features need to be implemented, and prioritize bugs. Then I sit down with their team to go over the requirements and they help me divide everything into Trello cards.

From there, they go through a few rounds of designs. Once they’re finalized, they help us divide the development work into milestones. Then developers then start working on those deliverables with feedback from us.

What is the team composition?

We have two frontend developers, one designer, a project manager, and a scrum master.

How did you come to work with Brainhub?

They were partners with my company before I joined the company.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend between $15,000–$20,000 a month (approximately $180,000–$240,000 in total).

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in February 2020 and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m very pleased with their designs for both our website and mobile apps. Even though our Android and iOS app share a code base, they seem to be very native. Additionally, they’re quick to act upon and feedback I give them.

How did Brainhub perform from a project management standpoint?

We work hand-in-hand with them. They’re basically members of our team. We have at least three video calls a week. Usually, they send us links to review their designs. Then, during our meetings, they use a variety of tools to facilitate brainstorming and create a vision board. They also use Trello and G Suite to manage tasks and share their work with us.

I was also really happy with how quickly they worked. They were able to develop our iOS and Android apps in a pretty short timeframe. They’ve never failed to deliver on time or within the expected range.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re more proactive than other development teams I’ve worked with in the past. They constantly try to communicate with us and ask for feedback.

They emphasize the importance of communication and clearly prioritize our weekly meetings. They insist on hosting regular calls and meetings. They seem to be fluent in our language, so we haven’t had any miscommunications.

They’re also very team-oriented. Even though there has been some turnover on our team, they’ve been able to quickly fill any void with another developer.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At this point, nothing springs to mind. Mostly because we communicate so often that I can openly give them feedback when things come up.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They have a lot of experience in software development, so new clients should trust their methods.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Business Developer. We offer an API for residential IP and proxy services and specialize in data-center and residential proxies. Our solution helps independent search engines to index the web.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Brainhub, and what were your goals?

As a consequence of the increasing number of new clients, we wanted to expand our platform, make it more scalable, take care of the highest performance, and extend the range of our services. We needed an expert who could augment our team quickly and work closely with our developers. We cared about the profound knowledge and understanding of the technology stack we use, to spend as little time on onboarding as possible. Brainhub supplemented our team with a knowledgeable developer who could start right away and fitted the team perfectly.

SOLUTION

How did you select Brainhub and what were the deciding factors?

We had seen their work on other projects and decided to use them.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We needed Brainhub to help us with the platform’s expansion in terms of development. The technology stack of the project was fancy and included Node.js, Golang, React, Kubernetes, and Prometheus, among others. Brainhub helped us with creating fault-tolerant, distributed, and scalable crawlers.

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

We hired one developer to supplement the team. He was very proactive, responsible, and fitted our team perfectly from the very beginning. He worked closely with two other developers of our team, and together they turned out to be very effective.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The project is still ongoing. The proxy is already deployed and stable, and work has been completed in most cases. Our current goal is to evolve the platform according to the growing number of clients.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

We had regular daily meetings in the mornings to discuss current tasks and priorities, and feedback sessions to submit amendments. The team was able to run several releases daily, making the process dynamic. We managed to arrange cooperation effectively despite the time zone differences and create a great, engaged team that worked very swiftly. In terms of tools, we used Slack for communication and Trello for project management, which allowed us to stay in the loop.

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

We appreciate their knowledge, engagement, and dedication. They deliver high quality, are open to feedback and collaboration. They supplemented the team effectively and were able to cooperate with our developers flawlessly, oriented on our platform’s success, as they were working with us since forever.

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

Nothing comes to my mind. We were impressed with how quickly Brainhub developer was able to start, with his knowledge and the level of dedication. We felt like he was a part of our team from the very beginning and that’s exactly what we wanted.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We offer custom, fully personalized training experience for runners and fitness enthusiasts. The company was founded in 2013 and quickly gained popularity in Poland. I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Brainhub?

With rapid growth in user base, we realized our initial web version of the service was simply not scalable enough to allow further progress, including the launch of long-awaited mobile app. We decided to rebuild the web version completely using more robust technology and simultaneously develop mobile app as well.

What were your goals for this project?

We are a service that people use "on the go", 70% of sessions are mobile so we needed our web and mobile apps to be EXTREMELY USER FRIENDLY, meaning UX and speed were our primary goals.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were very careful with the selection process - with our previous experience with software development outsourcing, we knew it's not about the money, but about value for money.

So we have done a huge bit of research (google, clutch), interviewed about 10 of the companies and went into more detailed project discussions with top 3. That might sound crazy, but at times, Brainhub made us feel like they cared about the project more than us.

Their input far exceeded traditional software development discussions, so picking them as our partners turned out to be a no-brainer really.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They took charge of the whole process really. They designed UI/UX for two separate experiences for our app (mobile and web), decided on tech stack, added new features (gamification), connected our app to 3rd party services (like Garmin Connect etc), developed, tested and made sure the switch to new version was smooth for our users.

What was the team composition?

We worked directly with two Brainhub consultants who covered all aspects of our cooperation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are very happy with the results and most importantly, so are our users. Business-wise in year-to-year comparison of the old app vs new app, our paid version conversions went up by approx 25% and user churn was decreased by 50% (!) which made a huge impact on our bottom line.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Nothing to complain about, we mainly communicated via email, with weekly update calls and keeping track of everything in Jira and Google Sheets.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We loved their "be our partner" attitude, compared to the standard client-vendor relationship. They immersed themselves into our project and it felt like they were part of our team. Apart from that - good business sense, vast tech knowledge and simply nice guys to spend time with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don't know. More upfront planning would be great but the project was so complex and still-evolving that this flexibility was in fact good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO at SportsRecruits, a platform that provides youth sports organizations, athletes, and their families with all the resources and guidance needed to effectively navigate the college recruiting process. Connections made on the platform have resulted in commitments to the best academic and athletic institutions across the United States.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Brainhub?

We hired Brainhub to build a prototype of an app that can allows events to manage schedules and allows users to interact with event data, including while they are offline.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to leverage Brainhub's expertise with React Native, in order to bring our own development team up to speed with the mobile app development techniques. We also relied on them to develop the offline download and sync capabilities.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We sent out requests for proposals to several companies we've identified as having positive reviews for similar projects. Brainhub was by far the most professional in understanding our needs, and sending back a proposal that addressed our needs.

Describe the project in detail.

We collaborated with two Brainhub engineers and one project manager in a way that truly felt like they were part of our team. We had daily updates in Slack and weekly demo calls to review progress. We reviewed code in a shared git repository and collaborated well on defining the scope with regards to spec and design. All Brainhub employees were very diligent and a pleasure to work with.

What was the team composition?

Two engineers, one more project manager and one technical advisor.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our team was able to take over the prototype thanks to collaborative way in which it was developed and transition it into a full QA-stage app currently being tested in TestFlight.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The company provided an accurate estimate and was committed to deliver on it, while being flexible, thorough, and easy to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m an independent author and entrepreneur, and Co-owner of a small publisher of horror, fantasy, and romance.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Brainhub?

I’ve hired Brainhub to develop a full-featured online platform for authors called Scribi Writer’s Studio.

What were your goals for this project?

I needed a platform where the entire process of writing books can take place from the initial idea all the way through compiling and updating ebooks in an author’s catalog.

Along the way, I wanted to take advantage of automation and smart technology integrations to help make the whole process more efficient and create opportunities for better stories, and provide seamless live collaboration between users.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Brainhub came highly recommended through a number of review sites, but they’ve also got a track record working with companies that I am familiar with that have proven themselves to be successful as well.

Part of making a software company successful is choosing the right developers and the right support.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

I provided wireframes and documentation about the writing process, about the frustrating choke points in that process, and about how I believed these problems could be solved.

Brainhub’s communication was immediate and consistent, and they set me up with two team members right away to translate all of that into a development plan that not only promises to meet those expectations, but also helped clarify the features for me so that I had a clearer idea of what the end product will be.

What was the team composition?

My team so far is two people for this stage, Rafał and Patryk, both of whom were friendly, professional, communicative, and very interested in the project and what I wanted to accomplish with it.

We had a remarkably helpful workshopping session that went longer than scheduled—they were very patient with me as I explained more about the writing process to them and they helped me boil that process down into something that software can manage effectively.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Scribi Writer’s Studio has become a great deal more focused, and I have a much clearer picture of what the functionality can and will be, and how to explain that to potential users as I move forward with a crowdfunding campaign.

Working with Brainhub has given me a lot of confidence, and they provided a great deal of valuable material after our workshop that has helped me not only continue to refine the platform itself, but also focus my messaging to get backers excited.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We arranged a video chat with shared screens so that they could show me visually what they were talking about, and where I could also use my own materials for demonstration purposes. There was no language barrier aside from professional jargon, and that mostly from my side.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their quick communication was really appreciated and remarkable. I queried three other developers at the same time, and by the time the other three had responded, I was already arranging a time for a workshop with Brainhub.

They are prompt, consistently in touch, and even since the workshop I’ve been in regular communication with the team there. That gives me a lot of confidence that I’ve made the right decision.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I really can’t think of any. This is my first foray into software development, and I was very nervous going in. Brainhub and the team there have really put me at ease.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a CTO at GOKONG AG. We are a fintech startup that offers a mobile app for finance fitness and aggregated finance management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Brainhub?

Brainhub has been hired to support our design and development process and build a mobile app from scratch.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to build a mobile app that would be to help people know, monitor, and control their financial health just like physical health.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

My team searched online for app developers in our area and composed a list of few vendors based on the case studies on their websites. We contacted each vendor and picked Brainhub based on the quality of their final proposal and the final price point.

Describe the project in detail.

They deliver information architecture, user flows, a functional and visual project of mobile app interfaces. Based on this, they develop the front-end of the mobile app, using React Native technology.

What was the team composition?

We were working with one designer and two developers from Brainhub.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Brainuhb was engaged in this project from the very beginning. The designer played a significant role in UI/IX design and implementation. Large chunks of the mobile app were built by Brainhub developers.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We were working directly with Brainhub developers and integrated them into our team, which was composed of Brainhub’s two developers and a designer. I guided them and scheduled daily meetings. We had demo and planning sessions every second week and followed Scrum-based approach. We used JIRA for tracking assignments.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We find the design to be of the highest quality, in large part, thanks to the Brainhub designer.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It's a growing company and like most growing companies it has growing pains, but the leadership will navigate through this phase of growth.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

DMX is a vision-driven, end-to-end enterprise platform for the automotive business. I am a co-founder and Head of Product & Technology for Dealer Market Exchange. I am focused on leading the architecture, build and deployment of the DMX platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Brainhub?

Brainhub has been hired to support the development and growth of the DMX platform. It has gone through iterations that include two web apps (React) and three mobile apps (React Native). We also have an extensive Node.js-based back end that supports these client apps.

What were your goals for this project?

The first goal was to gain velocity in adding new features and resolving defects. Additionally, web developers from Brainhub were working on UX/UI improvements.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We initially came across Brainhub via a post on Quora.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Core technologies in use are: JavaScript, React, Redux, redux-saga, React Native, Node.js, MongoDB, Redis, RabbitMQ and CircleCI. The backend comprised of more than 20 microservices and many custom libraries. Brainhub’s biggest contribution was helping us to reign-in our test code coverage and build out a very comprehensive Dev Ops solution and architecture.

With their help, we’ve now got rock-solid deployment mechanisms built and in place that even include custom Slackbot integrations for handling deployments, failure and outage messaging and general management of globally-deployed services.

What was the team composition?

Brainhub shored up our team with key additions in web development, QA and backend development. They quickly rose to be thought leaders and architects in our project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As this is an ongoing project, it is core the operations of DMX.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We have an agile-based approach (mixing Scrum and Kanban). Scrum artifacts allowed us to divide the work into sprints having a sprint review, a retrospective, a backlog grooming and planning of the next sprint. On the other hand, the Kanban artifacts allowed us to be more flexible, having some space for resolving blockers (e.g., a given backend story blocks one or many webs or mobile stories). It also allowed us fixing production bugs.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The people from Brainhub are highly-skilled and they work hard to achieve our goals. Even if some new technologies are required at a given moment, they learn it very fast.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Additional development resources in React Native would be nice.