Bull & Beard

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’ve recently created two new companies, and I’m the CEO for both. The first is called Brink Brands, a small consultancy focused on senior housing. It serves as a mix between a consultancy, incubator, and an investment holding company. The second company is called CarePods, which provides affordable, alternative safety nets for older adults.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bull & Beard?

I needed access to find a cost-effective, professional resource and was struggling to find the right fit. I was seeking brand development, web design, logo creation, and other branding materials for both companies and the idea of finding one or more professionals to assist with my needs was overwhelming.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We began the process with their “corral process”, which is more of a structured brainstorming session. This is how we discovered the heart of our initial design and messaging, and they defined our company’s brand with that insight. They are an agency collective, so they matched us with other companies for the logo and site design processes. The logos were being created during the brainstorming process because we wanted our visual identity to evolve with our understanding of the brand’s essence. From there, we began working on the website, which is WordPress-based. I gathered assets for the site, including finding stock pictures, writing copy, etc. The branding materials have been completed, such as logos, overall messaging, and the Brink Brand website. We are now in the process of designing CarePods’ site.

What is the team composition?

I primarily work with Robby (CEO, Bull & Beard), who handles the day-to-day work. I also work with Jason (Co-Founder, Bull & Beard); he helps with the brainstorming sessions and other areas of the project.

How did you come to work with Bull & Beard?

I attempted to excite larger agencies about the projects, but couldn’t seem to get their attention and nothing felt like the right fit.  After realizing the project wasn’t landing in the right hands, I researched smaller companies online. I came across an article about selecting the right agency, and it was written by Bull & Beard. I reached out after being intrigued by their concept of agency matchmaking and knew they could help me with this project.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent around $25,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in August 2018 and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I haven’t actively marketed the Brink Brand consultancy yet, and the CarePods site isn’t completed, so I don’t have specific metrics. However, the logo has been well-received by everyone who has seen it. Additionally, the designs are all professionally dispatched and presented, so I’m pleased with how it looks.

How did Bully & Beard perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily communicate over Basecamp. Robby is quick to respond, and our back-and-forth messaging is effective. We have expressly stated timelines and, if they can't meet some, their team informs me ahead of time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Bull & Beard’s ability to match me with the right resources for the project is highly valuable. Though I’m capable of finding freelancers and agencies, they know how to find the right choice without sacrificing quality or budget. Even if I had a limitless price point and chose a larger agency, I doubt they could accomplish the work as quickly and at as high a level of quality as Bull & Beard has.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although every client has different needs, as a solo entrepreneur, I would find more project management to be beneficial. However, their core business model is focused on matching agencies and resources together. A client should understand the agency you're partnered with will be doing the dedicated project management, not Bull & Beard. This means clients have to stay organized in getting all assets and resources delivered on time, especially if they are matched with various partners. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Robby and Jason move swiftly and have the ability to seamlessly pivot from strategy to tactical implementation. To get the most value from the engagement as a client, you'll need to move at the same pace and stay organized and focused in-house, just as you would with any agency. If you have feedback, communicate early and often. Robby and Jason are both receptive, kind, and make real efforts to adjust and provide you with options accordingly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am one of the founding partners of a law firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Bull & Beard?

We hired Bull & Beard to help us with online messaging as well as website design and content.

What were your goals for this project?

Our law firm needed a website update. We wanted to have a more sophisticated look and message while maintaining elements of our original aesthetic.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They are our business neighbors, so we've gotten to know Robby (Co-founder and CEO, Bull & Beard) and Jason (Co-founder and Managing Partner, Bull & Beard) quite well.

Describe the project in detail.

After we discussed our goals, Robby and Jason came up with tangible design elements and content. Once the proof of concept was done, they assigned the website design work to an excellent international group from their vast network of designers.

What was the team composition?

We worked with the co-founders and a website design firm.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We love it. All who have seen the new site have been quite impressed. We just activated it this week, so it’s still new.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They made it incredibly convenient for us. We worked collaboratively with Bull & Beard and the design firm through a convenient online tool and got the job done. They were efficient and timely.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They took their work seriously, yet they knew how to enjoy themselves. They were efficient diligent, and creative. I appreciated that they paid close attention to detail.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and chief business development officer of a higher learning software company. We develop educational products for professional students. We mostly specialize in health science, but also offer products for other fields like transportation and real estate. We also provide publishing companies the software and mobile platforms to host their educational content.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bull & Beard?

We wanted to revamp the corporate website, but our in-house development team was busy with other projects. As a result, we hired Bull & Beard to perform the rebuild.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bull & Beard built out our corporate website and made it responsive on mobile devices. They embedded some video content, but overall it’s a standard website that provides clients an overview of our company and what our products can offer. Once development was complete, our in-house team handled the subsequent support and maintenance efforts. Additionally, they helped us recruit a software engineer to enhance our iOS team.

What is the team composition?

Jason (Co-founder, Bull & Beard) and Robbie (Co-founder, Bull & Beard) were our primary points of contact.

How did you come to work with Bull & Beard?

I met with Robbie and Jason. We talked about the project and got along well. The relationship evolved from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent just under $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They worked on our site from April­–September 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new website is a lot smoother and more intuitive than its previous iteration. It’s difficult to assign other relevant metrics because our goal wasn’t to drive traffic to the site. Our products have individual sites that advertise to customers. Instead, we wanted Bull & Beard to create a corporate website that exudes professionalism and communicates our message to partners. The platform accomplishes that goal.

How did Bull & Beard perform from a project management standpoint?

I frequently checked in with them to ensure everything was going well and on schedule. Jason and Robbie were extremely responsive and always answered my daily calls. They never handed us off to someone else and proactively engaged my team to help in any way they could. They used Basecamp as a project management tool and that worked great. We never experienced communication issues. Everything went so smoothly that I didn’t have to be involved as much as usual. I felt comfortable implementing a hands-off management approach.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their transparency is notable characteristic. They’re able to take complex topics and break them down into laymen’s terms. Bull & Beard always made sure to communicate with my team about what they were doing and why. Not all contractors make the extra effort to do that. Furthermore, I appreciated how they concluded the engagement. Other companies walk away as soon as they aren’t being paid. Jason and Robbie did the exact opposite. They followed up with us to see if we had any questions or problems. They’re absolute pros.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly wish I had something to report, but my team had nothing negative to say about them. I’d ask if they needed me to approach Jason or Robbie about anything and they always said no. The project went great and they’re phenomenal to work with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have an initial plan and run it by them, so everyone's on the same page. Jason and Robbie are great, but I’ve seen relationships deteriorate when the hiring party starts a project without a proper scope. As with any outsourced project, making changes leads to spending more money.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Creative Director at National Center for Families Learning. We work to eradicate poverty by providing education solutions to families.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bull & Beard?

We needed help developing educational websites and digital products geared towards “at-risk” and marginalized demographics.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Early on, they primarily helped us with our existing WordPress sites, but since then we’ve done everything from HTML emails, one-off holiday celebration pages, and full-scale web development to strategy creation, design, development, and new-property coding. There are many other sites of an educational nature with varying degrees of database management and thinking that they’ve worked on for us.

One of our projects was a complete rebuild of Wonderopolis.org, one of our top properties that serves more than 16 million people annually. We had an existing product and concept that we’d executed before, but they really dug in deep and came up with a new model and method through which to display our content. We continue to use this model every year, even though we do update it annually when we put out a new addition. Our most recent addition included the original web app, as well as new mobile apps that we worked on with them.

When we first brought them on, our largest platform was built on WordPress – primarily for the backend usability it afforded us. Unfortunately, we had too many customized features and modules for WordPress to handle, so they recommended a much better solution and walked us through the process, helping us to build a completely customized platform from the ground up. We also did a similar rebuild with a that involved a multi-level database. We’d struggled with it since its inception – just managing the various ins and outs of it – so we ended up rebuilding that with them in phases.

What is the team composition?

I work with two co-founders, one of which is the CEO and the other is the Managing Partner.

How did you come to work with Bull & Beard?

As part of a 2013 rebrand we did a new website. We worked with a creative subcontractor of ours, but then we had another project follow very shortly after and we decided to contract with Bull & Beard independently.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $200,000-$999,999 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since July 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They provide high-level performance for a great value, and we can certainly relate the success of our individual properties to them. The Wonderopolis project was a homerun for us, and reliability improved drastically with both of the big website redevelopments they’ve done for us. They’ve used their tech and agency experience to help us realize what we need. They’ve also helped us expand our reporting management liability as well as our end-to-end features on both the client- and developer-side.

How did Bull & Beard perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly phone calls but we use email to communicate for the most part. Regarding workflow, we use Basecamp to manage things and we run our platform development through Laravel. They’re really responsive when it comes to providing details and answers and have been very willing to negotiate around timelines and budgets. Sometimes we have the money accomplish big things, but other times we have very little money, so having a strong working relationship, allows us to navigate these changes.

I really enjoy their level of transparency. Their reporting is great and their billing is more than fair. They’re great to work with, easy, reliable, and identify issues whenever they come up. When a rare mistake occurs, they admit it and do their best offset and anticipate them the next time around. They primarily partner with one other agency for their development work and I consider that company to be a part of their team as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They excel at analyzing a situation, our objectives, and coming up with a good technological solution, so their strategy and professional recommendations are amazing. They excel at explaining things to people at a variety of levels, ranging from technical experts to executives who make decision using different types information. They’re able to talk to whomever they need to in effective ways.

The fact that they’re lean but carry such a great level of experience and knowledge is quite helpful to me, especially being a non-profit spot where money is always tight. They’ve been a great partner because they know what needs to be done and have the networks to reach out to, activate, and partner with. I’ve never felt as if we were being shoehorned into something because it would be easier for them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were some issues with project management early on with missed appointments and rescheduling, but that was just in the first year. To their credit, they never shied away from it but always owned up to it. It wasn’t a big deal at all in retrospect.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make the most of their transparency and be as open as possible with what you want. Don’t hold back because they’re good with any level of direction. Sometimes we know exactly what we, so we just give it to them and they make it happen. But, other times, we have an idea and don’t know how to do it, so they’re great at helping us find a solution. They’re really good at cutting through the weeds and honing in on the key details and questions.