Chromedia, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CTO at a computer software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Chromedia Inc?

We needed to quickly ramp up our development capability. We wanted to do that in a way that optimized costs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a SaaS application for the real estate and property development industry. We iterated on a cycle of getting some customer feedback and turning that into product specifications and use cases. From there, we built out an Agile backlog and we worked with the developers at Chromedia to complete that in two-week sprints.

Internally, we managed the backlog and worked with them on development sprints. We also had someone from their team provide QA for any issues that came up. It was a very typical development cycle.

What is the team composition?

It varied over time, but at the maximum, we had 4-5 people from their team.

How did you come to work with Chromedia Inc.?

They were referred to us and we reached out to them.

How much have you invested with them?    

We’ve invested approximately $200,000.           

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in August 2016 and wrapped up in October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We saw a quick turnaround on the work and quality was always super high. I was able to work with their US-based staff to make sure that things were clear. They were always very responsive.

How did Chromedia Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well early on when we first started with them. They provided a project manager who was able to add structure.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very adaptable and responsive to what we needed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Hatch is a marketing strategy platform. Our core (SaaS) product enables businesses to quickly gather campaign ideas, forecast projections & create calendars, dashboards, playbooks & reports. Hatch makes planning easy for businesses by providing a library of hundreds of campaign outlines across a spectrum of online & offline media, channels & tactics for all industries.

Marketing teams can share their plans with a quick link, export a file or print out a beautiful set of calendars, dashboards, reports & playbooks. These information-rich deliverables enable businesses to have productive planning discussions around campaign integration, priorities & business objectives. As Co-Founder and CEO, my responsibilities span the organization, products, and partners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Chromedia Inc.?

Custom software development of our core product.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal is to grow businesses and to empower marketing teams to share their plans, calendars, and playbooks.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Evaluated and compared various businesses on their people, capabilities, quality, and speed.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The Chromedia team provided custom development. My team provided the wireframes and design artifacts and Chromedia architected and built the software.

What was the team composition?

The Chromedia team included a project manager, a business advisor, technology lead and three to five software engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were accepted into the MergeLane accelerator program in early 2016 as a direct result of the Chromedia team's work. From there we launched our business and landed our first customers.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The development team was led by a project manager running two-week sprints. We were encouraged to participate in daily scrums and met with senior advisors on a regular basis.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team is fantastic! They consistently went above and beyond. Yes, the work was great and they hit deadlines but the thing that sticks with you is the relationships. It was a meaningful partnership and together we built something amazing. I look forward to the next time I get to work with Jason, Greg and the Chromedia team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The team exceeded our expectations in every way.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former owner and CEO of Portland Pedal Power LLC, a delivery and online ordering company for corporations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Chromedia Inc.?

We had a developer on our team who had built our software but he only stayed for a year. After finding another developer to help us, but we struggled. We worked with another developer, who, sadly, passed away. Again, we partnered with two different Ruby developers here in Portland, but it wasn’t great.

They were expensive, weren’t delivering great results, and weren’t carrying out testing. That’s when we started working with Chromedia Inc.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were able to work with us to take care of everything, including our outdated Ruby. They redid our Ruby on Rails, got our security running, moved us into AWS, and provided us with backup. 

Chromedia Inc. helped us incorporate some smart technologies such as recurring orders, pop-up calendars, and closing abilities. The team is now working on us to get over some of the unique development tools that we have on our side that the new owners of our company don’t. 

What is the team composition?

I work with a team of four core individuals. Jason (Founder) also jumps in occasionally when needed. When we have big pushes, the size of our team can go up to eight individuals.

How did you come to work with Chromedia Inc.?

At the time, I had onboarded a new COO, who worked with us part-time, to grow so that we could sell the company or take on investments. But we knew that we needed to work on strategic elements of the software to get to that point. 

One of the COO’s colleagues had used Chromedia Inc. for an app development project for medical software. I was vetting Ruby shops because that’s our code. I interview five different shops and had them provide proposals. 

By far, the Chromedia Inc. team, who was recommended by a friend of a friend,  was much more holistic and had an idea of how much time it would take. They were also less expensive, allowing us to do more work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial project bid was $60,000 but we ended up spending about $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in January 2018 and this project was complete in November 2019. We’re working on another project now and using Chromedia Inc. for the integration of the Pedal Power software.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our company grew, which was significant. We were able to move from one merchant service to another, allowing us to save money. We were also able to sell our company and technology, which is a huge metric. The usability of the platform is much better, so we were able to put in more work with fewer employees.

How did Chromedia Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very flexible. As the owner of the company, I didn’t have enough bandwidth to do continuous development. So, initially, we worked with them in a series of 4–5 sprints for 2–3 months at a time. The team was open to doing things this way.

They have been flexible in allowing a customer relationship. I like to be involved in the process. They’ve able to manage whatever integration we want, whether that’s giving them all of the work, or allowing us to be in the daily scrums and calls. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Having worked with three individual developers and three other companies, Chromedia Inc. is great. The team is good at setting expectations, notifying us when a certain story doesn’t work well. In comparison to other companies, they’re timing is quite good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When we first started working together, they had a frontend developer come on and start to develop what they thought the flows would be on the site. They didn’t spend the time walking through the expectations with me as the customer. 

They’re doing a better job of this now after I confronted them. The team has done a much better job of onboarding the company that purchased us, talking through all of the expectations. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend that they get to know the developers and spend the time to help them to understand their workflows. It’s hard to onboard a new company when you don’t know the workflows. It was easier with us because we’re in the same industry, but that won’t always be the case. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of Lawn & Order Landscape, LLC, a company specializing in landscaping services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Chromedia?

I enlisted the services of Chromedia to develop an app to help manage my business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We provide lawn care services to approximately 300 customers every week. Our services include grass cutting, bush trimming, and mulching.

Chromedia created a web-based CRM platform from scratch. Our process was iterative. The team would release a product, and I would provide feedback after testing it. If necessary, they would then make the required adjustments.

I'm able to input information for all 300 customers and create a weekly repeating list of every customer that requires our service. Each of my employees has a phone which they use to mark jobs as skipped or complete. Once a job is marked as complete, the platform automatically generates an invoice. If there are additional services, such as mulching or trimming bushes, I can add them to the invoice. At the end of each month, I'm able to send all the invoices to my customers with just one click. For my elderly customers who may not be familiar with technology, I can also print out paper invoices for them.

When a customer pays their invoice, the platform lets me auto reconcile the invoices, keeps track of my yearly business, how much we've done, how much is uncollected, who has paid and who still needs to pay, and the amount that is past due. It also gives me the ability to resend invoices.

What is the team composition?

I worked with 6–8 developers and Jason (Co-Founder).

How did you come to work with Chromedia?

My spouse has some expertise in the tech industry and contacted some connections who suggested Chromedia. Their price was competitive, and I decided to get in touch. 

How much have you invested in them?

I invested $12,600.

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with Chromedia from December 2022–March 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Chromedia hit the nail on the head, and it was well worth my investment. I couldn't be more pleased with the work Chromedia delivered. Jason was able to deliver everything I needed 100%. There were hiccups, but there always are with any development project. Jason and the Chromedia team were highly attentive and promptly resolved our issues. Despite having paid in full, Jason continues to ensure we have a high-quality product by addressing minor concerns if they occur. With the web-based app, the team can make live updates that take effect immediately, eliminating the need for a new release.

Although we never experienced significant issues, Chromedia assured us they would promptly address any problems within 6-12 hours since it was a live system. Fortunately, we never had to put their guarantee to the test.

How did Chromedia perform from a project management standpoint?

Chromedia met all the deadlines. Every Monday, we held Zoom conference calls with a group of 6-8 individuals, depending on the subject matter. I also have Jason's cell phone number and could text him if needed. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Jason was always super responsive when there were issues and took care of them promptly. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I cannot think of any areas where Chromedia could improve. I highly recommend them to anyone.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My recommendation is to be honest with the team. Make sure to communicate your desires and preferences to them clearly. Don't hesitate to let them know if something needs to be changed; they'll take steps to rectify it.