Cloud Construct

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of a mobile navigation app for the micro-mobility market. It provides turn-by-turn directions for any vehicle of transportation that travels under 30 miles an hour — it could be a bike, a scooter, or a moped.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cloud Construct?

We needed someone to build and develop our mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped me create my proof of concept in technical architecture, as well as develop the MVP that we launched to the market in August 2020.

Initially, we started talking about the overall idea to help them understand our app so they can do some research on their end to create the proof of concept. They provided us with a proposed solution right after. 

They helped me figure out how I was going to create this app with a document, that has the proof of concept and high-level technical architecture, along with the overall scope and cost of the project. Once we reviewed that, we decided to move forward with the full development of the app. Kate (Co-Founder) helped me create my logo and overall branding for the product. 

Additionally, they also developed both the UI and the backend moving engine. They would do spring demos based on what was developed, and finally helped me launch the app in both app stores.

The framework was done in Ionic. There’s only one code space but it works in both app stores. The biggest feature of this app is providing users with a customized route or direction based on what they're riding. You can change your preferences if you don’t want to travel on roads or go uphill. Additionally, they can even activate or deactivate whether or not you’re using a bike path.

I’m currently in a maintenance contract with them, so every time we encounter bugs or we need minor enhancements, they can just jump in and fix it for us.

What is the team composition?

I worked closely with Paul (Project Manager) and Mike (CEO). Those are the two that I worked with or would be talking to on a weekly basis. From a development perspective, I worked with Jeff (Senior Software Engineer) and another developer.

How did you come to work with Cloud Construct?

A good friend of mine who was a CEO of a company, used to work for Cloud Construct and really liked them. He put me in touch with them, so I met them a couple of times —I enjoyed talking with them personally, which was really important. I realized they were a good fit after they put together a proof of concept in technical architecture. They clearly understood my goals and the value proposition of the app. I was totally comfortable moving forward with them.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we probably spent around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in July 2019. They did the proof of concept between August and September 2019, and kicked off the development work in October of the same year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Right now, we have more than 2700 downloads of the app, which was done in just six months. We’ve also gotten some feedback from our users, global requests to bring the app outside of the US, and then we were accepted into an accelerator program. A huge part of these achievements was how well the app turned out and what they developed.

They’re just really great to work with. I'm a product manager by trade and they're just very easy to work with compared to the other development teams I've worked with in the past. It’s nice that they’re US-based, and took a vested interest in our app. They aren’t just a development shop building our requirements, they’re really like a technical partner for our company.

How did Cloud Construct perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily use email to communicate and Paul is just incredibly responsive. There was never a concern, but I just feel like things could be more transparent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with their capability of being a natural partner. I still get texts from Mike talking about news articles on micro-mobility, and it shows me that they’re just as invested and excited about what they’re developing as they are their clients.

Are there any areas they could improve?

To be honest, one area they could improve on is project management. Paul is my project manager and he keeps me up to date on everything. Me being a little bit more technical, would be happy to hop into their agile tool like Jira, because there were times when I wasn’t quite sure where we were at. It would be easier for me to just have a look at their progress, rather than having to go through Paul. However, I knew the work was being done — it just wasn't visible all the time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to make sure that you are clear on your requirements, and that they understand what you’re looking for. Also, be open to suggestions, because they really do provide great guidance, and things about the app that I wouldn’t have thought about if it wasn’t for them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Depositlink is a payment platform for real estate transactions. When you’re making deposits for buying a house or renting an apartment, we collect the money electronically. I’m the CTO and Chief Information Security Officer of the company, so I’ve helped build our platform from the ground up.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cloud Construct?

When we first started out, we needed a bigger team than just myself to build the product, so we hired Cloud Construct. Our CEO came to Cloud Construct with his high-level idea to remove paper checks from the real estate industry.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, a UX/UI team worked through our requirements and build out wireframes. There was a back and forth, and once we approved them, Cloud Construct assigned visual designers to make it look nicer. After that, we went into front- and backend development to build out the site.

In total, Cloud Construct has provided UX design, graphic design, frontend HTML development, backend C# development, and Azure platform setup.

We’ve ramped the engagement up and down since the platform launched in June 2019, doing feature development work and visual design. Right now, we’re only working with one backend engineering resource.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager, a visual designer, a UX designer, a frontend engineer, a backend engineer, and an account manager for higher-level discussion of budgets, pricing, and contracts.

How did you come to work with Cloud Construct?

They’re local to where we’re is based — we’re both in the Boston area — so there was a chance for some face-to-face meetings if necessary. Our CEO found them originally, and the engagement started before I came on board.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $200,000–$999,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since December 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I would measure the project as very successful — we have a fast-growing product now. We went live in June 2019 with our first customer and now we have over 100; we had 100–150 agents at the start and now we have over 15,000–16,000. We’ve grown really fast, and COVID is a huge part of that. Our platform makes it unnecessary to collect a paper check in-person.

How did Cloud Construct perform from a project management standpoint?

At times, stuff has been all over the place, and we’ve tried to get better about that. A new agency would sign-up or someone would request a new feature and the direction would change. That’s obviously very challenging from a project management perspective, and they’ve handled it as well as anybody can. They’ve been very flexible about ramping up and ramping down resources as needed. I would say that, given an extremely challenging project management situation, they’ve done a pretty good job with it.

Everything is built with the Azure platform, so we use Azure DevOps as our project management tool to keep track of our sprints and Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery pipelines. We have a Slack channel with them for communication, and we use email and phone as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a really strong engineering team. It’s easy to coordinate and work with them. If we have a new feature we want to develop or a tricky engineering problem, I can bounce ideas off of them and see what they think. They’re strong at problem-solving and keeping up to date with technology, specifically .NET, Angular, and Microsoft Blazor.

Their ability to figure out something new stands out, meaning that they dig into and learn about things they don’t necessarily have experience with. For example, Blazor from Microsoft is a new framework that came out midway through the development of the project. Obviously, no one had any experience with it, and Cloud Construct was able to build a couple of proof-of-concept pages in Blazor and layout an architecture plan that we’re still implementing in new Blazor pages.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were some challenges — that nature of the project management being haphazard at times — and I feel they could have been more focused on certain things. The project was split into front- and backend teams, and the creative team was sort of the frontend team. I felt the backend team was strong — but they also spent more dedicated time working on the project — and the frontend team was spread a bit thin. They could have had more organization and focus. Partially, that’s our fault because we ramp up and down resources and shift our focus quickly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Rely on their project management and have your own project management. They’re a relatively small company and are working on a lot of different projects, so it can be hard to keep everything front of mind all the time. I would suggest building up resources and using them in as continuous a manner as possible, rather than doing small engagements.