Cult of Coders

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior product manager at a co-working space collective and social club.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cult of Coders?

Our website’s member portal was experiencing massive outages. However, our in-house team was not familiar with Meteor, the web framework used to build the portal. We needed to outsource portal support and development to Meteor experts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cult of Coders fixed performance problems in our customer portal. Since this initial project, they have provided backend system support and maintenance. They have worked on internal administrative tools that help us manage our co-working spaces and social clubs. Currently, they’re developing a new billing service.

What is the team composition?

We have engaged with Theo (Co-Founder, Cult of Coders). We also work with Ciprian, Tudor, and George (Backend Developers, Cult of Coders). Ciprian is the lead engineer and oversees Tudor and George.

How did you come to work with Cult of Coders?

Another agency we were working with recommended Cult of Coders.

What is the status of this engagement?

My company engaged Cult of Coders in May 2018, and our partnership is ongoing. We plan to work with them through the end of 2019, if not for longer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Cult of Coders’s deep understanding of Meteor allowed them to resolve massive performance issues within our system quickly and efficiently. The billing service they are currently developing is a critical component of our business.

How did Cult of Coders perform from a project management standpoint?

Theo played a large part in setting up our partnership and rectifying the portal’s performance issues. Our project manager works with the Cult of Coders engineers, who have become an extension of our internal product team. They join all of our sprint planning and roadmap meetings, demos, and daily standups. We use Jira to organize our tasks and GitHub to collaborate on software development. We communicate via Slack, Google Hangouts, and email. Theo has helped with SOW management and resourcing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Cult of Coders works at an incredible velocity. They ensure our infrastructure supports new initiatives and spaces through efficient sprint performances. Unlike other development agencies we have worked with, Cult of Coders has adapted to our culture and processes. Their team has become very tied to our core business. They have internalized the meaning of our work and are committed to fixing the problems our members and users face.

Theo was a core contributor to the Meteor open-source framework; as such, he and his team are extremely knowledgeable and have many helpful contacts within the Meteor community.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The team is incredibly adept in engineering and building. However, they could benefit from more internal management and administrative systems.

Any advice for potential customers?

Provide context and expectations early in the engagement and integrate Cult of Coders with internal teams. Also, it is worth noting that Cult of Coders is an offshore vendor, but any adjustments that must be made are reasonable and worthwhile.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We focus on small and medium sized private equity fund transactions in the secondary market as an intermediary or consultant (below EUR 100 million in deal size).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cult of Coders, and what were your goals?

A new descriptive and forward looking website, plus setup of googe workspace and emails.

SOLUTION

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

A combination of price and quality.

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

All of it. Delivered perfectly.

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

Four.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Delivered swiftly on all requests with a great sense of detail.

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

To the point and efficient.

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

We were impressed with the diversity of the staff and the efficiency of delivery without missing any details.

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

Not really.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are the digitization platform for cars. It scans cars in high-res 3D and 360° inside and outside to allow online re-marketing, as well as remote and automated inspection of used cars.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cult of Coders?

Development of cross-platform reactive apps in Meteor, NodeJS/Express, React, React Native, Cordova, and alike.

What were your goals for this project?

Fast delivery of high-quality apps for our users.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We did review the developers with assessment tests.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Backend and frontend coding, as well as test cases had to be developed according to specifications we did provide.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of back and front end developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to deliver much needed solutions to our clients fast and in good quality.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was provided by us completely.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We need talented and reliable people — and that is what we found here.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are fine with the provided services.