Custom Stacks

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My husband and I have a couple of different businesses. MyWorkoutBuilder is one of them. It’s meant as an app that helps people custom-build a workout from home in under 60 seconds.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DADEN LLC?

I’m a bit of a data analyst, so I could build the database, but we needed someone to help us build the app.

We were looking for several key features. First, we needed an algorithm that randomized the selection based on five questions. There were selections regarding the type of workout, what equipment you had available, if you had any injuries, a time component, and one for a five-minute finisher.

We wanted replacement and reordering abilities so users could rearrange the workout in a different way. Finally, we wanted the app to be visually appealing, easy to read, and quickly delivered.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DADEN built the iOS and Android application. We mapped out the screen design with them. We had the idea of how we wanted the app to look, and then we had a joint process to get it to look how we had envisioned it.

We’re keeping them for maintenance and we’ve already submitted a list of potential improvements and additions. We’re looking at how much everything would cost so we can prioritize the changes we want to do first.

What is the team composition?

We solely worked with Christopher (CEO). He would then give directions to his team.

How did you come to work with DADEN LLC?

We went through Upwork and put up our project. We got about 30 bids and shrunk those down to 10, but only six got back to us. From there, we spoke to those six companies and further shrunk it down to three. We ultimately chose DADEN.

How much have you invested with them?

At this point, we’ve probably spent about $22,000–$23,000. For this year’s maintenance, I think it was another $4,000 on top of that.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked everything off in June 2020, and the first version was completed in February 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We basically just launched the app, and we launched the ad campaign last week. At one point I was looking at a time-focused metric; I really wanted to launch by the middle of January. However, we ran into many problems that were out of our control in terms of the approval process.

For example, Apple changed their privacy policy right as we were going through the submission process. We changed some minor scope elements as we saw the final product and wanted some changes. In the end, we prioritized the look, feel, and functionality of the app.

We also lost time because Facebook changed their rules so we had to change some things that the app needed to run the ads and have proper analytics. DADEN stepped up and worked with the ads people to make sure that everything could run correctly. Thus, one of the key factors to rate them was that they understood the problems we faced.

How did DADEN LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly used emails to communicate. Toward the end, I was the main project manager from our side. Chris gave me access to their management tool so I could log in and check the back-and-forth between his team. I was able to see his process with them and send out a list of errors or changes via email.

We were partnering because we had lost a large amount of time and were trying to move along faster. One of the reasons it took so long was that my co-owner was a bit confused about the process and wasn’t pushing forward. We weren’t delivering on our side on what we had promised, so we probably lost about three months in development.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think it was their flexibility because this was our first time developing an app, so we didn’t do a great job at delivering. They really worked with us to make sure our top priority was the end product. Some elements weren’t in our original scope, and Chris worked with us to add them, so their flexibility was extremely helpful.

Additionally, they were great to work with. We really wanted to stay with whomever developed the app for future maintenance, updates, and improvements, and they were a true partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Time estimates were a little off. I’ll never know how much some of the iOS programming issues played into that, but sometimes things took a couple of days longer than expected.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you keep the communication going. Don’t ever shut that down; it is of the utmost importance. Be a little flexible on time if you want to get exactly what you want. It’ll be a great product, but it might be ready a couple of weeks later than expected.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an attorney based in California. I’m a solo practitioner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DADEN LLC?

A lot of law firms purchase a case management service, but I opted to build my own since I like customization for the type of work I’m doing.

DADEN LLC has been my software and systems support since the beginning.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team built an interactive network of backend systems that interact with client-facing iOS and Android mobile applications. The system feeds information back and forth, provides unique features, and allows me to automate processes. Over the years, the system has grown with our engagement.

My primary input was the function, not appearance. They took the lead role with that, while I created terms and conditions and other privacy concerns.

What is the team composition?

Chris (CEO) has been my primary contact. I’ve probably interacted with six or eight different developers.

How did you come to work with DADEN LLC?

Six years ago, app development wasn’t as fluid as it is now. I was looking for someone to help for a while, and DADEN LLC ended up being referred to me.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $75,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with DADEN LLC started in 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

DADEN LLC created a unique and powerful system. It’s a fully integrated litigation management system that was built from the ground up. It allows me with a small staff to handle large caseloads.

The system is slick. Nobody else has anything like this. It allows me to capture real-time information from my clients. It creates detailed records for me that constitute due diligence automatically and saves that onto a system.

How did DADEN LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been good. Chris is easy to work with. We stick timelines and or agree to advise schedules based on changes I see need to be made as we move along.

It’s interesting for me since I’m not an app development or software person. One of the things that people who do that type of work face is frequent scope changes as clients get more clarity about what they want. They were just really great to work with along those lines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The highlight of working with them is their availability. We’re in constant communication, and I never feel like I’m in the dark. That was my big concern during my research for a development company because that’s often an issue.

DADEN LLC was completely the opposite. Sometimes I felt like I was bugging Chris, but they’re just available.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything’s been great. Honestly, I think they undercharge me. In other words, another thing that stood out to me was how affordable they are.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just think everything through before giving instructions to people.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing for Breathe Easy Insurance. We specialize in providing insurance for people with DUIs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Daden LLC?

We wanted to compile our CRMs (content resource management systems) and other organizing tools into one place.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked collaboratively to compile all the features we required. They were able to build a custom CRM that incorporated 99% of our tools into one place, including marketing and sales, customer service, managing service management team, activity tracking, custom reporting, and much more.

It was a custom PHP application, and they used CodeIgniter framework to provide speed and security.

What is the team composition?

Chris (CEO) was my main point of contact. On a daily basis, there were 4-5 people working, but the team was 10-15 people overall.

How did you come to work with Daden LLC?

I had worked with Chris in the past. I liked the approach, and it was important to me that we could meet in person throughout the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested roughly $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August 2018 – December 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s pretty good. They immediately addressed issues that came up.

How did Daden LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

They work was awesome. We used Trello for bug reports, feedback, and other communications. I’m very happy with their performance in this area.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Chris is transparent and communicates well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were some time-sensitive things that they lacked in. I understood there was usually a day’s delay since the team was offshore, but the timeline was a little concerning to me.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t hesitate to work with them. They’re honest and professional.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-founder of a company that provides software solutions to the financial services industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DADEN LLC?

We needed a development partner with a specific set of technical capabilities to help us build some of our solutions for customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The product that we’re making is a portfolio data management system. The first iteration is a client and advisor facing portal where they can review assets and performance in graphs and charts and get information about their account or their clients’ account.

The original team we worked with had built everything in Azure with a Redis queue, but we ended up restructuring the application to run in any environment as opposed to exclusively Microsoft. That gives us the ability to scale up performance more systemically and control costs significantly.

What is the team composition?

Chris (Project Manager) has served as our main point of contact, and then we’ve had around 2 database developers and one frontend developer, as well as other people brought in for specific tasks as needed.

How did you come to work with DADEN LLC?

They were referred to us originally, and we worked with them on a smaller software project that handles 13F filings with EDGAR, the database for the SEC. Based on the good experience that we had in that project we were confident that they would be able to handle the requirements of this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We are on track to spend about $175,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in December 2018 and we are continuing to work together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are probably within two months of going into beta testing with live clients for our product and have about seven clients in line to receive the product, which is really exciting. They’ve also brought expertise with regard to pitching potential investors for our second round that has given us optimism about the future of the project more generally.

We’ve found that they really align with our vision for the project as a team, which makes the whole project and all of our progress run so much more smoothly than it has with some of the other teams we’ve worked with.

The other big difference we found with them is that they have a lot of experience taking their products full cycle, so they know the business end of things as well. That knowledge gives us a significant advantage going into production and marketing of the product as opposed to working with someone who exclusively codes in a vacuum.

How did DADEN LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform very well in terms of project management. The tricky part to evaluate is that we ran a little longer and at a higher cost than we initially expected, but that was based on an early decision to build off of what we already had rather than scrap it and start from scratch.

Given those changes, we’ve been very impressed with their flexibility in terms of their willingness to roll with our changing requirements and to come up with solutions for different challenges we’ve run into along the way.

We have constant communication going on through Slack as questions come up or people run into issues throughout their day-to-day work. There are also weekly planning meetings to lay out the sprint and fix priorities if there are any changes that need to be made.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really appreciate the blend of development expertise and business know-how that they bring to the work. Knowing that their decisions are not just made from a purely technical perspective but take into account whether it’s an economically smart decision is really comforting.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In any software development project, it’s difficult to forecast what the hurdles and end costs are going to be, so I can’t blame them for any of the challenges we’ve faced in that regard. I’ve been totally pleased with the outcomes they’ve been able to produce for us in the end.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think we had the most success as a team when we were having collaboration meetings as frequently as possible. Just having that discussion of ideas even when it felt like there wasn’t that much to talk about went a long way in terms of keeping everything on track and answering little questions that hadn’t come up in other contexts.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company that creates accounting software for SEC-registered firms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DADEN LLC?

We had an internal software that had glitches and problems. We wanted to revamp the entire software and structure an API interface. The project was beyond our internal capabilities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DADEN LLC looked over our code and then developed new code, referencing the old code's logic because it was complex. Their team created new web-based software based in MySQL. Eventually, the software will become a retail product that we can offer online.

What is the team composition?

We’ve mostly worked with one person. There was someone else on their team who worked on a couple of tasks.  

How did you come to work with DADEN LLC?

A colleague in the IT space referred us to them after I referenced our current frustrations with the software. My colleague had a good experience with DADEN LLC.

How much have you invested with them?

For this project, we’ve spent between $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2018 and the work’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The software works 90% of the time. Depending on the client's data, the software can get confused. All in all, once we’ve had a client for two quarters or so, we know the nomenclature and what we have to fix in the raw data before we can get it into our software. Their responsiveness in terms of adjusting the raw data with a new client is helpful. 

How did DADEN LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

DADEN LLC does well. The software’s not hugely complex, so there aren’t a lot of moving parts or people involved. They know our deadlines, which is important because our industry has hard deadlines. If their team can’t fix the data, we’ll come up with a workaround to get our task done.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It can be hard for people to understand our industry. One of my biggest struggles was finding programmers that understand fintech. DADEN LLC learned our industry quickly and is a master of lots of industries. They’re able to understand the business perspective and our direction for the software. As opposed to just coding, he knows where we’re trying to go with the software.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In terms of execution, everything’s good. DADEN LLC can get overworked, but it’s a weird time right now. Lots of people are doing lots of different things at the same time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If they've been able to take on fintech, they can probably take on any other industry.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CFO of Nova Innovations. We created an app for college students to buy and sell books and other products on campus.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

App development, to have a functional iOS app and to build a maintainable server.

SOLUTION

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

We found them on a Upwork forum. Cost and expertise was something we considered.

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

Chris's team developed the IOS app using Swift UI, they helped build the server using PHP and LAMP Stack. Chris's team was provided with graphics of the app and a list corresponding API from the android version and they were expected to deliver this as fast as possible.

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

Chris - chief executive officer and project manager. Alexis - assistant project manager. Piyush - One of the main developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was delivered on time and met our expectations.

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

We communicated via google chat and google spaces. They provided full day communications and were always quick to respond. Chris also shared his person cell if we needed to use it.

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

They have the ability to work with beginners in a start up company, which has made our whole process easier.

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

Overall there performance was great overall, they helped us fix a lot of problems we had with the app from a previous developer.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of the company and oversee development of the software on multiple fronts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Daden LLC to take on the development of some the software for the iOS platform. As well as the setting up of AWS services.

SOLUTION

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

We spoke with multiple companies and after speaking to Daden LLC it was apparent that they possessed the necessary knowledge and skills for the task.

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

They programmed the app to meet the specifications provided. Using Swift for iOS and connecting the app with Stripe payment services as well as other establish financial apis. Furthermore they were able to connect the backend server side code another team created to the application as well.

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

We stayed in contacted with 3 people who managed their developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched the application in a stable condition due to their contribution and effort.

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

Communication was effortless 5 days a week on google chat with calls arranged now and then.

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

They have the ability to adapt to our needs alongside their professionalism. The quality of work was great as well.

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

There wasn't much to complain about with them. The only troubles were due to differences in time zones.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO and co-founder of Nova Innovations Inc. Our application called Nova Shopping serves as an exclusive marketplace for college students.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DADEN LLC?

We needed their expertise in app development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DADEN LLC built a free iOS- and Android-friendly app based on our pitch and requirements. Their team integrated all the screens and payment methods that we needed to be available on our platform. We then deployed the product after they executed all the necessary development solutions.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 2–3 developers, including Chris (CEO & Chief Architect).

How did you come to work with DADEN LLC?

We found their team’s profile on Upwork. We initially engaged another company and dealt with unforeseen issues, so we reached out to DADEN LLC.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement ran from March–September 2021. We just launched the app two weeks ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can’t share any quantitative data at the moment because we’ve only recently introduced our product to the market — however, I could confirm that DADEN LLC impeccably met our expectations with their smooth services and quality deliverables.

How did DADEN LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

They were a team of fantastic communicators that met our needs on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What stood out about DADEN LLC was their efficiency and professionalism.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Respond on time if you want them to meet your timelines.