DA-14 Corp.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Cronus Systems LTD., a software development company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14 Corp.?

We needed additional help with a full system development project for one of our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our customer gave us the system requirements and asked us to develop the entire system from scratch. It’s a trading system for shipping different types of securities and goods based on cryptocurrency. Users can register and login, then place, buy, and sell orders. They can also trade among themselves.

At the start of the project, I assigned all the technologies and architecture to the DA-14 Corp team. The system was built on AWS cloud infrastructure, with the backend on Microservices architecture. They used Node.js and React. We used several databases like MongoDB and MySQL. 

What is the team composition?

We started with one frontend developer and one backend developer. Over time, we brought on another backend developer and frontend developer. In total, the number varied between 2-4 people over the course of the project.

How did you come to work with DA-14 Corp.?

We received CVs from several different companies and interviewed some of them. The interview included both a technical interview and a coding challenge. Based on that, we chose DA-14 Corp.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from March 2019-April 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Not all developers that we hired were on the same level, though at least two of them were very good. Overall, we were happy with their performance.

How did DA-14 Corp. perform from a project management standpoint?

DA-14 Corp.’s developers were very responsive. We worked in agile methodology and had a daily morning conversation on Zoom. We used Jira to create and track tasks, and Slack to communicate. It worked really well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their developers were dedicated to our project. It felt like DA-14 Corp. was part of the team. They showed responsibility.   

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had to replace two of the developers because they were not at the level that we required. We knew we had the flexibility to request a new developer, so it wasn’t an issue.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you work in the same model we do, you’ll be fine. Also, if you don’t have a strong leader on the customer side to manage the project, you may need to find someone on DA-14 Corp.’s side to fill that role.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO for Databoxer, a consent management platform that helps people manage cookie consent on websites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14 Corp.?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was coming up, and we needed a way to quickly add controls for how our clients could use people’s data on their website. We’d prototyped a component that could be added to websites to ask questions and collect data, but we needed a partner to build the backend and a web app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DA-14 Corp. acted as an extension of our own in-house team. They worked on a web app for our clients to log into and manage the questions they ask, and they also built the backend for recording end users’ consent signals. The web app is built in Node.js and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The team used a Serverless Framework to deploy updates to the system, and they also did QA and promotional marketing tools. Along with the app, they also worked on our website and implemented quizzes and onboarding flows.

What is the team composition?

They had a project manager, two backend developers, and a frontend developer.

How did you come to work with DA-14 Corp.?

We’d worked with them in the past and knew they’d be a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this project from August 2017–September 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They integrated smoothly with our process and proactively provided solutions, bringing excellent features to our product.

How did DA-14 Corp. perform from a project management standpoint?

They didn’t do project management, but they actively participated in the project. The partnership was as smooth as if they’d been part of our internal team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have lots of technical experience and are great at building web apps. Everyone on the team is nice, and I’d gladly work with them again.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They don’t currently offer UX design services. If they did, we’d let them work on even more of our project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of NotebookingPages.com. I create free and affordable digital products and memberships and apps for home schoolers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14

We were trying to rebuild our current web app—it’s a publishing app—with current technologies and a more professional design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I gave them access to our current app—which was developed five years ago and was very outdated—as well as mockups and a list of new and current features I wanted. They assessed its functionality and a laid out the steps for both an MVP and a full-version of a cloud-based, online publishing platform. They also gave me opinions about how to do things like hosting and technology.

What is the team composition?

The team includes a Project Manager (Dmitry Misyuga), Designer, Front-end developer, Full stack developer, Back-end developer, Quality Assurance Engineer, and DevOps.

How did you come to work with DA-14?

I found them through Upwork. I researched various companies and reached out specifically to several.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $35,000 so far and we’re halfway through, so the whole project will be around $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since August 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

So far, I’m excited by the improvements they made to the design. Most of the features are still in development, but the UX has been greatly improved.

How did DA-14 perform from a project management standpoint?

In the past, I’ve had to spend a lot of money having to redo and undo things with other companies because of a lack of communication and direction, but that’s totally not been the case with DA-14. They gave me a project manager from the beginning and walked me through each phase of the development. They’re good at taking my ideas, emails, and Skype conversations and turning them into detailed project plans.

Our project manager keeps us together on the same path, and his English is excellent. I was concerned about working with a team from Ukraine, but language hasn’t been a problem at all. He even notices if I hesitate in a discussion; he’ll pick up on it and makes sure we’re both on the same page.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m very impressed by their project management. They give you so many ways to look at the project with a detailed scope, timeline, and budget sheets. They’ve transparent so we know exactly what’s going on.

Are there any areas they could improve?

During the MVP phase, we had regular Skype sessions for demos and clarifications about some of the more complicated features.  I had a hard time keeping track of some of the verbal things we agreed to.  So for the next phase, the project manager has agreed to include more emailed discussions even though they take more time so I can have detailed written records to review and minimize miscommunication.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of a start-up called Investroo.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14?

We were working on a prototype for our React Native mobile app and we needed a JavaScript developer to help us with the frontend.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We already had our mock-ups, so DA-14 helped us turn them into a Native iOS app. They oversaw the frontend development, while my co-founder, who is also the CTO, managed the backend code. Experienced with JavaScript, they were able to adapt quickly to our tech stack. They were very resourceful and always found the information they needed if they were not familiar with something.

What is the team composition?

We mostly worked with our project manager, one developer, and the founder.

How did you come to work with them?

We found them on Upwork. We received different proposals and interviewed the top three companies. DA-14 seemed to have a great team and we were able to negotiate the price. Also, we liked the fact that they were very professional and assigned us a project manager, who made sure everything was going according to the plan.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between March–April 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We didn't have any issues with the code and we're planning to launch our private beta test next month.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They were flexible and accommodated the difference in time zones when we had our weekly Skype calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're great communicators. That was one of the biggest things we were looking for, especially when working with an offshore provider. They went above and beyond to make sure their team was communicating effectively and consistently.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We used software called Sketch for our design files. Sketch is a very popular design software in the industry, but their team didn't have access to Sketch. I expected that their team would have better access to the software.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a startup affiliate marketing business that creates new shopping layers on top of the Amazon Associates Program, either through websites or applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT?

For my first product, I wanted to create a pet supply application and needed developers to build a minimal viable product (MVP). I worked with a previous vendor before reaching out to DA-14.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I provided a few basic mockups and DA-14 then built the product for iOS using React Native. It was important to use this framework so that I can easily port the app to Android in the future at relatively low incremental cost.

What is the team composition?

After speaking with an initial point of contact, I worked with a project manager and two engineers.

How did you come to work with DA-14 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT?

They were one of several companies to respond to my job post on Upwork. I interviewed them through Skype, walking them through my requirements, and they asked thoughtful questions about the project and timeline expectations. I gave them my mockups and they responded with a detailed outline within a week. I liked their communication and management style, so we decided to move forward.

Plus, their engineers were especially excited about gaining experience with React Native. Because of this, they were willing to give me a reduced hourly rate.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent $18 an hour, totaling roughly $16,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between October 2017–March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They produced quality code, creating an application that works well with few bugs. Having launched only recently, the app has been downloaded 200 times, meeting my initial expectations. Based on their success, I plan to work with them in the future to add new features.

How did DA-14 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project manager did an excellent job guiding the engineers and ensuring that my needs were met. Frequent communicators, they messaged me through Slack anytime they had questions. The timezone difference proved challenging initially, as we only had a couple of overlapping hours each day, but we worked through the issue very effectively.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In my day job, I work as a product manager with a tech company. Our engineering team is based out of Beijing, so I have experience working with remote teams. DA-14 impressed me with their flexibility. They were open to working in an agile fashion, adjusting project specifications based on the results of previous milestones. While some vendors resist scope changes, they were interested in doing what was best to guarantee the success of the product.

Additionally, because this was a part-time side project for me, I didn’t have time to outline every aspect. DA-14 was understanding and really stepped up to help fill in any gaps. If my specifications were lacking, they took proactive steps to complete the task as they saw fit and made any adjustments I requested.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I was very satisfied. They could have pushed me harder to provide details and some tweaks needed to be made to certain frontend elements, but these negatives were really the result of issues on my end.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of BenchBoss, a communication and performance tool for basketball coaches and athletes. We provide basic functions such as messaging and calendar, but our niche is in the basketball tools such as shareable shot charts and performance models for athletes and coaches.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14 Software Development?

We lost a full stack developer while we were in the middle of building our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided us with a frontend developer. Going into to this project, I knew I needed someone who knew Angular 2 and Angular 4 very well. They had done a lot of work in Angular, and their stack would service us in that technology specifically. They also fixed a whole bunch of things that our previous developer did that, according to them, weren’t done properly. After fixing those things, they developed the things we needed to add to our software package.

What is the team composition?

I initially met with Dmitriy (CTO and Co-founder, DA-14) and another person. We had a project manager, Alina (DA-14) and a developer, Anton (Frontend Developer, DA-14).

How did you come to work with DA-14 Software Development?

I searched and connected with DA-14.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent around $12,000 CAD ($9,452 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November of 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The tool wasn’t working very well before we started with them, and now we have a range of features that they have developed for us. Their main selling feature was that they had done a lot of work in Angular, which they lived up to very well.

We had the funding to be able to accomplish three milestones, and we hired them to complete the first milestone. We are planning to hire them again depending on our funding for milestone two and three.

How did DA-14 Software Development perform from a project management standpoint?

It has been very good. At my request, they worked through Slack. I was nervous about the 5 1/2-hour time difference between us, and I wasn’t sure how that dynamic would work. Anton, our developer, sends updates every day letting me know what was accomplished and what the plan is for the day. At the end of every month, Alina gives us a detailed report of everything Anton accomplished which includes the requests that we had. I am very impressed with the project management side of it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Anton’s communication with me has been great. After initially meeting with Dmitriy and another person, they clearly communicated what I was looking for to Alina and didn’t miss a step. This showed me that they clearly have a great team dynamic going, and that really impressed me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

While there is a break in our service, they can’t keep their developers waiting around. So, when we restart the project, we might not get Anton again, and there would be a learning curve for the new developer. It isn’t a big concern for me, but it is a minor thing that we might not be able to get the same people every time. However, it might be flawless with a new developer.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of Avisar, a vast platform that helps small businesses get contract work with government agencies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14?

We were looking for an outsourced team that focused on agile development to help us add new features to the site in a short time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did both the frontend and the backend development for us. We follow the scrum methodology where we have a call every week that prepares us for the next sprint. They do great retrospectives after each sprint, especially as they're learning about their new client and the client's needs. They ask questions to make sure they fully understand what needs to take place before any development begins.

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager, a lead developer, a backend developer, and two frontend developers. We also have manual QA and we're adding automatic QA.

How did you come to work with them?

Over the summer we interviewed 40 different development teams to see who could handle the contract in the timeframe that we needed and who had a good working style. We evaluated a large number of proposals and finally selected DA-14 because they understood what was at stake and could handle it. We were confident that they would be timely and would listen to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2017 and we're still using them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There has been an improvement in the speed and agility of the site, as well as UI enhancements. We've received feedback that the site is more responsive and secure. The users have been happy with the new development.

We've also experienced an increase in users, but that happened mostly to business development and marketing on our end.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They've always adhered to deadlines, which is usually a tricky thing for development teams. We use Jira, Confluence, and Slack to communicate, and they take care of all the documentation.

What did you find most impressive about them?

DA-14 is the best team I've ever worked with when it comes to their knowledge of new practices, their ability to adjust to the changing needs of an early stage startup, and their actual coding skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If there is a problem, they take care of it quickly and it doesn't happen again. I can't really think of anything they should improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear and upfront about your goals and they'll deliver a great product. Based on my experience, you can't go wrong with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder and the CTO of a French startup. We’re an 8-person team with 2 full-time backend developers. We build communities of independent drivers who take clients’ cars to dealerships for maintenance and repair and back to their homes or offices, saving time and giving dealerships more capacity, as serviced vehicles no longer need to remain on-site all day. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14?

We needed help improving the frontend of our client-facing web app. The initial version was built to test the concept and needed to be completely redone. After six months of operation, we had a much better understanding of the relevant interfaces required by our clients. We wanted a cleaner and more reliable website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DA-14 was subcontracted to write the frontend of our web app. It needed to be clean and work with Internet Explorer, which is challenging. It had been coded with AngularJS 1, which is not supported by all versions of the browser (and required adaptations for IE 11). DA-14 had to change some elements in order to make the app work properly.

We worked with a UI designer on our side and transferred the screenshots to DA-14, but we didn’t anticipate all parts of the work up front. We had to redesign many items and added a number of features as we were still developing our services for our clients.

DA-14 assigned up to four people for our project. We are currently using only one full-time developer and one project manager, who splits his time between multiple projects.

How did you come to work with DA-14?

I looked for a partner on Upwork and received replies from multiple companies. DA-14 was proactive in accepting a 2- to 3-day test for free in order to demonstrate their skills. This test showed me that they understood what I wanted and could meet our budget. We ended up exceeding it due to additions along the way.

How much have you invested with DA-14?

The cost of their work has been between €20,000 and €25,000 [$22,840 and $28,550].

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with DA-14 in February 2017, and our collaboration is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

We started with an €8,000 [$9,130] budget, but the relationship expanded to 3-times more, which reflects how pleased I’ve been with their work. If not, I would have changed our partner. I knew that we would have to adapt and add on many features of the website and selected DA-14 because I felt they would do it in a fair way. DA-14’s work has been quite clean. More importantly, they react quickly whenever we have any issues or bugs. We can send them a notification and have the issue corrected within a day.

Our clients have been pleased with the design. They mainly have old-fashioned software internally, so they’ve appreciated our web app’s integration.

How did DA-14 perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re constantly improving designs, which would have been a problem with most companies, but DA-14 was well-organized. Their project manager considered every request and tracked the work hours. We have frequent exchanges and could request a call for any issue. The project management was very convenient for us, letting us focus on tasks beyond their hours. It would’ve been difficult for me to estimate the scope of the project due to the many changes we’re making. Every line was justified on DA-14’s side.

What did you find most impressive about DA-14?

I’ve appreciated their follow-up and responsiveness to all the change requests. Everything was clear, and I cannot complain about cost increases since DA-14 explained each item. They adapt well and expedite work with no problems.

Are there any areas DA-14 could improve?

Based on the work so far, I have no negative comments. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder and CTO of a platform for large-scale retailers to organize, manage, monitor, and promote reviews from the public. It’s a SaaS [software-as-a-service] platform for marketers to log into and enter all the locations of their business. The system starts to monitor them and indicates when reviews are happening. There’s also a secondary function that puts opportunities for reviews in front of your customers by scanning a receipt and leaving feedback, texting a review, or responding to an email asking about a recent retail visit. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14 Software Development?

We had a good lead developer, but we needed to scale the team to build a complex management and backend process platform for our product. We originally engaged DA-14 for some specific development tasks on the dashboard part of our product. As we worked with them, we realized they could be helpful to us in many ways. Later, we asked them to build both backend processes and the web interface that our clients see when they log into the platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The platform is all web, but there’s a mobile view and a desktop view. There isn’t an app as such; it’s just a mobile-optimized website. DA-14 did both frontend and backend development. The design is fairly light, but they did provide some of the visual design. Predominantly, the work they did was frontend web app development, as well as the backend of that system. We monitor for reviews and contact a lot of APIs and services to bring data to our platform. DA-14 built a lot of that process as well.

The platform existed when DA-14 came onboard, but it’s evolved while we’ve been working with them. Our lead developer had gotten us to an MVP. Through the resulting investment, we were able to build that in a much wider viewpoint.

It’s a web app, so it’s not a marketing website showing content. The app manages the configuration, reporting, and data that our clients hold on the properties they’re monitoring for reviews and running campaigns. The app is built on PHP, and the backend database is on MongoDB. We have a bunch of queue management systems that organize the processes happening behind the scenes, and they also integrated those.

Right now, we’re not working with DA-14 on the platform. They’ve moved to a Node-based approach since that’s their specialty. Since our original build is in PHP, we’re currently working independently. That doesn’t detract from the job they did at the time. My main contact there is Dmitriy, the CEO. Within his group, we had a project manager named Alexander and up to 3 developers.

How did you come to work with DA-14 Software Development?

We found them through Upwork, formerly Elance. We had a specific requirement for developers with experience building data display dashboards, and I found them when looking for people with that specialization. We did 2 or 3 projects with them on the data readout for our clients. From there, we realized we could use them more widely.

How much have you invested with DA-14 Software Development?

We spent around $4,000 a month over 2 years, so well over $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in May of 2014, and our engagement ended in August of 2016. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

They built the platform that we’re continuing to use and sell. When we engaged them, we were pre-revenue, and they helped to build the platform our clients are now using.

How did DA-14 Software Development perform from a project management standpoint?

We used them in a broad Scrum organization, where we were sort of the product owner. Their team augmented our development team, so it was a hybrid model. We didn't have a stand-alone project that we outsourced to them. They worked alongside our developers, with our project manager, and with me as the architectural oversight.

What did you find most impressive about DA-14 Software Development?

I have experience with outsourced projects in many countries and with different providers. DA-14’s specialization in web applications was important for us. They understand the architecture of the SaaS platforms that we were building, and their developers were already attuned to that need. Their communication was very good, and the skill level of the people within their company was high. I was happy to have them as part of the team. Financially, it was a pretty good deal for an American company. They were cost-effective, but I didn’t feel that we lost any quality.

Are there any areas DA-14 Software Development could improve?

There’s not much I’d point out. In fact, I probably will use them again with another project in the future if it’s a good match for them. In general, they were very responsive, and we got a good level of work from them. I enjoyed the partnership. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of the fastest growing beauty tech platform. We provide the back office for a number of independent beauty professionals by managing everything from payments, scheduling, CRM [customer relationship management], reporting, and building a web presence. It’s like a business in a box.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DA-14 Software Development?

We are based in New York City, and hiring good talent as a startup is challenging in this area, specifically technical engineering talent. Engineers who command a really high salary are not interested in equity for the most part. Turnover for engineers is really high at most startups as well. We wanted somebody senior who could start building a team of engineers without making us deal with the baggage of the New York hiring market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had the platform already built by the time an engineer from DA-14 joined. We just needed to start moving faster on additional features, functionalities, and bug fixes. This engineer is very experienced in the new technology that we wanted. We were really happy to find somebody with React Native experience, which is a mobile technology built by Facebook. It’s the future of mobile development. Our platform is built for iOS, Android, and web. The developer from DA-14 is working on the frontend.

How did you come to work with DA-14 Software Development?

They came as a recommendation through other CTOs I know. In general, I’ve always been a little bit wary of offshoring or outsourcing talent. I’ve had many experiences in the past where it didn’t work well. It takes a very specific type of person and company to make it work. We’ve engaged DA-14 on a longer-term model, which is working really well. They offered us a trial period at the onset. We could get the engineer into our code base and see if he was going to pick things up quickly, which he did. Then, we started a full annual contract with them.

How much have you invested with DA-14 Software Development?

We’ve spent between $20,000 and $30,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with DA-14 in March of 2017, and the project is ongoing indefinitely. They are essentially our engineering team. We have weekly stand-ups with them, along with the rest of our team. They will be around as long as our company is around. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

The app has been launched, and we have users. We also have some major partners for the launch, which are some of the nation’s largest companies in the beauty industry. It’s difficult to attribute metrics specifically to DA-14 because we use many developers. We’ve had increases in revenue and users, which should also be attributed to our marketing team. When I think about metrics for engineering, I notice pull requests and completion timing on tasks. They’ve been doing really well in those areas.

How did DA-14 Software Development perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve actually asked them to step away from management. I’m a developer myself, and I like to manage the sprints. Our DA-14 engineer is working in conjunction with other developers on our team as well. I don’t want a project manager to get in the way.

What did you find most impressive about DA-14 Software Development?

I appreciate their flexibility in working with our needs and their ability to understand our concerns. About 95% of outsourced developers are not going to be a good fit for most companies. The fact that they were able to work with us right from the onset was impressive. Before we started development, we had an hour-long conversation with DA-14 where they dove into everything we wanted—the skill set, the type of person, and everything else. Initially, they spent a lot of time making sure we had the right person, but other development shops will just throw you the first open developer they have on staff.

From a pricing perspective, they’re very reasonable. They have an onshore person as well, who I can reach at any point, but that doesn’t inflate the cost. They are obviously making a margin off of this, but, given what I’ve seen in the market, it is a lot less than other shops.

The talent that they’ve pulled is really specific to our needs. In general, they’re a young company, so I think they are still learning how to build their model. They are very open to suggestions and feedback. We had a few billing issues with them because their finance department is a bit unsophisticated, but they are always willing to listen and pivot.

Are there any areas DA-14 Software Development could improve?

Their billing process is unwieldy, which makes payments complicated. They have an Estonian bank account with a lot of intermediary banks. Setting that up is not easy. We had to go to our bank and change our bank account type to be able to do unlimited international wires.

We offer everybody on our team perks like free food, and I was trying to enable that for our developers as well. It just wasn’t easy because their accounting is not up to par. Setting up something like that was difficult. Now, I pay the developer directly for the perks, rather than going through the company. That’s a really minor point that most people probably don’t care about.

Also, the turnaround time for getting a new developer is not as fast as we’d like, probably due to their size. Our other development shop can bring on resources at weeks’ notice. With DA-14, we’d probably need about a month of lead time to be able to roll on a developer.

I want to stress that they are not the type of shop that works on a contract basis and then is done. In that case, a month of lead time would not be acceptable. They help us augment our staff. I’m hiring somebody to be a part of the team for the foreseeable future. That’s why a month of lead time isn’t a big deal because we’d spend that long hiring an engineer anyway in New York.