First Factory

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a FinTech and financial services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with FIRST FACTORY?

We needed a portal strategy targeting multiple markets. First Factory has proven to be an important and super effective partner in getting those products out there.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First Factory built full-stack web portals with some backend integrations. They used best practices and a modern tech stack that included JavaScript, Node.js, and MySQL stack. We had some older technologies, and we wanted to use these products to incorporate up-to-date knowledge about what’s in our space.

What is the team composition?

We work with eight people.

How did you come to work with FIRST FACTORY?

Someone at the company found them at an industry conference, I believe.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $300,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started in 2017 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

First Factory is always on point with execution. They’re thorough and often finish ahead of schedule. They don’t necessarily know the business context, but they always ask questions so that they get the context they need to do a great job. We’ve received very good feedback on their work.

How did FIRST FACTORY perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done very well at that. We co-manage the project with them, and they always have a dedicated person to help us with that. We use Slack to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

First Factory is very easy to work with. They’re diligent and don’t really make any mistakes. I always trust them to get the work done and done well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wouldn’t say anything to that; they’re doing a great job.

Any advice for potential customers?

Treat it like a partnership. First Factory is capable of doing their end. The more you can do on your part, the more successful your project will be.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. We provide services to agencies around the world focused on children that go missing and are sexually exploited. We also combat child sexual abuse material.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with FIRST FACTORY?

We have an initiative that’s a consortium of 30 countries and their missing child agencies (34 agencies in total) We have a database of their missing child cases, and the database was primarily used for these agencies to put in case information and create online posters. It was a clearinghouse for their active cases, but we wanted it do more. We wanted to create a system that had intelligence and was proactively searching for children.

Once a case went into the system, we didn’t want it to just sit there; it had to be active. Technology takes on the characteristics of a parent looking for a child. We had a prototype developed in conjunction with AWS using their recognition technology. Our challenge was to take that very raw prototype and merge it with our case management system. Then, we had to turn it into our production system that sat within our AWS infrastructure. We also had a timeline of four months.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re a lean organization, so we don’t have a development team. That meant I needed a team of developers, as well as project lead who could help drive the sprints and provide project management.

We launched the system at the conference with a live demo video, along with JD (Project Manager). It went extremely well, and we went into full production with all our member-agency data in January.

How did you come to work with FIRST FACTORY?

I was trying to squeeze a whole team out of one person’s worth of budget. This forced me to look at a near-shore operation. I’d had experience with traditional offshore and they weren’t good. Jason (CEO) introduced me to the near-shore model, which was very relatable to me in terms of the talent he was sourcing from Costa Rica.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over six figures so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

I’d been in discussions with the CEO for months, and we were finally able to commit to a development project that was targeting the launch of the system at our 2018 conference. We've been working together since July 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since launch, it’s catapulted into being the largest internet alerting system for missing child cases in the world. Each alert done through the system creates an internet display ad that a case manager can target and send out. It distributes that missing child person geo-targeted to a specific region.

We’ve generated billions of media impressions on those display ads. We’ve seen millions of click-throughs of people who’ve gotten engaged in those searches for the children. In 2019, we have 209 cases closed due to alerts we issued through the system. We’re still ramping up in 2020. Just now, in May 2020, we’ve already closed 200 cases closed this year. We’ll surpass the success rate of 2019 in just a few days.

How did FIRST FACTORY perform from a project management standpoint?

Their approach is very hands-on. Not only did we have weekly sprints and interactions with the development team, but I also had bi-weekly meetings with the COO and CEO of the company to ensure we were on track. Those meetings came a day after a sprint review. Their team also provided task summaries every Friday that detailed what they did that week and what was going to happen next week.

Their communication is excellent. We share Google Docs and Sheets and use Slack. They have a direct line to us into the PM’s desk.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team that we put together was exceptional in their skill-sets. It changed my impression of outsourcing. Their team is an extension of our team. They’re committed to excellence no matter the circumstances, whether it’s potentially a holiday weekend or whatever. They do whatever it takes to deliver what we need on time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they meet us every time we raise the bar, no matter how high.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of engineering at a software company that offers revenue operations solutions for sales-led startups.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire First Factory to accomplish?

We hired First Factory for staff augmentation for our existing project work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First Factory has embedded full-time staff to build and maintain our product. The team has worked on billing automation, subscription management, quoting, and analytics features in our full-stack web app.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 2–5 teammates from First Factory.

How did you come to work with First Factory?

We found them through a referral. We chose them over other options because their pricing fit our budget, they had a great culture fit, they offered good value for the cost, and their company values aligned with ours.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2025, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our primary metrics are projects and code delivered faster, and First Factory has helped us significantly.

How did First Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

First Factory's project management is good, and they deliver on time. We communicate via virtual meetings, emails, and messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

First Factory has great cost and relationship management, strong performance management, and quality candidates.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything has been great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Equity Estates, a private equity fund that allows accredited investors to co-own and enjoy luxury residences worldwide while benefiting from potential property appreciation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with First Factory?

We needed skill-specific resources to take a legacy platform and address stability / usability issues, then start a path to a modern upgrade of the platform while providing a reliable, transparent and dependable resource to management to plan long term for customer experience and the implementation of core business rules and requirements. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First Factory initially provided maintenance and upgrades for a legacy LAMP-type SaaS platform with core deliverables including issue resolution and feature development for our platform. Throughout the term of our engagement the team has cleaned up serious architectural and stability issues with our legacy system and then slowly and methodically moved through the backlog to stand up new features and capabilities including significant cost and benefit improving features to customers and management. Alongside this initiative, they’ve provided diligence and expertise to improve our overall DevOps landscape, disaster recovery planning, API integration with enterprise data lakes, user experience, cross device platform support, AI strategy and other critical IT-related initiatives directly correlated to the platform.

What is the team composition?

We work with 2–5 teammates from First Factory.

How did you come to work with First Factory?

We found them through a referral. We chose them over other options because they were a great culture fit, had good value for the cost, had company values aligned with ours, and had nearshore benefits.

How much have you invested with them?

Confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2021, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

First Factory has delivered stable code and clear, constant, and transparent communication from both development resources and management. We’ve seen a significant reduction in the instability of our platform and a steady improvement in bug resolution over time. The overall reliability of the platform has increased 10x. Customer complaints have decreased, and internal frustrations have slowly dissipated over time as the expected functionality started to perform alongside new features and innovations.Moreover, issue resolution has gone from days to hours, and customers have increased self-service through their portal as the platform began to deliver on expectations. System uptime has been staggeringly high. For a custom implementation that was originally built on a weak foundation by the legacy development team, the improvements in stability and uptime have been fantastic.

How did First Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

First Factory has delivered on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

First Factory’s management is a pleasure to deal with. They are honest, prompt, knowledgeable, friendly and truly feel like a partner. The quality of their resources has been exceptionally high and consistent. Their backbench of technical expertise is a game-changer for dealing with full-time contracted resources, and we love their model.  Their practical knowledge on the AI side in terms of application, planning, and deployment is also highly impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I'm an Executive of PayPleez

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

PayPleez is an app reminder service. When someone owes you money, PayPleez will remind you.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire FIRST FACTORY to accomplish?

 Build the app from the start, strategize on the functionality

SOLUTION

How did you find FIRST FACTORY?

Referral

Why did you select FIRST FACTORY over others?

Referred to me

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Working from the inception of the project, developing the strategy and building the app from scratch

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

 Weekly meeting to review project, updates, function testing

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Excellent project management with clear goals and objectives, and all timelines have been met

What was your primary form of communication with FIRST FACTORY?

Virtual Meeting, Email, or Messaging App

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

The ability for our team to work with the First Factory team and have clear goals and all timelines being met. We are impressed with their efficient project management to record all functionality needed and have it built without much back and forth.

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

As this project progresses, we continue to be impressed with the timely deliverables.