Flexion Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of SEL Plus, Inc., an education company. We provide an AI-powered platform, SELvie, that supports youth mentoring by offering real-time coaching, personalized plans, and progress tracking for mentors in schools and community organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Flexion Inc.?

We needed help with a project that was important to our workflows but outside of our expertise and time to handle internally. We also needed an outside trusted resource to help with an analysis of our system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Flexion Inc. helped us with a proof of concept (POC) for our platform. The objective of this POC was to conduct a targeted security and compliance scan of our application to assess its readiness for a future data migration to AWS and explore improvements to our document ingestion and data processing workflows. This engagement identified key security risks, gaps in compliance controls, and opportunities to improve data protection, including encryption of data both at rest and in transit. In parallel, Flexion Inc. evaluated existing student data ingestion workflows, including bulk uploads, manual entry processes, and document-based submissions, to identify opportunities to improve performance, efficiency, and automation. As part of this POC, Flexion Inc. designed and prototyped a secure, scalable document ingestion pipeline that enabled us to upload documents, apply AI-powered OCR to convert documents into machine-readable data, and prepare that data for downstream use, including potential ingestion into our systems.Flexion Inc. performed a targeted, time-boxed review of our application's architecture, infrastructure configuration, data flows, and integration points, prioritizing areas of highest risk, complexity, and potential impact within the POC timeframe. This included evaluating: Given the exploratory nature of this POC, not all areas were assessed to the same level of depth. Flexion Inc. worked with us to prioritize focus areas and adjust the scope as needed based on early findings, technical constraints, and available time. Where appropriate and feasible within the POC timeframe, Flexion Inc. outlined a reference architecture for a document ingestion pipeline that leveraged AWS-native services and AI OCR capabilities. This architecture prioritized security, scalability, and compliance while remaining flexible enough to support future enhancements or deeper system integration. Based on observed risks and constraints, Flexion Inc. provided prioritized recommendations aligned with AWS security and data architecture best practices, focusing on scalability, compliance readiness, and operational safety. As deliverables, Flexion Inc. provided a technical document and assessment, a prototype product, security and compliance scan reports with identified risk areas and recommendations for encrypting data at rest and in transit, and a proposed data pipeline architecture for document upload, OCR processing, and machine-readable output with recommendations for AI OCR tooling and secure data handling.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of developers and project managers from Flexion Inc.

How did you come to work with Flexion Inc.?

We met them at a EdTech conference. We found an area of overlapping interest where they could address a real, acute need of ours and they were a great culture fit.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January 2026–March 2026.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were impressed with the testing results. The POC was 100% accurate in finding class and grade data. It handled up to five records at a time with that accuracy. Then, it just started missing a page or whole record but was still accurate on what it returned. Moreover, it was estimated to reduce work time by about 80%. It could process five records, and with cleaning and checking, we could only process one manually. Overall, it moved from manual to automatic, and there were few or no errors in the process.

How did Flexion Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very on top of communication. A few deadlines shifted, but they communicated the shift well in advance and in partnership with us. We communicated via virtual meetings, emails, and messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The people were great to work with. They were thoughtful, very competent, and focused on problem-solving.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder of Canopy Nepal

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Canopy Nepal is a nonprofit focused on improving literacy and education through culturally relevant storytelling and educator support.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Flexion Inc. to accomplish?

• We partnered with Flexion to help us design and validate a digital literacy platform that could expand access to culturally relevant stories while supporting the needs of teachers and learners. We wanted to take the vision for the platform and translate it into a practical digital product by better understanding user needs, defining the product experience, testing ideas through prototypes, and establishing a technical foundation that could support future growth.

SOLUTION

How did you find Flexion Inc.?

Referral

Why did you select Flexion Inc. over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Flexion Inc. were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Flexion collaborated closely with our team to help turn our vision for a digital literacy platform into a validated product direction. The work centered on creating an experience that could expand access to culturally relevant stories while fitting the real needs and workflows of educators and learners. Flexion helped us define the product vision, validate user needs, prototype the experience, and establish a scalable technical foundation for the platform. The engagement was iterative rather than simply moving directly into software development. We were able to explore and test the product concept, gather feedback, refine the experience, and clarify priorities before making larger investments in the platform. Key deliverables included: Product vision and strategy development, User-needs validation, UX/UI concepts and prototypes, A working product direction for the literacy platform, Technical planning and development intended to support future scale, A clearer product roadmap for future phases,  AI-powered scoring and OCR.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The engagement helped us validate the overall product direction and move from a broad concept toward a more tangible and actionable digital product. Flexion produced working prototypes that gave us a way to visualize and evaluate the experience before making larger development investments. The process also helped us clarify the roadmap and establish a stronger foundation for subsequent phases of the work. The resulting product direction and prototypes also strengthened our ability to communicate the vision for the platform and support future funding opportunities. 

Number of educators/users involved in research or validation: 7
Number/type of prototypes developed: 2
Funding or partnership outcomes influenced by the work: 4 
Subsequent development milestones: Government Partnerships

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

Flexion worked closely with our nonprofit leadership throughout the engagement. Their approach emphasized iterative discovery, rapid feedback, and milestone-based delivery. That was particularly helpful because the product itself was evolving. Instead of treating the original concept as fixed, the team used feedback and discovery to refine the product direction and make sure development decisions were connected to actual user needs. Everything was timely, and they were willing to listen to us and incorporate our feedback.

What was your primary form of communication with Flexion Inc.?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They’re a wonderful and brilliant team! The team really understood the problem we were trying to solve, and the team was great at coming up with great solutions. I totally see Canopy working with Flexion on more projects in the future. 

Futher, what also impressed us was Flexion’s ability to move between product strategy, design, and technology. They did not approach the engagement as simply a software build. They helped us think through what the product should be, who it needed to serve, and how we could validate those decisions before investing further. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something Flexion Inc. could have done differently?

No!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Executive Director of American Trails

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Connecting and transforming communities through the power of trails.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Flexion Inc. to accomplish?

• American Trails hired Flexion to complete a tactical refresh of the Recreational Trails Database after the public-facing database had not been updated since 2021

SOLUTION

How did you find Flexion Inc.?

Referral

Why did you select Flexion Inc. over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Flexion Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Flexion worked with American Trails to complete a tactical refresh of the Recreational Trails Database. Because updated Recreational Trails Program data was not available, the team identified the Federal Highway Administration’s Transportation Alternatives datasets as a viable proxy for recent trail-related funding activity. Flexion developed reusable Python scripts to process the 2022 and 2023 Transportation Alternatives datasets. The scripts applied defined filtering criteria and business rules to isolate trail-related projects from broader transportation investments. They also transformed and normalized funding amounts, project descriptions, and location information; resolved inconsistent and incomplete geolocation formats; mapped the resulting fields to the existing Recreational Trails database schema; and prepared the records for integration into the national database. Flexion and American Trails combined domain-informed business rules, validation logic, built-in data-quality checks, and human review to support data accuracy. ChatGPT and Claude Code were used as AI-assisted development tools to accelerate the development and refinement of the automation routines.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Eliminated an estimated two weeks of manual data processing compared with prior database update efforts.
• Automated the state-level report generation process, saving approximately four hours of intensive manual work.
• Refreshed the Recreational Trails Database with the most recent available project records from the 2022 and 2023 federal Transportation Alternatives datasets.
• Created reusable Python automation to support more efficient future database updates.
• Improved visibility into recent trail investments and how federal funding supports trail projects nationwide.
• Provided American Trails with a repeatable process that can be rerun as new federal datasets become available. 

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

Flexion managed the work through a focused three-week project and completed the planned database update, automation, and state-level reports within that timeframe. The team worked effectively in an asynchronous mode, while scheduling working sessions when needed to review progress, resolve questions, and make decisions. They responded quickly to feedback and adjusted the data processing and reporting outputs to meet American Trails’ needs.

What was your primary form of communication with Flexion Inc.?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Flexion is fast, extremely experienced, and very engaged on trail and outdoor recreation issues.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Flexion Inc. could have done differently?

None that I can think of.