Gearheart.io

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The company is no longer in existence. We provided solutions for small-to medium-sized businesses so they didn’t have to hire contractors and consultants. Clients could drag and drop different elements to build solutions.

For example, a real estate agent wanting to build listings and showings could drag and drop a sheet showing dates, customer ID, and name, and then our company would take care of everything on the web, iOS, and Android.

I’m the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Gearheart?

My co-founder and I have PhDs in computer science and we used to work at Amazon, Google, and Facebook, so we set our bar high. We were trying to find a high-quality, cost-effective team that could grasp and work with required technologies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We are highly technical ourselves, so we weren’t expecting someone to give us an estimate for delivery. They functioned more like an extension of our team. They provided expertise in technologies such as Python and Django backend, APIs, high-scalability architecture, and high-visibility systems. Our stack was super complex. It had an Apache Solr search layer and MongoDB and Amazon Web Services Relational Database Service (RDS).

They worked with us on an hourly basis for 2 years. We had weekly sprints. Our CTO built the tasks and projects, and we also had a design team. Everyone worked together on this complex project.

What is the team dynamic?

I didn’t work day-to-day with the team. They would scale up and down as needed, which was incredibly helpful. They were able to hire quickly and fill needed positions. The most resources of theirs we used were 10–12.

How much have you invested with them?

They were paid hourly. We spent between $300,000 and $400,000 over the course of 2 years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from 2014 to 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Quality was our utmost priority, and second was delivery. Gearheart was amazing. We communicated our requests and deadlines, and they created incredible, highly reliable software to support more than 100,000 businesses in 169 countries in 7 languages.

How did Gearheart perform from a project management standpoint?

They did their part perfectly. We had clear requirements, and we worked in JIRA so that everything was documented. That worked well since there was a time difference.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Vladimir [Founder and CEO, Gearheart.io] and his team were really impressive. He knew how to vet engineers and team leaders. They were amazing.

We’ve outsourced to other companies in India, China, Ukraine, and Russia, and Gearheart’s quality and passion stand out. They care about what they’re building. That means first understanding what they are building and why. It showed in the quality of their work.

They were incredible about pushing back when they didn’t agree with what we wanted to do. We appreciated that because it resulted in a better design.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They felt like an extension of our company. Some of them weren’t completely proficient in English. We weren’t relying on them as a typical outsourcing company, where there was only one contact—we wanted everyone on the Skype calls discussing the designs and features. So they paid out of pocket for team members to learn English, and we subsidized that as well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I manage the technology projects of a business workflow management software for photographers that’s been around for about 10 years. We’re one of the top solutions in the industry for photographers to manage their business. We’ve been in the process of modernizing our software stack and moving our Legacy code into a new architecture, which means rebuilding the front and backend of the application. I’ve been facilitating the process between our company owner and both the internal and external teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Gearheart.io?

We had a substantial amount of technical development and business logic from our old application. Rebuilding a 9-10 year old piece of software is no small feat, and we’re not a huge business with dozens of developers, so we needed external resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s a complicated piece of software, so there was a lot involved. Initially, they were doing small feature development on the site. The first thing they did for us was the citing process for a type of text editing interface where you can offer a contract and variables, then render that to a final client ready contract that can be sent to customers. They then moved onto the proposal process, which involves a contract, payment schedules, and discounts, all of which are presented to the client. There’s also a sort of mini-website where customers can access this information to review it.

Gearheart.io did the photographer proposal frontend and they also did the booking site, which is the interstitial application where the client is presented with the proposal. They actually did the post booking site as well, which is where the client reviews and signs the contract and becomes committed to payment. This element was crucial, and probably the thing that impressed me the most when working with Gearheart.io. They were very consistent with both their timeline and assessment.

The software was built with a Django backend platform and an Angular frontend.

What is the team dynamic?

Gearheart.io has around 4-5 developers at any given time, as well as their project manager, Anna [Business Analyst, Gearheart.io]. We have our internal team, including some QA people, a couple developers, and myself. We’ve never had any conflict with Gearheart.io. There’s a lot of moving parts, which means there’s a lot of code commits that come in. The only thing that ever happens is that we step on each other’s toes with code commits and need to fix certain things. This is just a normal part of development when you’re dealing with multiple people on a big application.

How did you come to work with Gearheart.io?

We had tried out some other companies along the way, as well as worked with overseas development shops in different locations worldwide. We found Gearheart.io through Upwork. We started small with them, and after seeing the quality of their work and project management skills, we expanded our engagement over time. I had two development teams at one point of equal size working on the project. I ended up firing the other development team and doubling Gearheart.io’s workload after I saw what they were capable of.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our application isn’t in production yet. We did set some aggressive timelines for getting our MVP application finished, which was important to our customer base who were anxiously waiting to use it. Gearheart.io remained consistent in sticking to our timeline and not letting anything slip up.

How did Gearheart.io perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication skills are excellent. Everyone, including their senior project manager and company owner, speak excellent English. We communicate primarily over instant messaging applications. We write to each other more than anything else, and there hasn’t been any issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They employ mostly full spec developers, which is extremely nice when building this kind of application. If you have people that only either do front or backend development, it puts a real strain on productivity because someone is always waiting on someone else. There’s always this huge communication buffer that you need to keep filled to make sure everyone is on the same page. Having developers who are able to look at the entirety of the software makes the process fairly autonomous, which is very nice.

Their project management is their most valuable asset. Anna [Business Analyst, Gearheart.io] is very impressive because of her amazing attention to detail and ability to never miss a beat. Every step of the way, she has validated our assumptions on some of the design and technical decisions. She’s offered alternative ideas and solutions, and has contributed to the overall health of the project outside of a normal development relationship. She’s definitely helped us think through complexities within the app. It’s like having another person who can analyze and deconstruct to point out flaws. This is one of the biggest reasons we’ve stayed loyal to Gearheart.io, and why we consider them to be such an integral part of our process now.

Are there any areas they could improve?

My only pain point is that they use their own project management software heavily. I understand why they do it, because it’s tied into their process, but it would be nice if the entire process had been done in JIRA. They’ve also been using our project management system, so it’s not like they completely ignored our process.

Do you have any advice for other potential customers of Gearheart.io?

I believe there should always be 80% design and 20% implementation. There should always be time or money spent to come up with a thorough application design or document that is in-depth and capable before engaging with companies. These companies will allocate a lot of resources and will move faster than you, so you have to be completely prepared. When you’re not, that’s when things slow down and you end up having to figure things out on the fly, which is how mistakes are made.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have developed a media monitoring and measurement platform which is being sold to PR managers of big companies. We monitor and analyze all types of media, including social platforms, TV and radio content, and printed media.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Gearheart.io?

We have developed our platform with their team. At the launch of the company, we had a goal of creating a platform which would aid our clients. We had been using old-school document formats like doc and pdf, which were sent to clients every day. The new platform would give them access to reports across the day, and allow us to use fewer analysts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Gearheart.io developed our platform using Python. We use several databases, including Apache Solr, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL. On the frontend, we use JavaScript.

What is the team dynamic?

The team varies depending on the task. We currently have 2 developers on our project, as well as an analyst and a tester on a part-time basis. During busier times, we used 3 developers. Vladimir Sidorenko, their CEO, has helped us plan various tasks, acting like a manager of the project.

How did you come to work with Gearheart.io?

Vladimir is my brother, and I know that he is a professional in his area, so we chose Gearheart.io.

How much have you invested with them?

The total budget has been around $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Gearheart.io more than 4 years ago, at the launch of our company. We haven’t used any other developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have more than 150 clients on our system, including McDonald’s and VISA. We have received feedback from them, and have seen great results. The platform received good marks from the users.

How did Gearheart.io perform from a project management standpoint?

They collaborated with our in-house development team on a weekly basis. We controlled the process, and had access to the progress and results online. Gearheart.io is not only developing our platform, but are also supporting our system, so we are connected daily, discussing the issues around our project and their solutions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They provide different ways to approach tasks. Gearheart.io wants to help, and they choose simple but also correct solutions. We have worked on all screens and tasks together, and received great advice from them, which was used in our work and in the planning of our platform.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven’t had experience working with other companies, but, at this moment, all our processes are stable, and everyone knows what to do and whom to contact. It’s most likely because we have been working with Gearheart.io for 4 years.

Advice for potential customers?

Any company looking to build a product should put together detailed technical specifications, and maintain contact with the development team. There are many possible issues related to the technical specs of a project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the COO of FuturePlus, an end-to-end sustainability and ESG management platform. We help businesses measure, track, and improve their social and environmental impact in an accessible and affordable way.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Gearheart.io?

We wanted to implement design and functionality updates and improvements to our sustainability management SaaS platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Redesign and update of SaaS platform dashboards. Improved back-end functionality and UX.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 4 teammates from Gearheart.io.

How did you come to work with Gearheart.io?

We heard about Gearheart.io through a podcast ad. We liked their approach, saw some great testimonials from other clients, and decided to work with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've seen fresh dashboard designs and better back-end UX. Our clients have responded really positively to the upgrades, and the time-saving features in the back-end have made for a smoother and more efficient UX for our team.

How did Gearheart.io perform from a project management standpoint?

Gearheart.io's project management has been excellent. They have a very efficient and great system, and they deliver on time. We communicate via Slack and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm most impressed with their project management style and ability to present new and proactive ideas. It's been a pleasure to work with the team. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We took a little time to get going, but they are a busy team!