Geniusee

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a business intelligence platform startup. We use big data and business intelligence software connect people within the printing industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Geniusee?

We needed resources to develop the front- and backend of our platform. This involved all aspects related to data intelligence (e.g., building scrapers and engines) as well as the UI. At the time, we were looking for a partner who could understand our challenges and help us. We wanted them to perform QA tests on everything they’d develop while still remaining within our budget.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Once we showed them our project, they helped us define a frontend that would meet our needs. Since we dealt with a lot of information and big data, it was crucial to include marketing and SEO capabilities. On the backend, they built a few bots to test our software and better understand its capabilities. They then integrated multiple technologies into the platform such as security features, data structures, machine learning, and Elasticsearch.

What is the team composition?

Their team consisted of 4–6 people, depending on our needs. They assigned a project manager, an infrastructure specialist, a graphic designer, a frontend developer, and a backend developer. The backend developer also oversaw data management.

How did you come to work with Geniusee?

We used a local recruitment firm to help us find engineers and also searched online. I interviewed multiple companies before deciding to work with Geniusee. I felt good about our initial talks, and they had strong testimonials from former clients. As the deciding factor, they completed a test project for us within a certain time frame, which proved that they could handle our main project.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost depends on their hours and the complexity of the project. Some projects were fixed, turnkey projects where we could negotiate the price, while others were strictly based on time and resources.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first big project lasted from January–May 2018, though we’re currently starting another project with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within a short time, we were able to launch our MVP and move to a commercial model. As a startup, it’s important for us to develop the product as quickly as possible so that we can test and sell it. In that sense, we relied on Geniusee to push the project. Since moving to the commercial build, we’ve started to gain revenue.

We also had a website that showed off the platform’s capabilities and potential uses in the print industry. Rather than measure how many visitors landed on our site, we wanted to make sure that users received the right information and clearly understood our product. We’ve managed to reach this goal.

How did Geniusee perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, it was a good experience, and we’re satisfied with the relationship. I think that we both did a fairly good job. They communicated well, understood what we wanted, and asked the right questions.

We held meetings every morning to review our progress and align our priorities. During this time, we would also evaluate our schedule and address any issues. We had some delays, but this made sense, considering all the complex changes we had.

As for documentation, it was crucial for us to establish what we expected out of the deliverables upfront. However, we didn’t clearly define this on our side, so it’s difficult to comment on the quality of the platform.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Since they’re not a large company, they’re able to maintain good customer service. We were one of their largest projects at the time, so they gave us a lot of attention. They had a high level of commitment compared to bigger agencies with greater prices.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It was crucial for us to meet the time lines, but we failed in certain areas because we didn’t accurately estimate the complexity of the project. At times, we wanted to implement certain features but lacked the technical experience to explain precisely what we wanted. Had we done a better job at this, we could have saved ourselves some stress.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of development operations (DevOps) at a financial technology (fintech) company. We’re building a blockchain for loyalty programs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Geniusee?

We needed to augment our development team with outside resources to assist in build parts of our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The resources that Geniusee provided have worked on several different projects, primarily in Node.js. I can’t get into too much detail, but we’ve done a lot of work with various databases in PostgreSQL and MySQL. They’ve also built backend proxies to other API services that we need to utilize. They’ve been integral in providing feedback on the platform and our DevOps processes as well.

What is the team composition?

We have a dedicated project manager and four or five developers working with our team.

How did you come to work with Geniusee?

I had connected with Taras (Co-founder & CEO, Geniusee) on LinkedIn, and he has a comprehensive understanding of web application development and cryptocurrencies. I had a few calls with him and his team, and they seemed to be a great fit.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2018, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The most significant impact has been their work in assisting us during the fundraising process and allowing us to deliver on our promises. This has given us more credibility in the long term.

How did Geniusee perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been one of the easiest companies to work with in my experience with other development firms. They quickly understood what our project entails, and I rarely have to give specific directions. We use Jira for task management and Slack for daily communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team has a lot of proficiency around web applications, software infrastructure, and how to scale platforms. They’ve been extremely successful in turning around the projects we’ve given them, and they’ve completed them in record time. I’m very happy with the work they’ve provided so far, and they offer a lot of value for the cost.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure your scope and specifications are clearly defined before you engage with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of MyUber.top, the official partner of Uber in Ukraine. Our target audience is drivers with their own cars, and we connect them to Uber. There are 8 persons in our company, which is based in Kiev.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Geniusee?

We needed a website that would be easy to use, allowing drivers to see all of our features and send information with just one click.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Geniusee developed our custom site using PHP, CSS, and HTML5. It features 2 languages—Russian and Ukrainian. We have an integration with the Bitrix24 CRM [customer relationship management] platform as well as with Binotel, a Ukrainian platform that provides mobile IP connections.

What is the team dynamic?

I worked with a project manager from their team who I could contact for information. I didn’t interface directly with the designers or developers.

How did you come to work with Geniusee?

One of my friends from Germany was a former client of Geniusee. He created an online sports shoe store and recommended them to me.

How much have you invested with them?

We paid less than $10,000 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Geniusee in May 2017, and the project was finished in August.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The MyUber.top website is currently live, with a conversion rate of nearly 5%. This is a good result considering the driver market in Ukraine.

How did Geniusee perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication process was very good. We used Skype, and I also had the opportunity to visit their office. The project was tracked using Trello, allowing me to see all of the ongoing tasks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm impressed with their professionalism—they promised to finish my site by August, and they delivered on time. When I compare the site with those of my competitors, I’m satisfied. People have actually asked me how I found Geniusee.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall, Geniusee was okay, so I haven’t considered any areas of improvement for them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Fair Friend UG, Germany, is a startup company. It was founded to create innovative products that can be used by everyone. Our solutions aim to make users’ lives easier by simplifying complex challenges and making them accessible to all. I am the managing director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Geniusee?

We always strive to provide the highest quality in our products, so we won’t create anything that doesn’t fulfill our own strict quality requirements. As our name implies, we also want to offer fair products at fair prices.

We needed to develop our iOS and Android apps. We plan to offer them for free and include in-app purchases at low prices.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Geniusee developed the my Food Traffic Lights app for us for iOS and Android.

They did the development here in Germany, and helped us realize our idea. The app is a traffic light system for food and drinks. It’s a very easy app. Users can hold it next to the nutrition facts of the foods that they’re buying to see whether the amount of nutrients in the food is good for them.

The app automatically calculates the nutrients, calories, and recommended amounts. Even though the app appears simple, it is very complex because of calculations involved. The main challenge for them was to implement the formulas and calculations without any mistakes. They managed to do that.

It was a hybrid development for both iOS and Android. They designed the UI [user interface] and UX [user experience]. We mainly designed the look and feel of the app internally, but they provided significant input on it, showed us what was possible, and made suggestions for realizing certain ideas.

What is the team dynamic?

We communicated with a project manager. I don’t know how many developers there were.

How did you come to work with Geniusee?

We had a few companies to choose from. A friend recommended Geniusee. They quoted us a good price and made a good impression when I talked to them. In contrast to the others, they demonstrated that they understood our requirements and what we were planning to do. The other companies’ offerings came across as more generic.

How much have you invested with them?

Between $5,000–$10,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I haven’t received any reports of crashes by Apple or Google Statistics. It’s a good quality app and seems to run without any flaws on both iOS and Android. There were some mistakes in the development, but nothing unusual, and they were corrected. We now have a very stable, good-looking app.

Geniusee performed very well and was always responsive to our input and ideas.

How did Geniusee perform from a project management standpoint?

I could always reach them, and they understood what we wanted. We used video calls, phone calls, and chat.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The cost-value ratio was most impressive. I’m happy with the cost and how well they executed the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t see any major areas of improvement needed.

Do you have any advice for potential clients of theirs in the future?

Give them a try. They’re really good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of a financial services company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A fintech technology company in the car payment space 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Geniusee to accomplish?

• Develop a MVP

SOLUTION

How did you find Geniusee?

Online Search

Why did you select Geniusee over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Geniusee were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Development of back end application to facilitate payments, the integration of numerous API's in a highly regulated industry

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Successful launch, scalable application, with minimal errors, issues and downtime. 

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

The delivery was delayed due to unforeseen issues; they responded to these issues very well, proactively, and solution-driven. 

What was your primary form of communication with Geniusee?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The way they work as a team and the ability to place the right people in the right roles to help improve the application.  They took a hands-on approach and truly understood what we were building, providing suggestions and feedback that went well beyond their general scope of services.   

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

They could provide better visibility on the project costs.  More information regarding actual cost vs budget/estimate. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-Founder of Flock

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Social app that shows users where people are going out

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Geniusee to accomplish?

• Develop the app

SOLUTION

How did you find Geniusee?

Referral

Why did you select Geniusee over others?

• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Geniusee were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Geniusee ran the entire development process including: back and front end engineers, buisness manager and UI / UX designer. They were very communicative throughout the entire process, which ensured we were aligned on deliverable dates. Every 2 weeks we had sprint demos to make sure the app was looking how we had imagined and to ensure everything was working correctly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were able to deliver a relatively complex beta of an app in 7 months time that looks better than we could have possibly imagined pre-development

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

They were extremely easy to work with. We were in constant contact via slack and weekly meetings. The process was very efficient and effective.

What was your primary form of communication with Geniusee?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Quality of work combined with an efficient delivery

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

Honestly, no

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the CTO of a software company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Make AI more accessible and capable with natural language

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Geniusee to accomplish?

• Staff augmentation with backend-leaning full stack python engineers

SOLUTION

How did you find Geniusee?

Referral

Why did you select Geniusee over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from Geniusee were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Geniusee delivers projects based on a scope or user stories, via api, frontend, db, cache, etc. changes. They take the project from start to launch. Staff augmentation setup so regular communication.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Smooth, regular pace of productivity on project of small to medium complexity, spanning one day to one week. Work is largely completed as expected or quickly adjusted.

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

Estimates are arrived at via a conversation, scope/duration is adjusted per needs, and the work is largely delivered on the agreed upon schedule. Predictable and reliable.

What was your primary form of communication with Geniusee?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Great communication, high reliability, proactive engineers, smooth project management.

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

I'm completely satisfied

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Lead Developer of a consulting company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Consulting and management services for European innovation projects, and development of technological solutions for their management

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Geniusee to accomplish?

• Improve the infrastructure of our Kronos app

SOLUTION

How did you find Geniusee?

Online Search

Why did you select Geniusee over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Geniusee were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Improve the infrastructure of our Kronos app.
• Set up CI/CD and devops processes.
• Secure the infrastructure.
• Create Docker containers.
• Configure load balancers.
• Automate deployment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• A completely automated infrastructure thanks to AWS Terraform.
• GitHub actions for automatic deployment.
• Documentation to be able to interpret how things are done

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

Yes, they deliver in a quick and efficient way.

What was your primary form of communication with Geniusee?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The speed with which they deliver the expected results

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

No, everything is as expected

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Operating manager of VinylsNFT

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Creates music and art collectibles as in NFTs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Geniusee to accomplish?

• Develop our platform.
• Create algorithms

SOLUTION

How did you find Geniusee?

• Referral

Why did you select Geniusee over others?

• Referred to me

How many teammates from Geniusee were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Create algorithms to realize music for an online player. Create front end with interactive player as well as landing page.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their team developed our player quite well.

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

They were always on time and always responded to our needs.

What was your primary form of communication with Geniusee?

• Virtual Meeting

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

They were always able to find solutions to any problem.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am a department Lead of an agriculture company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide real-time data solutions for agricultural supply chains and labor.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Geniusee to accomplish?

• Maintain and expand web UI code
• Provide quality assurance for both UI and API
• Manage requirements for new feature development

SOLUTION

How did you find Geniusee?

• Referral

Why did you select Geniusee over others?

• Referred to me

How many teammates from Geniusee were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Geniusee provides web frontend development, QA and DevOps support for our primary customer application, as well as general requirements management.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Geniusee helped us reduce major production outages from several per year to zero, while doubling the feature set of the frontend application.

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

The whole Geniusee team is professional and reliable. They consistently deliver on schedule, and their communication is excellent.

What was your primary form of communication with Geniusee?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I'm most impressed by how seamlessly Geniusee integrates with our local team. They feel like a natural extension, not a third party.

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

I have nothing but praise for every member of the Geniusee team.