GLOBALDEV

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Pikurate, a social collaboration platform. We offer an invaluable knowledge-sharing experience, allowing users to gain insights from domain experts for various research topics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SteelKiwi?

We needed someone to develop our social collaboration platform because we didn’t have an internal development team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SteelKiwi developed my social collaboration platform, consulting us to select the best tech stack for our needs (Python, Django, PostgreSQL, React, Next.js, Node.js, and MobX.js).

Our product is a single platform that allows users to connect and interact with people to crowdsource knowledge. It’s really an information curation platform. Users who are interested in specific research topics can use our site to communicate with similarly-minded people. 

We offer three main tools: the first is a unique bookmarking tool to organize valuable URL links; the second is a convenient research collaboration tool for individuals to share their referenced links; the third is a crowd-curated and vetted collection of information. 

These benefits impart a more effective way of conducting online research. Whereas before, users would simply copy and paste single links here and there, our platform allows users to find a set of community-reviewed resources and collaborate with others, all organized by relevant research topics. In the future, we hope users will use the platform to answer more complicated questions.

What is the team composition?

There are eight people, including a project manager.

How did you come to work with SteelKiwi?

I researched online for good development shops and found SteelKiwi on Clutch. Out of the 40 companies I considered, I narrowed down my list to 5–6 candidates and interviewed each. My key criteria were price, quality, the right tech stack, and the right methodology. The estimated project period also had to be a good fit for my situation, and their credibility and reviews had to be great. SteelKiwi was a good option to meet my needs.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested $50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2018, and the work is ongoing. We’re almost done with the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

So far, their project costs have fit my budget, and their time estimates are very reasonable and shorter than their competitors. Adding on to that, when I asked my CTO for his thoughts, he said their proposed tech stack was decent.

How did SteelKiwi perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed very well. The team documents everything they create, so whenever I have a question, I can refer to their notes. This has been helpful because I’ve sometimes had to change a previous request that was recorded in their doc. 

For example, in the beginning, we agreed to do two-week sprints, but I later realized that we had to develop faster. They understood the situation and easily switched gears to meet my needs. I appreciate their flexibility and willingness to adjust to my situation. In terms of communication, we coordinate through Skype, Trello, Slack, Jira, Confluence, and Google Doc.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This is a basic point, but I like how everything is very organized and well-planned—not all companies will do that. Their project manager gives me information well in advance. She lets me know what to expect for this week and the next and even a month later, so it’s easy for me to anticipate any potential changes. If a team member has a vacation coming up, she also gives me plenty of notice so that I can adjust.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Every development project has the same problem which is that time and budget estimates don’t always match up with the actual cost/schedule. This isn’t necessarily the vendor’s fault because startups don’t always know what they want to do and will change their requirements during development. SteelKiwi tries to stick closely to their estimates, but it would be good if they could be even more accurate.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Their team members are very creative and proactive. Even if you know what you want to do, ask for their opinion because sometimes their advice or insight is better. Use them not only to do something, but also to possibly find a better solution.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of Can Tho, which is a chain of restaurants that specializes in Vietnamese cuisine. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SteelKiwi?

As we planned to open our restaurant, we wanted to introduce an ordering application for our customers. In addition to hopefully reducing the personnel needed to operate the restaurant, we wanted to provide an enjoyable customer experience that would allow users to order and customize their food remotely.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had many lengthy conversations regarding the ideal UX for the application. The finalization of the app’s flow then drove the development of the application itself. We relied on SteelKiwi to handle all technical elements of the project.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a group of 6–7 people.

How did you come to work with SteelKiwi?

My wife, who is the marketing director for our restaurants, found SteelKiwi. They had an impressive pitch, so we felt comfortable selecting them.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000­–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in October 2017. They delivered the first version of the application in November 2018, and we are currently working on a second version.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app functions as we hoped. It has very few bugs and has performed well. We have received a lot of positive feedback from our customers. They’re delighted and find it very user-friendly. And from a business standpoint, we’ve saved between $70,000–$105,000 in staff costs because of the application.

How did SteelKiwi perform from a project management standpoint?

We worked very well together. We communicated primarily using Slack and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This wasn’t an easy project, and we weren’t easy customers, but they delivered the solution on time.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their team suffered from quite a bit of staff turnover, which prolonged the work and required new members to play catch-up on the project details. Also, SteelKiwi could improve by making more of a commitment to product design. My team provided a lot of creative elements.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any project, it’s critical to be clear about what you want.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a social media startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SteelKiwi?

I engaged SteelKiwi to develop an application for Android and iOS devices.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I provided at least 70 mockups and screens formatted in Figma. SteelKiwi took my exact design and redesigned it on InVision. Their duplicates matched 80% of my initial wireframes, but they incorporated the original theme and color schemes. They then built the app from scratch using Google Flutter.

The app uses Google Maps to create a location-specific feed. Users can post to publish feeds up to a radius of 300 feet and their posts last up to 48 hours. They can also look up feeds from other locations, pull up user profiles, have friends-only feeds, send messages, and change background images.

After development, SteelKiwi helped launch an MVP, create a mail account using Mailgun, and set up the AWS servers.

What is the team composition?

I worked with five people. The project manager served as my primary point of contact, but I could also message the lead developer as needed.

How did you come to work with SteelKiwi?

I was looking for outsourced developers a few years earlier, and SteelKiwi’s review and portfolio impressed me. However, the timing wasn’t right, so I waited before contracting their team until I had screens to provide. SteelKiwi came back with a cost estimate and a timeline, and we started the project from there.
 
How much have you invested with them?

I spent $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2018, and the app launched in April 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The MVP has launched and functions well. There’s room for improvement, but I look forward to the final version. SteelKiwi and I are now working on a website to start attracting users.
 
How did SteelKiwi perform from a project management standpoint?

SteelKiwi was highly organized and accommodating from start to finish. I sent screenshots of any areas that needed fixing, and they addressed it right away. Their team also sent screenshots of anything that needed updating. Their willingness to make time for me while working on other projects impressed me. The back-and-forth made communication as smooth as possible. I received multiple options to choose from at every step, which reassured me that I was getting the most value out of our engagement. We communicated via email and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

SteelKiwi was highly communicative, understanding, and honest. They demonstrated a willingness to take on complicated projects and delivered an app that functions as I envisioned.
 
Are there any areas they could improve?

The team’s timing occasionally ran into issues, but I expected it. I appreciate their responsiveness after work hours and can’t think of any areas for improvement.
 
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Given the number of developers out there, it can be tough to choose a good one. However, I’m happy with SteelKiwi’s work, and I’d definitely recommend their team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder and owner of Matoph Labs. We’re a new, Vienna-based, digital services company that provides solutions to support and improve users’ mental health.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SteelKiwi?

I had an idea for a mood-tracking mobile application. I’d put together a design and a set of requirements, but I needed a reliable and trustworthy agency to build out the platform using Swift technology.

What were your goals for this project?

I wanted a store-ready app with room for future expansions and improvements.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I searched on- and offline for app development companies and freelancers. In total, I considered 50 providers, but only shortlisted 10. I interviewed each one to assess their development capabilities, project management approach, and communication skills. I also requested timeline and cost estimates. Ultimately, I selected SteelKiwi because they offered the broadest skill set, a reasonable price, and a realistic timeline.

Describe the project in detail.

We started with a kick-off meeting, where I shared my planned design and approach for the iOS application. After they had a sufficient understanding of my expectations, we divided the project into sprints and scheduled scope meetings and demo sessions. The SteelKiwi team was responsible for implementing complex UI elements, animations, and screen transitions.

What was the team composition?

I worked with a team of three who handled our project management, development, and testing needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They completed the application, and we launched it on time. It was featured on the App Store and received more than 100 reviews with an average rating of 4.5 stars.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Transparency and communication are key to an efficient workflow, and SteelKiwi offered both. We had daily meetings via Skype and shared progress reports and documentation through Jira, Confluence, and Slack. They instantly answered my questions. I always felt like my project was in good hands.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

SteelKiwi delivered on everything that they promised at the beginning of the project. They gained my trust, and I’m looking forward to working with them again in the future.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, the final product wasn’t just good—it was excellent. That’s all we can ask for from developers.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT manager at Nutsgroep. We sell energy and telecom in the Netherlands and Belgium. We want to provide our customers with efficient help via our website, so our customers don't have to call, and their costs are as low as possible.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with X1 Group?

Highly-trained developers aren’t widely available in the Netherlands and the salaries are relatively high. We wanted to add developers to our team, so looked to see what other options there were.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their developers joined our team to work on .NET software environment. We believe in organic growth—if it works, we want to make it bigger. For that reason, with X1, we started small and eventually decided to take on a larger team. We’re constantly building on the previous successes, and they’re growing with us. 

What is the team composition? 

We started with one developer and grew that to eight developers over the course of a year. Six months later, we ramped up to two teams—one in Ukraine and one in the Netherlands. There are an agile coach and a product owner on my side who interact with the developers daily. 

How did you come to work with X1 Group?

We came in contact with them through a former colleague of mine. It quickly became clear that they could give us highly trained developers.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2014 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have three development teams in the Netherlands and two teams at X1 Group. Our statistics show that the Ukraine team constantly delivers high-quality software and has for four years.

How did X1 Group perform from a project management standpoint?

It feels like they’re our own employees. We have stand-ups every morning, while the product owner and scrum master on our side talk to their teams. I interact once a week with their team lead of development and all the communication is very natural. 

The project management on their side is high quality, so much so that we don’t need it on our side. We work in an agile methodology, and they’re very sensitive to changes and constantly keep us up to date on variations in the team if something happens. It’s very nice working with them—they have the skills to acquire very good people. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their people are highly talented and speak English well, effectively translating our specifications into working packages for the development teams. X1 Group’s teams pick up the requirements quickly and give us high-quality software in a timely fashion.

The company itself provides a stable work environment that is safe and where people can relax. Even so, if I ask them a question, they come up with a comprehensive answer. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They’re very adaptive and intuitive to our needs. If we want something different, we explain why and there’s never a problem. They think of everything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If I needed to begin from scratch, I’d choose them again. I recommend them to other people if they want to outsource their development too.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of an IT consulting company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SteelKiwi?

We were hired to create a product for an Indian-based market. We needed technical talent to implement the product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I designed a map-based interface that allows users to search for land using Google Maps. I gave them the code design and the prototype. Based on the prototype, they built the end-to-end system. It’s a Django-based web app. They integrated the UX that I wanted into the app.

What is the team composition?

There was a team lead, two developers, one backend developer, and two designers.

How did you come to work with SteelKiwi?

I searched for companies that were good at Django. I found them through Upwork.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August 2017–March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They gave me exactly what I asked for. My clients who asked me for the app and other people that I’ve shown it to like it. Their work was great. The app works perfectly.

How did SteelKiwi perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated through Slack, Skype, and Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I love their work because they understood the requirements and provided the exact UI and UX I had in my mind. There were no hiccups, and they completed it in the time frame that I had in mind. It was good.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I definitely recommend them to people who have apps that they want to develop.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder and CEO of Kreditech. We're active in the field of consumer lending.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with X1 Group?

We wanted to very quickly hire an experienced engineering team. Germany is very competitive, so it can be difficult to recruit talent in the field of software engineering.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We wanted a team of backend and frontend engineers who were experienced in certain technologies. X1 selected the candidates, recruited that team on our behalf, and then hosted the team. We had to clearly define profiles before they recruited for us. 

It took a couple of weeks from the initial kick-off to having people in place. It was a little difficult to find people due to them not having the biggest span of technologies, and I wanted to participate in some of the final interview processes.

We built a complete software stack for our consumer lending business, which operates in multiple countries and consists of the frontend, backend, and a whole range of microservices.

What is the team composition?

We started with a small team of three people, which then very quickly grew because the model was working successfully and we were very happy with the results. We mostly communicate with the founder and CEO who has been the key lead for managing the relationship. We interact with him for all matters of our general partnership and business-related terms. In the day-to-day business, we interact directly with the engineers, which includes the leads and almost all the engineers. They interface very closely with our technology.

How did you come to work with X1 Group?

We were referred by one of our investors who worked with them before and highly recommended them. We were in the process of speaking to various other software outsourcing and nearshore companies, but X1 really convinced us because their services were adjusted to the specific needs of our company. We were able to establish our relationship very quickly.

How much have you invested in them?

We have a fixed rate per engineer per month, which depends on the seniority and skillset.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in February 2012 and have an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The entire infrastructure that our company runs on has, to a very large extent, been built by X1. We're happy with the overall quality of engineering, as well as the fact that it's scalable for us so we can source additional capacity to our team. We have a certain amount of flexibility during the time when we need additional engineering capacities.

How did X1 Group perform from a project management standpoint?

We don't have a classical outsourcing model and the actual management of the team happens on our side. The responsibility for the project management and management of the delivery directly sits with us.

We've built a very good relationship with the team. We feel that the team identifies with our company and very quickly scaled all the way up to 40 people after three years.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We're still working with them today because we're very happy with the quality of people and the amount of support we receive. It's been unique, compared to the model that many other outsourcing companies provide.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you set up a team with X1, make sure it's a fully functional team and that they have all the roles you need them to work on. We found a fully functional team consists of a product owner, a technical lead, a couple of engineers, and QA who form a comprehensive scrum team and are able to take up their work independently. That works well and was a key lesson learned.

Another important part is to closely integrate people and make sure that they get a sense of what is happening in your company, what is important, and what the priorities are. Over time, we treated our team from X1 like a business unit, involving them in our own meetings and engaging them with our company. You have to be in a position to manage an engineering team, with a good understanding of the type of workflow you want to establish.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of engineering for a fintech startup based in Germany. We provide services to freelancers and small-to-medium-sized businesses. At the moment, we primarily provide factoring, short-term invoice financing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with X1 Group?

Our challenge was to scale our remote team as fast as possible. This was not possible in just Berlin, so we needed an outsourced hiring team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

X1 Group seamlessly integrates as a remote hiring team in Ukraine. Their team interviews and hires professionals for our remote development team. They conduct calls daily and throughout the day to update us on our new developers. They’re providing office spaces and all the technical equipment for our employees located in Ukraine. We also work with their HR team approve vacations and other low maintenance management issues.

What is the team composition?

We work with their CEO and HR team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in December 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their hires speed up our development significantly and are experienced senior developers that always produce quality software.

How did X1 Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They're always responsive and contact back within seconds on Slack. Even on weekends, they communicate with us on upcoming deadlines, which we really appreciate. We also use Google Hangout and Zoom video conferences. Their English is great, and our remote collaboration works well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their focus on quality is amazing. They get our hires up to speed really fast, and the developers they hire are ready to work on the same day. They're really focused on excellent delivery, meeting business goals, and improving our development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s sometimes tough to deal with an outsourced company. It would be nice if they were located in Berlin, but they’ve actually been pretty good thus far. We’re absolutely happy.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Actually use them, as they are great providers. Be prepared to answer a lot of business-related questions. Because this will help them figure out how to bring your business success.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Founder and Director of an events company. Users can create an event, hire venues and additional services, and sell tickets, all on our platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Steelkiwi?

We had an idea of how we wanted the website to work, but, because we hadn't physically had a website before, we didn't know what features would or wouldn't work. That’s why we needed a company to actually create it for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We described our website to a sales manager and their them, and then they told us what they thought would or wouldn't work, and how they would go about creating it. We had our logo already created prior to getting the website made, but outside of that, they’ve done the rest of the design work for us. 

We wanted it to be easy to give users as many different options as possible. So, if a user wanted to hire a venue, they could do that quite easily. If they already had a venue arranged somewhere else, they could post the location of the event and then hire additional services. Being flexible in creating the event was most important to us.

There are pages within the website where registered users track data themselves. If we had avid event creators, they could see all of the different events that they created and understand which ones were popular, which ones had the most guests, or how much money each one made. Likewise, businesses who list their venues or their services–whether it's catering companies, or security companies–would have a breakdown of all the statistics of when and how their business was used.

What is the team composition?

We initially talked with a sales manager, but then our team of seven or eight people was led by a project manager.

How did you come to work with Steelkiwi?

My business partner and I researched a number of different web companies. Initially, we approached Steelkiwi and were going to go with them, but then we spoke to another developer who we decided to go with. The other developer made us believe that they understood our idea more than Steel Kiwi initially did. We had meetings with the other developer, but when it came to actually starting the project, we realized that they didn't understand what we wanted. So, we went back to Steel Kiwi. We had a in-depth conversation with a sales manager and other people on the team and they really helped us understand that they knew what we wanted.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$60,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since August 2017.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a startup that’s developing a mobile app that uses heat-map data in order to display the attendance rate of different nightlife venues.

I’ve been working in this industry for a long time and am often asked about good places to go out. I always look on Google and check the live data on how many people are visiting different locales. Eventually, I came up with the idea of displaying the same type of attendance data but displayed on a heat-map so that everyone knows how popular a place is and its peak business hours.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SteelKiwi?

We needed help with creating the app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed my app for both iOS and Android platforms. I had designs created by an Upwork freelancer, but that person’s work was messy. SteelKiwi started out with redoing the designs while we gave them wireframes and a project backlog.

The core features of the app include a filter system. Because partying is different between cities, instead of having tens of global filters, we made it so that only the filters with at least one result behind them would be visible between different locations. It’s a flexible and adaptive system meant to make the app more user-friendly.

What is the team composition?

They provided a designer, an iOS developer, an Android developer, a backend developer, one or two testers, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with SteelKiwi?

They were extremely reactive in their sales process and listened to the challenge I had. I was searching for a team that would truly understand the product and who would be likely to use the app themselves. I felt that SteelKiwi was the right team for the project. They had the spirit for it.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work was $55,000, though this figure is not quite representative of the overall project since there always are several adjustments and smaller features that need to be addressed.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SteelKiwi in January 2018. The app has been available for about three months on iOS and one week on Android.

From my experience, I know that one version of an app should be finished before starting work on the other one, given that there will always be mistakes and change requirements after testing it on users. I didn’t want to correct everything twice, so I started on the Android version quite late in the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

SteelKiwi has done very good work in terms of design. I’ve tested the app and have had very good results with Facebook Ads, attaining a cost per acquisition of only €0.20 ($0.24 USD) per new user, which is quite a good result but we’re working on making it better.

We’re currently in the process of launching a promotional campaign so that we can generate informative metrics for potential investors. I want to prove that the app can have good traction and a good retention rate, which isn’t all that good at the moment. I’d also like to implement a notification feature in the future so that people feel compelled to come back to the app.

How did SteelKiwi perform from a project management standpoint?

I was flexible in terms of deadlines, to begin with, and we mainly used Slack for communication. I know I was a bit annoying at times, given that I changed my mind a bit down the road.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I made few mistakes by being a bit too flexible. On their side, they should have been more clear with the exact features coming next, but I’m happy with SteelKiwi’s services. For the price, their performance was perfect. I know that had I made this application in France or England, it would’ve cost two to four times as much. They were also very flexible and continued the work even when I was late with payments.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been some small misunderstandings at times when they don’t get in touch when a feature requirement isn’t clear.

Also, I’ve entered a lot of data for the places on the map, such as the kind of music a locale has, what the dress code is, the price range, and so on. In order to test the data entry feature, one of their testers entered a lot of data to various places. The tester left the team, as well as his data on the main public server. I’ve asked them to clean it up, but they haven’t, which is quite annoying. It’s possible that I still have one or two places with weird information.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If they want to work with SteelKiwi, clients need to be as specific as possible, including drawing every detail themselves before asking for features. Their members are developers, not business people.