Growth Acceleration Partners

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is called AristaMD. We provide a platform where primary care doctors can reach out to specialists to get answers for helping their patients. Patients, especially from rural communities, will be able to receive specialty care directly through their doctors by having them reach out to one of our specialists.

I’m the VP of engineering, and I’ve helped build the entire platform from the software development side.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Growth Acceleration Partners?

As an early startup, we had $500,000 in seed funding, and we needed to find developers to help us build the initial prototype of the form that was going to connect the doctors. We ended up reaching out to Growth Acceleration Partners (GAP) for this project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the beginning of the project, GAP provided us with three fantastic developers to supplement our development team, which was just me and another person. Thus, we started this project with a team of five developers.

Later, we ended up winning a significantly large contract and requested GAP’s help to expand once again our development team. Our development force grew, and GAP stepped in and provided assistance on the Agile and Scrum methodologies every two weeks. They also helped us manage the team.

After the initial project was done, we scaled back down to a team of 12 developers. They’ve been an integral part of our entire software engineering team. The developers in Costa Rica work very closely with our team in the US. They help us with everything: from providing ideas to hopping into software architecture meetings — everyone from GAP’s team is like family now.

Every time there’s a new feature that the product team is working on, they sit down with GAP to make sure they understand the requirements. Then, GAP’s developers take responsibility for the development and work until the project is completed.

What is the team composition?

We communicate constantly with Joyce (CEO & Co-Founder) and Paul (CTO). In the beginning, we went from having three GAP developers to having 18 within 3–4 months. We’ve been maintaining a team of 12 developers for the last 3–4 years. We’ve broken that team of 12 people into three teams of four.

How did you come to work with Growth Acceleration Partners?

Our CPO worked with GAP on another project in the past. When she came on board for this project, she told us that they were really helpful and suggested we engaged with them. We vetted a few different companies, and GAP provided the best model to move forward. We decided to give them a try, and, so far, it has worked out really well.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2014, and the engagement is ongoing — I believe they still have our original deposit. We’ve had a good relationship with them since then.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to complete the initial project within the deadline, which was fantastic. For measuring success, we do sprints and deliver 60 points every two weeks. Points fluctuate by 10% at given times and go down a little bit more in December, during the holidays. So far, there haven’t been instances where we think we’re paying for something that isn’t getting done.

How did Growth Acceleration Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Jira as our ticketing system and GitHub for committing code. Everyone can keep track of their work and code development. We do sync ups with the whole team every morning.

We're doing a continuous integration and delivery pipeline. When a team's deployment is ready and passes all of our requirements, they can deploy it themselves right into production.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with a lot of firms in the past, and the most impressive aspect of working with Joyce and Paul has been their commitment to GAP’s employees. I hear about the activities they have going on and about the employees’ satisfaction of working for GAP. GAP treating well their employees, and us treating them with respect as clients has really made the difference in keeping good talent around and growing their team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing GAP could improve on. Their pricing might seem a little high, but given the quality of the talent we’re getting, it’s justified. Everything’s working really well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When outsourcing development from another company, the engagement goes both ways. You have to be engaging from the client’s side, treat them as part of your team, and show them what your company does. They’re not just a number you dial when you need a form built, they’re part of something bigger. Teach them about your company and make them feel like part of it. That will lead to better results. Provide them with guidance on what needs to be accomplished.

If you are looking for strategic input for your project and developers with the ability to run the project and take ownership of their work, GAP is a fantastic investment. They offer engagement, involvement, and passion for your company.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Abrigo, which is a software and services provider for community financial institutions like banks and credit unions. I’m the VP of research and development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Growth Acceleration Partners?

We were moving from an offshore model with some offices in India. We have full-time engineer and product employees, but we wanted to augment that with nearshore opportunities. We engaged Growth Acceleration Partners (GAP) to provide us with software engineers, delivery managers, and SCRUM masters.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At any given time, our development teams are made up of 50% full-time employees and 50% contractors provided through GAP. Their team members work on design process and software development alongside our existing engineering teams. It’s a very mixed model.

The teams work on multiple applications and products together. They use .NET and C# on the backend and a lot of Vue.js on the frontend, which is a pretty standard tech stack.

We actually have a statement of work (SOW) with them, as we have some people on a retainer basis. We have others who are time and materials, so we don’t just use GAP for permanent staffing. For example, if we have a big project and need to include extra testers, we will augment the existing QA staff with some GAP members for a short period, which could be a 3–6 month engagement.

What is the team composition?

In my group, we have 8–9 GAP members. Across Abrigo, we currently have about 15 people between the QA, engineering, and program departments. We have another 15 open reps with them, so when we’re done, we’ll probably have about 30–40 people hired through GAP.

How did you come to work with Growth Acceleration Partners?

We’ve previously worked with contract companies, and we’ve even spun up our own outsource. A colleague suggested that we talk to GAP. We had been talking to a couple nearshore companies through other acquaintances, colleagues, and business groups within our private equity firm.

We found GAP to be pretty responsive, and we liked that their headquarters were in Austin. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it made it simpler since we could drive over there and have a conversation.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere around $1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We selected them back in 2018, but we had our first agreement in early 2019. We kicked off and signed the SOW in March 2019, and we’ve been going strong ever since.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We use metrics and code metrics. The team has set their time deliverables. Code quality is a big measurement that we inspect. We have software systems that actually analyze the code quality to ensure that the codes produced are maintainable and healthy. We have a lot of metrics around that, but they’re hard to share.

How did Growth Acceleration Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

Their management is pretty seamless. In terms of integration, there’s no difference between our work style, treatment, or culture. Everybody works harmoniously and combined — it doesn’t make a difference if someone is contracted through GAP or Abrigo.

We work on Microsoft Teams a lot, and it’s not like previous experiences where we had to reach out. We’re all meshed into the same arrangement. They use all of the same systems that we use at Abrigo. We have each other’s phone numbers, and we just call if there’s an issue.

Additionally, every other week I meet with our account representatives to talk about what’s going on with the team members on their side. Also, we discuss strategic direction, such as any changes, ongoing staffing, and that sort of thing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing about GAP is the business relationship we have with them. It’s easy to work with them. I’ve told them a few times that it’s the first time that we have a contract agreement with a company that I actually really enjoy working with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The biggest thing that hit all of us was the COVID-19 pandemic, so they’ve had struggles with staffing, just like everybody out there. I don’t think they would be shocked if I told them that getting good talent is very difficult, but that would be the only thing they could do better.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be transparent and honest about your real objectives, even if your objective is to only keep GAP for a year. Let them be part of the solution with you. They’re happy to do it, and they understand it’s a business, so there are no hard feelings. If it’s not working out, just keep them in the loop and be direct. You’ll find that they’ll go toward your end goals as an organization.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and product officer at PlanIT Impact. We are a company that provides software for the architect and construction industry to help them achieve more sustainable buildings.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Growth Acceleration Partners?

We needed development resources. I started working with PlanIT Impact over a year ago, at that point in time, development had essentially halted. Another team was working on it but left. We were looking for a company to pick it back up, start running with it, and help build out additional functionalities. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Growth Acceleration Partners is working on our cloud-based software. They’ve made modifications, fixed some issues, added new codes, and built out a lot of additional features to it. They’re also helping us in the process of taking our software from monolithic architecture to microservice architecture. They have a wide range of great capabilities.

What is the team composition?

We are working with a group of 4 people. One of them is our lead developer, architect, and basically our lead in general — she manages the team. Another person wears two hats and is our QA and scrum master. We also have a junior mid-level developer and a mid-level developer; they’re both full-stack developers that do front- and back-end and database development.

How did you come to work with Growth Acceleration Partners?

I’ve done a lot of offshoring and outsourcing. I really wanted to work with somebody in Central America or South America because of the lack of time zone challenges and I think the culture is a little more matched.

I searched online, found around 3–4 companies, went through the interview process, looked at reviews, spoke with references to dig into their capabilities, and I just really clicked with Growth Acceleration Partners — they really stood out to me. The person I’m working with is based in the US, but the team is in Costa Rica and Colombia mostly. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $200,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2020, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s a pretty complex software and the domain was very new to Growth Acceleration Partners — it was new to me, too, when I started. I didn’t build the software, I inherited that. However, they ramped up relatively quickly and were very productive. They’ve done a really good job in tackling the work and getting things done. More importantly, they’re really good about the realities and are very collaborative, which is awesome, especially for an outsourcing company. 

The results speak for themselves. Software is always going to have bugs. However, they don’t introduce a lot of bugs, and they do pretty good work there. They’ve made some performance improvements that have been pretty dramatic. Even though I’m the one that created all the requirements, user stories, and other aspects, they always have a lot of input. Their team always has good ideas and questions to make things better. They’re a very good and strong team.

How did Growth Acceleration Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Jira and Confluence as our agile and documentation tools. We also use Slack to chat and Zoom and Microsoft Teams for video conference meetings. Along the way, we make improvements to our process. Whenever something is not working, we don’t wait, we fix it pretty quickly. We don’t just live with it for weeks and get frustrated.

Every two weeks, at the end of a sprint, we have a retrospective where we talk about what’s working and what’s not working with the process. That’s the time when we come up with ideas on how to change things and make them better if we need to.

Growth Acceleration Partners don’t just take orders — they actually think about what they’re doing. They’re really good at bringing things or questions to us so we can talk about them and come up with good solutions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We really like what Growth Acceleration Partners has, and we absolutely love their team. They’re some of the best technologists, very easy to work with, confident, and have good communication skills.  

Growth Acceleration Partners’ team is very positive, and they’re always in a good mood, which is great. They work really well together and are very dedicated to the project. There’s no sense of egos getting in the way. It feels like they’re an extension of our company and a partner and not just a vendor — there’s a big difference there.

We have a lot of open conversations, which is good. I’ve worked with a lot of companies and there was always something why I wouldn’t work with them again. However, with Growth Acceleration Partners, it’s all positive. Whenever there’s an issue, it's typically not big and we resolve it quickly — they’re really eager. They want things to work smoothly too. They want good, repeatable, solid outcomes.

As a company, I look at rates and other aspects, and I feel like I’m getting what we pay for. I know there are cheaper companies out there. However, doing all the rework and getting frustrated is not worth the savings — I never feel that with Growth Acceleration Partners.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s really nothing negative about working with Growth Acceleration Partners— that’s the strongest piece I can say. I can’t even say that they can improve their English because I could improve mine too. 

They’re from Costa Rica and Colombia, and even though English is not their first language, we have no problem communicating. They write and speak English really well, which is always something to consider for offshore services. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Ultimately, the way I made my decision was through the several references I got from each potential partner and the perspective I got when I talked to them. The reality is that I may have some awesome people that I’m working with, and there might be another company that might not be as good as Growth Acceleration Partners.  

My best recommendation would be to ask a bunch of questions of the references. Get a sense of how they like to work with the company, if you enjoy working with them and how easy it is to, and how much back and forth you go through with them.

Another thing we do is that we don’t solve problems through email. We get on a call and talk about them, even if it’s just a 10-minute conversation to get it solved. A lot of other companies don’t do that, especially if they’re working in different time zones — it’s harder to do.