InterVenture

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm working for CKW AG a Swiss energy supplier in the position as a Solution Architect. In this position I'm supposed to drive forward the digital transformation of the company. One part to work on that was to hire an engineering team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire InterVenture, and what were your goals?

CKW is building a new billing platformform for selfgenerated solar energy for customers living in a ZEV. Due to the lack of engineering power CKW started with an external partner and wants to insource the project completely. Within a short period we did big steps.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Based on my expierence, within the last years I hired already different engineering teams together with Interventure and it was always a pleasure. The organisation around the hiring process is good and also the support for everything you need when you come to visit your team. I'm also had the opportunity to work already with many great engineers hired with interventure.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Currently we are building two portals, the scope is to build and maintain the frontend and backend. Technologies used in the project are React.js, Kotlin, Clickhouse DB, Elastic Products, Prometheus, Grafana and more.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Since June 2022 we hired 3 people, 2 for frontend, 1 for backend. The idea is to extend the team in the future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

After insourcing the frontend from our external vendor we were able to speed up the development output by around 70% in a very critical project phase.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We are working in Scrum and communicate on a regular basis. For me the interventure team is like a internal CKW engineering team and I handle them in the same way. Whenever possible we try to arrange meetups in Serbia or Sitzerland.

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

People are really motivated and try to find the best solution for your needs.

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

At the moment everything is ok for me.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of an online wine retailer; we sell wine to private customers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. We’ve been in the industry for over 15 years. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with InterVenture?

We needed to bring on software developers to assist with development. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re collaborating with InterVenture on e-commerce and ERP development. Whenever we need a new developer for our team, we reach out to them. InterVenture then provides us with developers that fit our needs; we tell them what skills we need the developers to have. 

Once we bring on that developer, we provide them with detailed information about the project, including the technologies they’ll work with. Occasionally, we collaborate with InterVenture to provide training to the developers they provide. 

Sometimes, InterVenture identifies freelance developers that can do specialized tasks for us or need additional resources. They’ve provided freelancers for one- to two-week periods. 

What is the team composition?

We have one point of contact at InterVenture. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested over $1 million with InterVenture. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership began in January 2018. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I measure InterVenture’s success by the speed at which they can identify resources to augment our team. They have excellent knowledge of the market in Serbia and how to recruit resources that meet our needs. Usually, it takes about one month, at maximum two months, to recruit a developer for us. 

Also, InterVenture provides an excellent working environment for their developers. Our projects are more successful because the developers feel more comfortable and welcomed to our team — InterVenture takes care of their developers. 

How did InterVenture perform from a project management standpoint?

InterVenture’s team is very responsive. Our contact at InterVenture is easy to talk to and accessible — they always have time for us. I also collaborate well with InterVenture’s founders and CEO, who are always available when I need them. InterVenture also takes the initiative and approaches problems proactively. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by the way that InterVenture can successfully organize an external development team for us to work in a foreign country with a different culture. They’ve facilitated the process by setting the team up for continuous growth and treating the developers well — they’ve set our partnership up for success. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for them to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise customers to facilitate a close relationship with InterVenture’s team — set up regular meetings or alignment calls with them to ensure they’re aware of project and company changes. That way, if customers want to expand or change the team of developers from InterVenture, InterVenture can provide informed support. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP R&D at an agriculture technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with InterVenture?

We hired InterVenture for staff augmentation. We needed them to help us find developers for our projects and act as part of our core team. We were looking for candidates that were a good fit from a cultural perspective so that we could bring them into our team and wouldn’t feel like we were working with an external company. Moreover, we were searching for talent that we could rely on and that had enough experience and the right attitude.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re developing robots and cloud infrastructure using technologies such as C++, Java, and Javascript using AWS and other cloud providers. InterVenture is providing us assistance with cloud services, backend development, other services & tasks.

What is the team composition?

We have backend and DevOps experts, but we are planning on expanding our team. 

How did you come to work with InterVenture?

Nowadays it’s hard to find all the people you need for your project locally. In order to find the strongest team you need to search globally; that is something we understand and are aware of.

We found InterVenture based on a recommendation we received from a different company we were working with in Serbia. We checked out their company along with other companies around the world, and we decided that they were the best fit for us in terms of our company, culture, and values.

How much have you invested with them?

We have a monthly rate between $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2021, and it is an ongoing collaboration.   

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measure their success in two ways. The first is related to how well they blend into the team and how happy the team they work with is. The second measurement is based on results. We look at whether or not things are delivered on time and the quality of the product. So far, we’ve been satisfied with both of these metrics from InterVenture. 

How did InterVenture perform from a project management standpoint?

Our approach to project management in this modality is to manage them as regular members of our team. Our main project management tool is Jira, and we communicate using Teams, email, and we meet in person. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

As for InterVenture’s team, they’re very dedicated, they value their relationship with their clients, and they provide us with high availability. They listen and want to work together. Working with InterVenture is like working with our own teammates, and it feels like we’re one big team. 

InterVenture also takes very good care of their people. They care for their environment and their personal development, and they make sure their employees are happy. Each individual from their team is different and has a different background and strengths, so we learn from them and they learn from us; we consider it a win-win.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would like to continue expanding our team so I believe they could expand their reach to global candidates, and maybe open offices in different places.

 Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The core way to succeed is to work as a team, so listening to them and talking to them about what you need is key. Also, stay fluid and transparent in communication with them. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Metalor is the leader and major world suppliers of precious metals related products & procedures worldwide. We provide a full range of high-level services and products across our three business groups.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire InterVenture?

We were seeking to hire highly-skilled and flexible engineers with a quick time-to-market possibilities. The goal is to build on long-term near-shoring team which focus on cutting edge software development.

SOLUTION

How did you select this agency and what were the deciding factors?

We evaluated couple of different options of offshoring and near-shoring solutions. Even if not being the cheapest one, Interventure seemed to be the best fit regarding to locations, employee benefits, low turnover kpis and geopolitical factors.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We had introduction meeting to get to know each other. Interventure understood the strategy and vision, and that Metalor is a corporate and sometimes not quick or flexible as a startup. Soon we got first resumes and on-boarded our first employees quickly.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

We received a pre-selection of candidate made by Interventure team. Potential candidates were then interviewed online and decision made quickly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With the help of our near-shoring team, we are able to recover the technical and maintenance debt within 18 months, which would have taken much more if done internally. End-users are happy to see things moving fast and satisfied with the new applications.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The recruitment process is very effective as we have one dedicated person to work with and a single point of contact. Once setup, regular meetings ensure we have a neutral feedback loop in place and employees can share their concerns.

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

I appreciate little attention they have for employees like sweet Friday

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

Better communication on internal changes and office move

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the Director of Engineering of a mid-sized Financial and Insurance comparison platform. Thanks to our platform, our customers get a great overview of the different insurance and financial products on the market and can select the ones that best adapt to their needs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire InterVenture?

We needed to build from scratch a new cross-functional team (front-end, back-end and QA). This new team will take over one of our existing products from a different agency and evolve it further.

SOLUTION

How did you select this agency and what were the deciding factors?

We knew InterVenture as they had done some project work for other divisions. We got in touch to explain our challenge and how they could help. We had some bad experiences in the Serbian market recruiting engineers, especially the front-end. We decided for InterVenture for the following reasons:

• Clear partnership instead of client/provider relationship
• Commitment to give feedback early and often
• Alignment & support on the culture, we wanted to build
• Great branded office. Lot of effort on building a great environment for engineers

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Initially we needed 3 front-end engineers and one QA. We started our relationship in May and had the first two hires starting in August (We signed them in July). After our positive experience, we added a team lead for the backend and later additional backend engineers.

The first initial months were a hand-over from the previous team on parts of the platform. The process was super-smooth and the new team started to work together very well. We had some challenges of collaboration with different companies in Belgrade and InterVenture was always super open for a great collaboration.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

We learnt from InterVenture the importance of making a great first impression, keeping the candidates engaged during the whole process and providing great feedback no matter the outcome. They respected all our hiring decisions, provided very honest assessments and guidance for the salary discussions. We worked very well as one united team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We hired a complete new team in 6 months. They supported us with hiring new engineers, spreading our culture, organising team events, feedback and salary discussions.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their communication is always on point and fast. We are in sync.

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

Professionalism, flexibility and positive attitude. Hiring engineers these days is quite difficult and they always respected our decisions and offered good advice. They really put a lot of effort into bringing candidates: they have a very extensive network, launched special campaigns for us and asked internally for a lot of referrals. They really focus on people. They have regular one on ones with everyone in the team and bring feedback early so that we could address any possible issues.

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

More general insights about the engineering culture in Serbia. Some do’s and don’ts that we should have been aware of. How to bring direct feedback to the engineers and move towards a result oriented approach.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am head of Product at a DACH-based corporate mobility platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire InterVenture, and what were your goals?

We have built our near-shore Mobile & QA team via Interventure. Our goal was to have a highly competent extended team.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We selected based on market benchmarking. Candidates came from search and references. We selected for Interventure based on their transparency, great references and very good impression of the management.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Continuous mobile support for our platform, including (but not only) Swift & Kotlin. Scope includes new app architecturing and rebuild, 3rd party dependent features, and general features.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

a complete mobile team consisting of 4 developers + a manual QA responsible.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We supported new vehicle interactions, we launched internal applications and rebuilt our whole user application.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

In terms of hiring & set-up, it has been flexible, effective and very organized. In terms of project management, the project management relied on the client side. But whenever there were logistic challenges or physical meetings, InterVenture provided best-in-class support. In terms of infrastructure and set-up to support employees, it is of a very high standard.

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

• The quality of their network in Serbia.
• Their focus on retention, and its great reputation in the market.
• The very empathic and tailored attention & support to clients

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

They don't have necessarily a network in all technologies (Example Ruby), but this has difficult solution due to its specifics

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a product owner at a software company. We provide quality management systems for healthcare institutions in Switzerland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire InterVenture, and what were your goals?

Our web applications were created many years back and had become outdated. Since progressing to a SaaS provider required investments into Cloud-First technologies, we hired a team of developers to implement our needs and ideas.

We were hoping to get a new product to market meanwhile we maintain the current web applications.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

The research of various nearshoring companies led us to Interventure in Belgrade. Since several Swiss companies have already worked with Interventure and the feedback was consistently positive, and since Interventure also maintains intensive connections in Switzerland, they were ultimately the first choice for us.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had an onboarding phase of the remote team to get them familiar with the products and services we provide. After that we discussed the goals and objectives of the project as well as the development process and setup.

The next few months were dedicated on building a Cloud-First development organization and a microservice infrastructure as foundation of the coming web applications. The team designed and implemented the requirements using technologies like Kubernetes and Docker on Azure.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We are in contact with the whole team which consists of 2 frontend and 2 backend developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Since the project is still ongoing, no comments about the outcomes can be made.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We have daily written communication with the team as well as weekly review and retrospective meetings via Teams.

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

Their immense network of partners and their willingness to help are very impressive. If you have a question that needs an answer, they will likely be able to provide it or find someone who can.

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

So far I can't see what could be done differently.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

InsureQ is an insuretech startup that offers insurance tailored to SMEs', freelancers', and startups' needs. It eliminates the complexity and creates a simple solution that will save small businesses both time and money. I'm one of the founders and CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire InterVenture, and what were your goals?

InsureQ wanted to hire motivated, open, flexible, and talented software engineers who work on the insureQ digital platform combined with the intention of building an insurance ecosystem with webpage, clickfunnel, portal, CRM, business intelligence, artificial intelligence, partner integrations, and Software as a service (SaaS).

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Interventure was recommended by a friend's company who already works together with Interventure and is very happy with Interventure. Interventure tried to understand insureQ's company culture and expectations in more than 2 meetings.

During the discussions, I realized that they understood the needs of software engineers very well and have a network of talented engineers. They convinced me that they can find suitable software engineers for us.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had a kick-off meeting to discuss our goals and objectives, Integrventure understood the insureq’s company culture and values very well. They helped Insureq find candidates, do the first getting-to-know interviews, organise appointments for the second interviews, and remote projects.

Integrventure has regular meetings with software engineers and exchanges feedbacks to me. Integrventure organises team events for software engineers so that they are motivated and happy.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

A partner manager coordinated all the meetings, collects feedback from software engineers, and makes the exchange with me. A recruiter helped me review the candidates and do the first interviews. 3 software engineers take over mid-size projects in backend and frontend, maintenance tasks, and improve DevOps at insureQ.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

All the meetings were very effective. We hired three talented and motivated engineers within about 5 weeks. They always responded rapidly and solved misunderstandings and small conflicts in a smooth and professional way. The software engineers are very open, flexible, and perform outstandingly.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

It's agile, a mixture of scrum and kanban. Business kickoff meetings, refinement meetings, technical workshops, daily meetings, and retrospective meetings are provided. Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, and Confluence are the main communication tools.

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

I'm impressed with their professionalism, speed, and ability to scale and hire high-quality individuals into development processes and teams.

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

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My organization is called localsearch, and we are one of the biggest agencies for product advertising. We sell advertising for small and medium-sized enterprises in Switzerland. I'm responsible for vertical platforms including 55 comparison platforms and renovero, one of the leading craftsmen platforms in our country.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with InterVenture?

InterVenture helped us develop the entire renovero platform. We needed to implement certain functionality in it to get the results we wanted. On top of that, we needed to generate more revenue by making sure our product was appealing to craftsmen. They needed to see the value in our platform and be sure that they could find new customers using it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

InterVenture was in charge of building up the renovero’s platform almost from scratch. They’ve also been responsible for maintaining the platform and making sure we’re using accurate technologies.

We have a tasks system where users can publish the problems they need to fix on our platform, and, on the other side, the craftsmen can reply with offers for solving those problems. InterVenture has been helping us improve our task creation process.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with five engineers. Two of them are full-stack developers, and the other three are mainly focused on backend development. However, one of the backend engineers also works as a full-stack developer occasionally. As for their position in InterVenture, three of them are in a senior position, and the other two have an intermediate level. I also get in contact with the owner from time to time.

How did you come to work with InterVenture?

The former owner of renovero had been working with InterVenture years before I was responsible for the project. They had worked with over 300 engineers from InterVenture already, and they had the best experience with them. It was clear to us that we were going to continue to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $2 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around May 2016, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The tasks system is one of the most important KPIs of renovero’s platform. Thanks to InterVenture’s work, we’ve been able to generate more than 50,000 tasks in one year. At the beginning of our engagement, we were only generating 10,000 tasks per year — they’ve been able to increase our tasks' count more than five times.

They’ve also helped us improve our platform's traffic. We now have over 1 million users per year. We’ve also been able to increase our revenue in the last two years.

How did InterVenture perform from a project management standpoint?

InterVenture’s engineers are now considered our localsearch’s team members. In engineering projects, there are always delays, but, most of the time, they're meeting the deadlines. I’m absolutely satisfied with their work. The support provided by their HR department when I need to recruit more people is also great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

InterVenture is one of the leading companies for nearshoring and engineering projects in Serbia.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing InterVenture could improve — I’m absolutely satisfied with them. Maybe they could lower their prices even more, but that’s not even realistic.

Any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you integrate the people you recruit from InterVenture into your team. Once they feel like part of your team, their performance increases even more. For the engineers, it’s especially important to have fun in their work, so don’t consider them an external provider that just needs to deliver their work.

The work environment is important for the performance of InterVenture’s people. Treat them the way you would treat your own employees. It doesn’t matter if they’re sitting in another part of the world.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm Head of Delivery at Ricardo, the leading Swiss online marketplace. I focus on supporting our product engineering teams .

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire InterVenture, and what were your goals?

We wanted to hire new talents who fit our organisational culture and engineering vision to expand our product engineering teams beyond our existing locations in Switzerland and France. We were operating a transition from monolith to microservices using cloud native technologies and reorganising our teams to have remote cross functional teams on several locations. We also most recently used the freelance service from interventure for dedicated projects where we required specialist skills.

SOLUTION

How did you select InterVenture and what were the deciding factors?

Interventure had been selected as our partner for expanding our services abroad. They went through a thorough due diligence process and won the partnership to support our group to expand their activities abroad. Mainly focused on engineering then we also extended to other services such as hiring, marketing, product management support.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had a kick off meeting to align on our needs and how we'd setup our hiring process. Along the way we constantly exchanged feedback to improve the feedback, build up our brand and understand better the local market. Interventure partnered with us every step of this journey from pitching our company values, engineering culture and vision to the onboarding program for our teams and make sure each engineer felt part of our organisation.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had 1 main contact to coordinate our recruitment efforts. We also worked directly with several others people (5-6) from the team from the CEO to their accountant.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We hired our complete staff in a record time, it took us 5 months from the first hire to complete our team setup. Everything went smoothly on our side. We still have the same first hires around, fully integrated into our organization and they've been a high impact from day 1.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

At first, we had weekly check-ins to adjust our process, lot of direct communication (calls or slack). It's rather lean in terms of process and Interventure takes on most of the work. They act as an extension of your own organization and provide you with a tailored service.

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

Their ability to capture and share our culture and vision for a modern engineering organization impress us. They truly act as an extension of our own organisation and helped us to improve our internal process and practices. They have a continuous direct feedback culture which helps you to move things forward constantly by having transparent conversation about what should be improved.

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

On their new service offering (freelancers), they could probably do an earlier sales pitch to us even when the service is not fully ready. Can't really think of anything major.