JetRockets

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a SaaS company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with JetRockets?

I was looking for a development team that would function as our tech partner. They’re helping us build a mobile-friendly website from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They put together a development team to build our custom software systems. Based on the designs we provide, they’re building a platform that we can use as an itinerary builder, authoring tool, and CMS. They’ve added simple functionalities designed specifically for the travel industry.

What is the team composition?

We work with Natalie (Co-Founder & CEO) and Anna (Project Manager).

How did you come to work with JetRockets?

They were referred to me by somebody that I knew. Natalie gave me a list of former clients to speak to, and they all had very positive experiences working with JetRockets. Several companies provided a couple of different estimates. They weren’t the cheapest option, but they were reasonable and had great reviews.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested over $200,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2020 and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve made considerable progress on it. The system is functioning and now we have users.

How did JetRockets perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m in touch with my project manager every day. My experience with them has been fabulous. We have a standing call with my project manager and design team every day. We’ve found their communication to be very strong, which has been necessary to keep the project moving forward.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very hard-working and dedicated to the project. They’re clearly invested in our success.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re doing great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I highly recommend Jetrockets. It can be scary trying to choose a developer but they are honest, hardworking, knowledgeable, and extremely capable. Selecting them as our tech partner was one of the best decisions I have made.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital project manager of a jewelry organization. My organization is an association for jewelers to validate their participation in the jewelry market. In my role, I manage all the digital services initiatives for the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with JetRockets?

We brought on JetRockets to oversee our website redesign initiative.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The objective was to enhance our brand image and website functionality. We tasked JetRockets to deliver an editorial website that was engaging, stylish, and responsive in order to better engage our audience. Their team assisted us in crafting our image.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with 5–6 individuals. Natalie (Co-Founder & CEO) was my main point of contact. There was also a platform developer and functionality developer.

How did you come to work with JetRockets?

Their creative director’s approach was phenomenal. Her vision for our site was by far the best visual display we saw. It captured the real essence of where we wanted to go.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project was from October 2020–March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As an organization, we’re 100% satisfied with the direction, development, timeframe, and execution of the site. We leveraged the latest technologies for our vision of the site, and the creative director successfully captured that vision. We leveraged CSS to incorporate the vision and a CMS to guide the direction of it.

The site just launched so we’re going to see how users respond through feedback. We’ll measure success by the growth of our website and how reliable our users find our content. Time will tell how successful this initiative is based on a visual aspect. However, the overall design and functionality are excellent.

How did JetRockets perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a great job of meeting deadlines and delivering what was necessary in a timely fashion. Everything was fine. Having Natalie as the main contact helped to facilitate the initiative more effectively.

Our only hiccup was the articulation of information. It was difficult at times because we were dealing with offshore resources. However, Natalie stepped in and addressed any challenges we expressed. She bridged that gap really well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’d be beneficial for them to have more US-based project managers that are fluent in English, especially when dealing with US-based clients.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be honest and direct. Natalie is a great facilitator between the brand's technical concepts to deliver what they need. Their creative director is a visionary and a great aspect of their organization. She will help you draft or create your vision.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Co-Founder & CTO of Orbit. We are a SaaS solution for community management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired JetRockets to help us develop our core technology, which is a Ruby on Rails application.

SOLUTION

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

JetRockets was referred to us by an engineer that had worked with their team before at another company.

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

The JetRockets team works in our primary product backlog, completing new features, enhancements, and bugs. We collaborate closely.

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

We've had 3 people from the JetRockets team work with us so far, 2 senior Rails/full-stack engineers and one Node.js engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The JetRockets team completes the stories reliably with good code quality. I don't have metrics since it's not a standalone project, but I can comfortably say they're helping us build our main application faster than we could alone.

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

Once a week we have a call to discuss any open technology questions and the backlog. Otherwise we communicate async in Slack, on GitHub via issues and PRs, and on Trello.

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

They bring a lot of deep Rails and architecture experience to the table. They are able to help us identity patterns that we are not using or could improve, all the way at the foundation. They also have a great blog and create open source software. One of their open source projects, metka, we are already using in production.

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

No big areas for improvement. I will say that anytime we've had a question or concern, their team has addressed it in a manner of hours.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CFO of Cassin & Cassin LLP, a real estate law firm. We primarily focus on representing lenders in the commercial real estate space. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with JetRockets?

In order to establish a client matter, our attorneys are required to provide a certain amount of information. Historically, the process required manual entry of the same data into three, possibly four databases. We wanted to consolidate all of those databases into one custom software that would generate pipeline reports and generally automate the process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

JetRockets was able to consolidate our databases into one place. The team used Ruby on Rails to do some of the programming, though I’m not sure what other technologies they used. We’re using AWS for our data storage.

What is the team composition?

There’s probably about five people working on the project, but I work most closely with three, including Natalie (Co-Founder & CEO) and Irina (Project Manager).

How did you come to work with JetRockets?

JetRockets came highly recommended to us by our third-party IT service provider. They’d had good experiences with them, so we interviewed the team along with a couple of other software providers. We ultimately felt Natalie and her team really understood our business right after our first meeting.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their service is very good. The team is very responsive, and they’re a very can-do kind of group. We’re very happy with JetRockets.

How did JetRockets perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a weekly phone call with JetRockets, and we email on a regular basis. Natalie also shares her Google Calendar with me. 

In terms of meeting deadlines, they’re very good. They’re timely and punctual. They never overpromise and underdeliver. They’re always on time or ahead of schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

JetRockets has a willingness to do everything; they’ve never said no. They have a very positive attitude. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Change management is my biggest challenge.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would definitely recommend JetRockets.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product architect at IDG, which is an international publisher/data company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with JetRockets?

We had a small internal development team that was trying to build a platform to understand our users’ behaviors. However, our developers didn’t have the time to take on the project fully, and we lacked the internal knowledge of some of the more modern technologies like React. That’s where JetRockets came in.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

JetRockets was an extension of our internal team, working to develop a platform that could reveal our users’ behavior. The goal was to gain insights into how companies accessed our web properties so that we could convert them into sales and marketing opportunities.

Initially, they were responsible for doing the frontend work. But, as they continued to perform well and our trust in them grew, we decided to give them more backend responsibilities that were originally in-house. They ended up taking on much more complicated tasks than what they’d started out doing.

What is the team composition? 

They assigned a project manager along with about 6–8 resources. The team would scale up and down depending on the sprint. There were certain times when we were on a tight deadline and needed to get a lot of work done in a short timeframe. They’d fill in the gaps so that we could meet our schedule. When things slowed down, we would scale the team accordingly.

How did you come to work with JetRockets?

I’d spoken with Natalie (Co-Founder) about five years ago for a different project, so I already had an idea of how well-known they were in my circle of agencies. We got along well, and our engineer also double-checked JetRocket’s credentials to see if they knew their stuff. They aren’t the least expensive company, but they brought a level of expertise to our more serious projects that made them the right fit.

It was also a big plus that they were a US-based company. That meant that our NDAs had weight to them from a legal perspective, which was important for such an established company like ours.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost around $225,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from October 2019–September 2020. The project is just about wrapped up, but we’re trying to add a large portion of products in the future. There’s a good chance that we’ll be working together again in a couple of months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The biggest compliment that we could give them is that we took a three-month engagement and extended it over the course of the year. In a sense, we promoted them from doing basic frontend work to becoming an integral part of our team’s architecture.

JetRocket’s problem-solving and code were so thought-out and sophisticated. They never built something with vendor lock-in, taking a standards-based approach to coding instead. We could pretty much bring on an internal engineer at any time, and they would understand how the code worked and expand on it. That’s as good as it gets.

How did JetRockets perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is a huge weakness of mine, so I actually relied on them pretty heavily. Their team was great about letting us know when something got lost during the process. They told us what they needed to do their work, and that was exactly what I needed. 

Each morning, we’d come together for a scrum meeting, and their project manager would coordinate with ours through Microsoft Teams and Jira. It was like we were managing a single group.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were always thinking about the best way to solve the problem. Developing code is a lot like writing because you can write a sentence in a lot of different ways but still get the same message. It’s about style and communication. 

That’s why it meant so much to us to see JetRockets get into lively discussions with our internal team about code. It was really their way of showing us that they were trying to see if there was a better approach. It might sound like having a team that thinks is a simple ask, but it’s pretty rare.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing that I’d ask them to change. If we had the money, I would just buy the firm.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

JetRockets is not the kind of firm where you just hand them a spec sheet. You need to approach them as if they were your own team and generate a conversation with them. That’s where you’ll get the most value out of them. The more freedom you give them to problem-solve, the better your product will be. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of Opear. We’re creating a telemedicine vertical as well as an in-home care component. We hope that Opear will become the new virtual practice of tomorrow so that our providers, communities, and hospitals can get to a mitigated point of zero exposure.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with JetRockets?

Opear takes the position that the healthcare system is not, in fact, a hospital, a doctor's office, or any technology that we bring to market as a society. We believe that the healthcare system itself is the provider: it's the medical doctors and the practitioners themselves. Everything else is a means and a method to enhance or to assist the healthcare system. 

We want to keep the human element component, and that's why we look at telemedicine and say it's merely a vertical or a mechanism within what I refer to as a nucleus or power source. Opear is one of the means and the methods within that power source. There is always going to be a human component to it, even within Opear, but the thought is to continue to integrate these technologies that are available because our providers need to stay safe, and we can't just expect them to go into the fire without their safety and health as a priority to us. We're shifting the paradigm in many ways to make the healthcare system work, not only for the patient but also for the provider. You can build as many hospitals as you want, but if you don’t have providers, you don’t have a healthcare system. We're seeing a rapid decline in medical students and a rapid growth in population. At Opear, we’re trying to handle that growth without sacrificing our healthcare system, while making it a successful one at that.

Opear is building the power source that will allow the healthcare system to work properly, and that is what JetRockets will continue to build with us in the foreseeable future. We’re building a 360-degree solution where the provider, the community, and the patients themselves are completely protected equally by safety, priority, wellness, and health.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

JetRockets handles all of our API connections, coding, and development. They're doing any API connections and integrations that we have with national pharmacies and laboratories. We're working on a new product roadmap that will solely integrate a lot of the new thermal technologies that are coming into the market with our partners, as well as the hospital system across New York and other states. They're going to be working on that going forward as we continue to develop and raise capital for doing those integrations. 

As more technologies get FDA approvals and things like that, JetRockets will do more integrations. They handle any of the coding and engineering that comes into making Opear a more robust power source for the healthcare system.

How did you come to work with JetRockets?

Our existing vendor wasn’t operating the way we would’ve liked. I did my due diligence by speaking with 4–5 of JetRockets’ existing clients. We made the move with JetRockets about six months ago, and ever since then, every bit of their words have been shown in their actions. They’ve been super impressive in the fact that everything they’ve mentioned by word, they’ve set forward in action, which is the most important part of any relationship. That’s what made me move to JetRockets but also what has made me extremely happy with them.

How much have you invested with them?

They’ve been more reasonably priced than any other company I’ve worked with. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their work has been impeccable. What they say they're going to deliver, they've delivered. If they tell you they're going to get it done, it's as good as done. It’s been a significant difference from my work with other dev shops. They quickly respond to any fixes necessary to keep both the consumer and end-user experience at a high-level. At every checkpoint, they've just checked the box properly.

How did JetRockets perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve worked with a large development company out of Poland and two companies based out of New York, and JetRockets has been by far the best company to work with from communication, delivery and expectations, and scaling standpoints. They’re shoulder-to-shoulder with us and are allowing us to grow as a business. They understand what we need as a company, not what they need as a vendor, to make our business happen. Obviously, they run a business and want to be successful and profitable, but they don't throw that in your face; what they throw in your face is that we’re teammates. They've never deviated from that, which has been the most impressive thing to find. They are brilliant business people because they look to the customer and their needs first. They just take a much better approach to communication and discussion than any other vendor I've worked with.

Project management was a concern of mine going in because there can be a barrier if there is a heavy accent. However, communication has not been a problem. If anything is unclear or left unsaid, there is always a follow-up. Everything is always stated and explicitly confirmed. Communication has been spot-on, not so much because there isn’t a barrier, but more so because of their ability to confirm, reconfirm, be explicit, and be willing to ask questions and follow up.

What did you find most impressive about them?

My favorite part of working together is that I don’t actually realize that they are a hired vendor, and I think that’s the greatest compliment to my business and to them. I don’t view them as JetRockets; rather, I truly believe that they are Opear because of how they deliver their message and team experience. They deliver themselves in a way that says they represent my company and are a part of our team. When you have that, you know you’re going to get what you need. They immediately take that position, and it’s pretty impressive that they do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t at this time. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Trust them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a digital sports media company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with JetRockets?

We were looking for some fun content in the fantasy sports industry. I saw what other companies were doing. I felt like we could be much more transparent with our users and have more of a community as opposed to a daily churn and burn type of fantasy. We wanted to make a difference in the industry.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team did back- and frontend development work, helping us to execute and deliver the product. The backend that they developed allows us to administers some of the contests and the customers can use the frontend to sign up.

Halfway through the project, we upgraded to React, which was a great move. The team also helps us to execute different layouts for different sports. For example, football is a weekly sport and basketball, a daily sport, so they adapt to those differences.

What is the team composition?

We work with 3–5 teammates, including a project manager. 

How did you come to work with JetRockets?

I found them on Clutch. We interviewed a few different companies.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent more than $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in April 2018 and we’re still working with JetRockets.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m excited about how smooth the product is. We’re still working on the user-education process. They work adaptably to help us achieve our goals. We appreciate the resources that they’ve provided and they definitely get the job done. 

How did JetRockets perform from a project management standpoint?

We talk to them once a week and having meetings to go over the project on Uber conferencing. The team is very accessible. Their project management skills are strong, and they are on top of their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are persistent in helping us get to where we want to be with this product. Additionally, JetRockets is committed to what they do and they’ve been incredibly helpful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no suggestions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise potential customers to interview them. See if their goals align with yours, and make sure that the price lines up. Identify if this is something you want to invest in and commit to.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of LuxLock, a retail experience platform. We focus on a direct-to-consumer CRM.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with JetRockets?

We are going from 300 users to 6 million users. So, we needed help scaling from our pilot program to implementing and supporting our first enterprise customer. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve performed development in React to refactor the solution and ensure it applies to enterprise customers. (Certain things need to exist for an enterprise customer that don’t need to be there for an SMB.) The developers have been reviewing the software to ensure it can scale, making sure the security and logic are bulletproof. 

What is the team composition?

I work with four and a half people. I work with a project manager, two frontend developers, and two backend developers. We’re leveraging their CTO as well.

How did you come to work with JetRockets?

I met Natalie (Head of US Operations, JetRockets) in New York at a female founders organization. We built a relationship for over a year, and they became my team’s “911 call” whenever something crazy happened. So, we had already worked on a couple of small projects together.

By the time we were looking to hire a service provider, I already had a great rapport with JetRockets, they had already been in our system and they knew how our system worked. They had a clear understanding of how to take over the reins. 

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested around $40,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November of 2019, and we’re still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re very responsive and detail-oriented. Our company focuses on UX, and they’re very cognizant of the fact that every single design item goes through the UX. 

Whenever I make an edit or an update on a doc, they’re able to turn it around really quickly. They have really supported us well through this crazy time.

How did JetRockets perform from a project management standpoint?

I have a dedicated project manager who is the go-between for all of the action items. She makes sure we complete Step A before we move onto Step B. The communication is really good. We have weekly meetings, and I talk with the project manager every day.

They’re not just looking at how to solve a problem today, they think about how it needs to work in the future. They really took the time to understand our whole product and vision to ensure our decisions today are not going to negatively impact us three months from now. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve been founders themselves so they really understand the process of scaling and growing as a business. I feel like I have a really great partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Right now, I think we’re in a really good space. We’re on schedule, which is rare. They’ve really been able to take everything I’ve thrown at them, which has been a lot. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should take the time to describe your business (where you are, what you need, and where you want to go). Also, make sure you have a tight scope. Then, they can help fill in the blanks.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of Shift, a company that helps European customers order and produce metal parts with a wide network of metal production partners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with JetRockets?

We have a roadmap of IT processes that we need to implement to realize our business model. We decided to build an order management system based on the Ruby on Rails stack, with the support of JetRockets.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our order management system, which serves as the foundation for our company’s IT landscape. We’ve had a fixed-price phase one, which they completed, and we’re now in the ongoing process of implementing fixes and change requests.

The system was built on Ruby on Rails, with a PostgreSQL database. It runs on a Unix operating system, with some other minor technologies employed too.

What is the team composition?

There were two dedicated developers, along with intensive support from their CTO and some testing and mockup specialists.

How did you come to work with JetRockets?

We got some recommendations and then chose a partner based on their availability to start quickly, given that we had some time pressures. The price was also a factor.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with JetRockets in October 2018, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform they built is our core IT system, so their work has had a huge impact. We only deployed it a month ago, and it’s fully up-and-running.

How did JetRockets perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re satisfied with them. They’re interactive, they reply quickly, and they adapted to our changing requirements. As a startup, we have many requirements that become outdated before we even finished discussing them, and JetRockets provided good management for that environment.

We used Asana based on their proposal, and we’ve embraced it. They also use a Git repository manager, along with their own internal task manager, but we’ve only used Asana on our side.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The solid competencies of their co-founders and team leaders impresses me. When something becomes more difficult, they’re always ready to provide support. Furthermore, they have good development practices and I’ve found their approach to building architectures competent.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Working with startups is hard, given that things are always changing quickly. JetRockets is a more mature organization than ours but we’ve forced them to adapt quickly, which they were good. We’ve been working together for only half a year, so this is always a challenge.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Trust is important, and we have it—we’ve seen them get really involved to get things done, rather than just tackling the initial requirements list. A good level of trust ensures that the project goes on, even if some deviations on the scope come up.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Luster specializes in high-tech experiential solutions that enable event guests, social followers, and fans to interact and engage with brands, campaigns, and each other in unique ways. I'm the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire JetRockets?

We hired JetRockets to build a client portal in a short time.

What were your goals for this project?

The primary goal of the portal was to allow our customers to log in and give us permission to pull data from their Instagram business account. Our engineers wanted to maintain and extend the portal.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

JetRockets was referred to us. Our engineering team evaluated their technical abilities from past projects, and our creative team evaluated their design capabilities.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They created six templates that integrated with Facebook and our internal server. These included a portal login, a landing template with idle and authorized states, Instagram authorization support information, a client portal event landing template, and a select authorization template, and an error message template.

We provided the design files in sketch format, API documentation, and Postman scripts to test endpoints. JetRockets developed a responsive app with React and Redux 2. They also handled deployment documentation and created a list of build tools and version numbers. 

What was the team composition?

We had one senior frontend developer, one additional frontend developer, one QA engineer, and one project manager. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

All our clients successfully use this client portal without difficulties or technical problems. Our clients have given their Instagram business accounts access tokens with limited friction. This was a new requirement for our business. Without this client portal, we would have no metrics.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our project manager handled all communications with their engineers, which worked well. We had no problem understanding the technical concepts.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was most impressed when the team brought up issues and edge cases that we missed, then proposing solutions.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of anything.