Kanda Software Development

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Con Artist Collective is a group coworking space. We provide our workspace to artists in creative pursuits. This includes equipment, gallery space, a community with events and various projects in which creative people can be involved. We have a coworking space and gallery located in the Lower East Side of New York City.

What is your position?

I am the owner and founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Kanda Software Development?

We started out as a bootstrap business and grew year after year. We initially used various kinds of free software and communication platforms, such as Yahoo Groups and Google Apps, in order facilitate communication for our members and customers, but also as organizational tools. There is a certain growing pain that comes from using a certain tool and finding out it no longer works correctly after you've expanded to a certain size or after adding new company operations. If one free tool wouldn't work anymore, we would have to transfer customers from one product to another, which always leads to losing a few members. We came to have around 600 customers and realized that we needed to have a higher, more robust system in place. We thought about using existing software and having it customized for us. We did some research and spoke to teachers and students from different programming schools and so on. Eventually, we realized that what we needed didn't exist. We put together a concept of our requirements and contacted various programmers and hackers within our circle.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We needed a solution similar to Slack, which sits somewhere between a forum and email – a list server and communication tool that connects people through email, allows them to follow specific threads and discussions, add or remove themselves from a discussion easily and control how they're notified and what they're notified about. Giving the user control and power was important because, once 500 people participate in 500 discussions, it can become a messy and muddled affair. Slack is probably the closest tool to our need, but we also wanted to have something which would be used on mobile easily. Most discussions are quick and short. Users should be able to pop it open, make a quick comment, and get involved with it.

Kanda Software built us a modern, streamlined, private social network that works well on mobile. It's our main communication tool. We organize 50 to 100 events every year, and this is all due to the fact that our technology allows customers to be engaged easily.

Since we've had a great relationship with them, we've asked them to build other solutions for us as well, including another tool designed as an artist jurying platform. Creators subject their work to a team of jurors who grade it, selecting the most liked artists in the process. The tool is set to launch within the following days.

How did you come to work with Kanda Software Development?

We've worked with other internal developers on smaller projects like an iPad application through which people pull information from our database. They've built APIs [application programming interfaces] that allow us to have third-party software interact with our own platform.

I don't remember how exactly we came to find Kanda Software. We were generally open to a solution, no matter where it came from. Kanda Software took on our proposal as a challenge because they found a problem that no one had had before. They were inspired by the needs of the product, in a way of speaking.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost was between $10,000 and $15,000. Our work was on a small business scale, and it was quite sporadic. We haven't had a continuous development process. Kanda Software's rate was very competitive. Other estimates put us closer to $100,000.

What I've appreciated about our relationship is that they've allowed us to figure out how we could build a solution for ourselves at an affordable price. We're a small business with three employees and one location. In this context, developing your own tools could be expensive.

What is the status of this engagement?

This was our major project with Kanda Software. It took us close to two years to build, during which there were both heavy and slow development periods. We're working on its next update currently.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

It was important to us that the tool would be mobile-responsive and worked on desktops. It should work on iOS, Android, and regular computers just the same.

Without the app, we would have had a 50 percent user loss. We were frequently contacted by people asking how they could turn off certain notifications or modify their account. Since they couldn't, they simply gave up on our service. Sifting through 70 emails each day in order to find the one relevant to them was too much. We kept losing many customers because we didn't have the technology that we needed. We still have a huge way to go, and there are improvements to be made but, even so, we've increased our membership from 300 to 600 users in just a couple of years. The virtual part of our business doubled because of this solution.

I always thought that we would not be able to build our own social network and that we'd always have to rely on ready-made software. It was not only great that Kanda Software were able to build our platform from a technical standpoint, they also acted as consultants to us. They understood what we were looking for and found solutions that would be within our budget.

How did Kanda Software Development perform from a project management standpoint?

We've had a lot of in-person meetings, but we also use InVision, which is a mobile prototyping tool. It was useful in allowing us to see what options we had for cutting costs. Kanda Software showed us the tool, and I taught myself to use it for making a wireframe of the design I wanted. They could then click through it and see exactly how I envisioned it in my mind. Physical flash cards were one of the most useful ways of brainstorming design ideas. I liked being able to work in a low-tech way as well. We also used MindMeister for project tracking.

What distinguishes Kanda Software Development from other providers?

In six years, we've worked with around 10 different developers, programmers, and UX [user experience] designers. One of the things that I liked very much about Kanda Software, which defined them for us, was that, as a nontech person, collaborating wasn't such a struggle. There is a lot of miscommunication because of the vastly different levels of understanding. Trying to convey ideas has often been difficult.

Sameer [Kanda], their owner, has a very human approach to communication. He has connected with me in a very natural way and has almost taught me how to describe what I'm looking for. I've told him that this is one of his bigger sale points. Most of his success is his ability to translate general ideas into actual technology and help the client learn a bit of the adequate lingo and reduce miscommunication. I've recommended Kanda Software often because of this.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Miner Labs Inc. has built an e-commerce platform working through location-based technology, giving users the ability to find desired products near their location.

What is your position?

I am a technical and creative co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Kanda Software Development?

We needed a development partner for our solution.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Kanda Software built a first beta of our platform using Amazon Web Services. We developed the backend using PHP and MySQL. The frontend was built using HTML and JavaScript, specifically AngularJS.

The scope of the initial project was aimed to get the product to market as fast as possible, so Kanda Software recommended a lot of technology to us with this in mind. We've had conversations that revolved around what different technologies were available to us, weighing them against our needs and made a choice based on a team effort.

How did you come to work with Kanda Software Development?

They've built some websites for me in the past, one of them being sportscenterfold.com, for which they developed the back-end. When I needed to build a new project, Kanda Software were one of the companies to which I sent a request for proposal. We vetted a total of four companies, as well as some freelancers. A key element for our choice, especially within the early phase, was how well we, the cofounders, could work with the contractors. Personality and attitude were key. Kanda Software's approach and willingness to work with us, on top of their technical skills, had a big impact on our decision making.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The initial project estimate was around $120,000 to $200,000. The total cost with Kanda Software ended up being between $60,000 and $70,000. It was significantly under budget.

What is the status of this engagement?

Since we were a startup, the completion of the software needed to be done as soon as possible. The first version of our product was launched within three months. The next version was launched in another three months. The full beta was available in a total of six months.

We have revamped the application but, since working with Kanda Software, we've hired in-house developers. We refactored the elements of the beta version based on our learning and came up with a version one of the product. It ended up being a little different from what Kanda Software built, but that had nothing to do with their work. It was based on our learning of the market.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

When we started our work, we were essentially going through the process of coming up with a minimum viable product. We used Google Analytics, as well as our own customer analytics solution built by Kanda Software, in order to assess our position. Based on that information, we were able to refine a beta version.

There was one key event that was crucial to the direction of our company, namely our partnership with a frozen yogurt company. They decided to give away ice cream to people using our platform. This happened during wintertime, with -2 degree Fahrenheit weather. Giving out free ice cream was a nice experiment in this context. They were willing to do this in exchange for foot traffic to their retail locations. Additionally, we partnered up with another company that owns half of the billboards in Time Square. They were very interested in the technology developed by Kanda Software, and we were able to persuade them to give us free advertising in order to prove that the product would work in the wild. We made our campaign, running it for five minutes every hour for one week. The analytics of this trial were amazing. We were able to track where people were browsing these advertisements, how many converted to getting offers, and who actually went to the retail locations for the company, redeeming their offers. We proved that the whole system for conversions was actually fulfilling the task of users getting the product.

How did Kanda Software Development perform from a project management standpoint?

The work that was scoped out was always delivered on time, unless there were unknowns that presented themselves. We expected this type of evolution when working with third-party APIs [application programming interfaces] and software. It increased our scope, but didn't necessarily block the project. We always made sure that unforeseen elements were accounted for so that, when we were doing particular sprints to build our product's features, we could account for potential blocking and an increase in scope. Kanda Software always made sure that we knew what to expect.

They used Asana during our development as well as other Google tools, such as Docs, through which multiple people could edit and comment on the work.

What distinguishes Kanda Software Development from other providers?

The impressive part about them is that they are able to improvise when working with unknowns. When the project required fast iterations, during its proof-of-concept stage, they proved to be very resourceful and were able to build tools and code, which got us to the goal of having a functional result. Once this was done, they knew the difference between hacking code in order to make a working product, versus making a scalable platform, which can be maintained with little technical depth. Many developers I've worked with don't know how to make this distinction. When building a proof-of-concept, you won't necessarily spend much time developing stable code that can be scaled. This very much depends on the current goal.

Is there anything Kanda Software Development could have improved or done differently?

Looking back at the project, there are tools that we could've used in order to track the development better, but those tools weren't available to us at the time. Since working with Kanda Software three years ago, much has changed in the tech world.

I remember that they were always on top of new technologies that could document, project manage, and track progress. I haven't worked with them recently, but I'm sure that they're using better tools to do the job. In hindsight, if I had to do the work again, those would still be the tools I would have chosen at the time. I have no complaints about their customer service.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We automate legal filings. Currently, we work within a niche part of the law called expungements, automating document processing in order to enable users to file them easily.

What is your position?

I am the founder and owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Kanda Software Development?

We kept track of our customers using Excel and Google spreadsheets. We realized that we needed an automated solution and approached Kanda Software in order to build an admin panel for our manually created filings.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

The scope of their work included creating an admin panel and a system that allows us to upload documents for each customer, transform them into PDFs, and email them directly from that panel. We also integrate with third-party software, such as Wufoo and Stripe, which we use for payment processing. In this way, our staff can go to just one place and serve our customers, instead of using multiple websites, with different logins.

How did you come to work with Kanda Software Development?

They were recommended by a close friend. We looked at their background and found that they had a lot of startup experience and employed agile development, which was something that interested us. We looked at a total of three to five companies, also evaluating them in terms of price and location. We wanted to work with someone within the New York area. We wanted to feel comfortable working with that company and to have confidence in their abilities to archetype our solution. We wanted a problem solver who could take requirements and turn them into a solution. We felt the most comfortable with Kanda Software. We initially had a phone conversation and then met with their team on-site.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost was around $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project was completed in late 2014. Kanda Software has provided ongoing maintenance for any issues or changes we've needed since.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Processing a customer before our new system was implemented took around one hour. After completing our project, the time went down to 10 minutes. In terms of revenue, we had a 60 percent increase.

How did Kanda Software Development perform from a project management standpoint?

We used a tool that allowed us to input any change requests or bug notifications. The information went directly to Kanda Software and made our process much easier. Documentation exchange was mostly done through email.

What distinguishes Kanda Software Development from other providers?

Out of all the people we talked to, Kanda Software has been the best at seeing potential solutions and ways in which to solve our unique business problems. They're better at doing this than most people, owing their abilities to their startup experience and the numerous products they've built. Their vast experience has been a deciding factor for choosing to work with them.

Is there anything Kanda Software Development could have improved or done differently?

Nothing comes to mind at the moment.

Could you share any tips with potential clients?

Any prospective customers for Kanda Software should be very specific with defining their requirements and business goals. This makes for a better process, communicating a more accurate picture of what the product is meant to do.