Kindgeek

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a startup app business. I’m one of the 2 founders. I’m a digital entrepreneur; my background is in digital consulting, project management, and product development. My partner’s an accountant by background and he takes care of the commercial side. Then we have 2 other members of the team: a marketing person and a lawyer.

Our business is similar to TaskRabbit. It’s about finding people to do jobs. Whereas TaskRabbit is very specific about tasks, we’re more like a temporary labor worker. It’s more about finding temporary workers for longer-term projects. It might be a week or 2-week contract, and it’s all typically unskilled work. There’s a lot of seasonal work here: agriculture work, event work, students out looking for holiday work digging ditches. It’s just connecting people who need to get stuff done with people who are available and looking to earn some money doing a job or two.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with KindGeek?

KindGeek is our development partner. We brought them in to manage the software development side. I take care of managing the overall platform relationship with Google, Facebook, and Firebase, etc. Kind Geek is our integrated development partner, so they do all the technical integration and all these different elements. That’s Android development, iOS development, and the backend integration side.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have an iOS app and an Android app along with the platform that runs those apps. Within that platform, they developed a database. What we’re doing is building a database of people that are available to do work in a geographical location so that you can do a geographical search for people in your area that are available to do work. It’s a 2-minute job to complete a profile, including the location, kind of work they’ve had to do, their age range, a few notes about themselves, and any qualifications they have, and then it’s in our database waiting for clients to pick them out.

If they find a grafter, clients can then offer them work. The grafter says yes, and they go through a simple contract to agree to basic terms about how much they get paid per hour, where the work is, etc. At that point, the user goes off-platform. They do the work successfully and come back to the platform. We run Stripe Connect, which is a marketplace payment system, for the client to pay the grafter using the platform, and they also pay a fee for using the platform. That whole payment system is a quite complicated implementation of Stripe. The grafter gets paid and then at the end of that, there’s a ratings and review system. There’s a whole journey around that. You have a dashboard where you can manage your work or manage your jobs. There are alerts and push notifications that the app manages.

KindGeek was totally responsible for developing the platform. I’m not a technical person and neither is anyone else on our team. I did provide some basic wireframes because I’ve got some experience in doing that. But I think they would have just as happily done it a different way. It was a basic prototyping tool and a description of what I wanted to happen, about 30 pages. We then went through a UX process with the KindGeek UX team, and they implemented more details using these flows and designs. They took my basic concept and turned it into a proper set of user experience designs. They offered marketing services, but we do that ourselves.

How many resources were assigned to your project?

It changes over time, but generally speaking, we had a project manager, a business analyst, an iOS developer, an Android developer, a backend developer, a QA tester, and dev ops. At different times, we’ve had 1-2 of those roles involved in the project at different stages.

How did you come to work with KindGeek?

I ran an RFP process. I selected 5 people based on desk research and sent them a brief specification. I used to run a business like KindGeek in the U.K. which I sold a few years ago, so I’m quite an educated buyer in this process. I found KindGeek on Clutch. I decided that I wanted to put this development into Eastern Europe. The U.K. is very expensive and all the good developers work for Facebook and Google or the banks. The banks pay ridiculous money for developers. It’s very hard to get good developers for a good price in London. I’ve worked with India, South Africa, and other offshore places before and, culturally, it was very, very difficult. So, I was focused on Eastern Europe. I put it out the RFP to 5 different companies and narrowed it down quite quickly to 3 that were interested and the most engaging. Then, of those 3, KindGeek’s proposal was just way better than everyone else’s. They wrote what I would have written when I was doing a proposal for my clients, which was a 20-page PowerPoint of what they thought of our product. They gave ideas of how to make it better. They informed us of their processes and what kind of team they would provide. They told us their pricing model and covered a whole range of things. By comparison, one of the other agencies provided me with a 1-pager that just had a big number for the price with no detail. The third response was somewhere in between. It was an okay proposal, but it was 5 pages and lacking in detail. I was very impressed with KindGeek. They were keen and they responded to the RFP properly, and they made the effort to put together a good response. They thought it through, spent the time to think about what we needed, and came up with a really good proposal.

How much have you invested with KindGeek?

We have spent £50,000 ($70,000) with them so far. Phase 2 will be about £20,000 over the next couple of months.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them January 2017. We’re very happy with their work so we continue to use them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We launched the apps about 3 weeks ago and we have 1,300 users so far. User feedback has generally been good, but we know there are things we compromised on in the first phase, so it’s still a work in progress. It’s not a finished product; it’s very much an MVP. We know there are failings in there that we decided to accept in order to launch quicker. We’ve got another 2 iterations coming over the next month or so, and I think once we get to the end of that, then we’ll be happy with where the product will be. It’s no reflection of KindGeek. It’s a reflection of where we’ve chosen to compromise.

How did KindGeek perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very agile and very lean, and I like that because I’m paying for their time. They don’t try to load the project with additional costs. They do what they need to do to get it done, so that’s the right level of engagement. The thing I like most about them so far is that, in any project like this, it’s inevitable that things go wrong. What it’s about is how you handle it when things go wrong. They’ve been excellent at dealing with things that have gone wrong. That’s what has really impressed me—they’re very open and very honest. They don’t try to hide things when they go wrong and they make sure they compensate us for any errors that their team makes by rectifying that in cost.

What did you find most impressive about KindGeek?

They worked long hours. They’re enthusiastic. They’re very responsive—they respond 24 hours a day. As much as I’m online, they’re online. So far, we’re very happy.

Are there any areas KindGeek could improve?

The biggest problem we had was that the iOS developer, halfway through the project, was in a car crash, so we had to change the iOS developer which is very difficult. But there wasn’t much they could do about that. They really struggled with one element of the finance implementation and I don’t think they read the documentation well enough. I think they were just trying to get it done without actually spending some time to read the documentation. That was minor really. It just took a little bit longer to sort it out by me having to get a bit more involved in pointing out what they needed to do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

YouCapital has developed a business app for investors and companies. youcapital.com shows a video overview of our app's functionality. We're based in London. I am the Chief Executive Officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with KindGeek?

We started off with a business plan and basic wireframes developed in-house and took the actual development to KindGeek.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

KindGeek was responsible for all of our development work for the iOS and Android versions of the app. We have worked with a team of 6 people initially and have reduced that number to 4. The owner of KindGeek checks in on us from time to time, which is one of the main reasons I like them. We also have a London-based team working purely on design. KindGeek has also started taking part in the design for our app.

How did you come to work with KindGeek?

I interviewed around 12 companies in the Ukraine when I visited the country. I took my time, made another trip, and had second interviews with some candidates, whittling the decision down to 2 companies, including KindGeek. I chose them because of the major element of trust which came from KindGeek's CEO. He personally came out to the meetings and talked to me directly.

How much have you invested with KindGeek?

The total cost of our project with KindGeek has been around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with KindGeek in July 2016. Our app was completed just today, and we're planning to launch it in a week's time. There is still some testing to be done, and we plan to use KindGeek on an ongoing basis for backend support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our manager from KindGeek was a great mind to work with. While working on the app, he was able to point out many of the things that we were doing wrong. There were useless functionalities which killed the user experience. KindGeek talked to us directly and made suggestions on how to improve this. I found this to be fantastic, and it led to much of the rubbish around our app being eliminated. I didn't ask KindGeek to do this, but they simply felt that what we were doing was wrong for the application, and had the guts to tell this to us.

We're a new company, and our relationship with KindGeek needed to be based on trust. From the beginning, we found their team to be very professional and efficient. We were able to email KindGeek at 7 or 8 in the evening on UK time, and received instant responses, even though KindGeek is 2 hours ahead.

How did KindGeek perform from a project management standpoint?

We were only 5-6 days overschedule, which was mostly due to our designers changing the work. Every time we did this, the coders from KindGeek also had to change what they were doing.

I have flown to KindGeek's headquarters in Ukraine and worked with them face-to-face quite a lot. KindGeek's team are time people, with a strict focus on this aspect. I tend to think outside of the box, and I'm more of an entrepreneurial person, so I don't work very efficiently. KindGeek nailed me down and implemented a militarized regiment. Sticking to the schedule was more important for them than it was for me. I was happy with only being 5 days overschedule, but not KindGeek.

We used Slack for communication. I'm not a technically-minded person, so I left the task management for my team in London. KindGeek's project manager was a very practical and efficient person. We tend to have a relaxed attitude in our company, but there was no joking around when it came to getting the job done.

What did you find most impressive about KindGeek?

KindGeek is a very well-organized and efficient team. I have visited their offices; in the staff room, there is a very laid-back atmosphere with pool tables and playful attitudes. Once KindGeek got into the work, they seemed to be heads-down. I was impressed with the number of hours that they worked. KindGeek's team came in early, left late, and were very much focused on getting the job done as quickly as possible. KindGeek's management made an effort to discuss every aspect of our work, keeping everything open and clear.

Are there any areas KindGeek could improve?

If KindGeek moved to London, it would be helpful, but I can't really think of anything.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with KindGeek?

I would advise any client to get on a plane and meet the team personally.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a betting platform that allows players to compete in singles matches and singles tournaments for cash and rewards. I am the Chief Executive Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with KindGeek?

We needed extra development help for our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They're dealing with all our web development, frontend, backend, and UI/UX [user interface/user experience] design. They've redesigned the website. We had some beta testing over a month ago now, and there were just a few small things we had to do to close it off. We took all the customer input on board and got them to implement all the feedback we had received. I think the website now is a lot more automated.

We're using AutoPay as our payment system operator, which wouldn't be just a simple lift-and-drop code. There was a lot of work to integrate a system like AutoPay. We also integrated with Twitch streaming service; they have open APIs available as well, and the KindGeek guys were able to pull down from that and embed a streaming video on the website. Before, there were no APIs or integrations. Obviously, we're using PHP coding framework with Laravel, and using the Percona database. All of these are built openly. As we go to scale, we're positioned to scale up quickly.

How did you come to work with KindGeek?

KindGeek had a bit of background in games development. I reached out to 20 or 30 people and got proposals. From a lot of the back and forth I had with KindGeek, it just made sense. I think they were ahead of the pack in terms of cost and estimated delivery dates. I thought it was a good fit.​

How much have you invested with KindGeek?

We have spent between $20,000 and $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We're still working with them, so we haven't finished our relationship just yet.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Not really. The guys designed the landing page for us to get sign-ups, and we've gotten 3,000 people signed up on that. That's pretty large. People want to use it before we've even released it. We had 250 people on the website with closed data, and we got that feedback. They said the design looked great.

How did KindGeek perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a close relationship with Oleg. We have regular calls to check in to make sure everything's okay. Oleg is the stack developer in the Ukraine. He's a hard worker, always working late when stuff has to get done. He has no problem coming in on the weekend to give us a dig out. There's a very good work ethic among them. Anton and Oleg [principals of KindGeek] have been very hands-on, but they did leave it to the project managers. Oleg is always checking in to make sure the project is all right. He's always prepping for the additional needs we have for outside web development.

What did you find most impressive about KindGeek?

It was the first web development experience that I've had here in Ireland. It was a less hands-on approach. I think KindGeek has up-scaled and educated me in some aspects of the website that we need to understand a bit more, like the ins and outs of how we're going to scale it, and why we're choosing the frameworks we're using. KindGeek has educated me in the journey and the forward-looking aspects of what we need to do with the website. They’ve also constantly stayed in touch with me. If certain things are delayed, they've always been good about getting in touch to relay the reasons why that’s happened.

Are there any areas KindGeek could improve?

The design at the start had something missing, and I think that was probably on our end. We didn't fully know what we wanted. As it progressed and went on, as any project progresses, you always want to change or move things around.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We develop applications and websites. My project with KindGeek involved developing a digital library as an application. The library contains books for children that they can read and listen to.

I am the digital lead.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with KindGeek?

We wanted to build something that has never been built before. We were looking to build an application that presents EPUB [e-book file format extension] files in a very advanced way. Nobody has ever combined audio with an EPUB file in an app before.

We wanted to build an application that's user-friendly -  we wanted children to be able to open the library and choose a book they like. Once they read the book, they can take a quick quiz and get a score. We partnered with KindGeek to get this done.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

KindGeek helped with the concept, design, development, and maintenance of the app. They are working hard with me to get the vision I have to make it possible and to make it a reality. It's a mobile app for Android and iOS. In the future, we'll have all the platforms. Right now, we are just starting with mobile.

How did you come to work with KindGeek?

I found them through Clutch. I contacted all the companies that I found on your website from Eastern Europe because I know they're talented, and they have reasonable costs. Out of 10 companies, I chose them because I felt they were professional. They have a big team that can provide the services that we needed. If someone is absent, they will have somebody to replace right away, and that's important for me.

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

It cost between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's an ongoing project. We completed the first phase, and we'll keep working. There are many features to be added. We'll still be working another six months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The app is about to launch in two to three weeks. KindGeek did a good job. The cost estimate may be is the only thing that I was hoping to match. That's the only thing they didn't match my expectation, but everything else was fine.

How did KindGeek perform from a project management standpoint?

It was very good. KindGeek has a project manager assigned to me to work with on a daily basis. He updated me even on weekends. They're a good company. They have a good team, and the project manager working with me is good.

What distinguishes KindGeek from other providers?

I appreciate that KindGeek cares about their clients' satisfaction. Beyond being professional and delivering work, KindGeek has been very good at communicating with me and problem solving.

Is there anything KindGeek could have improved or done differently?

It would be the cost estimation. It ended up costing more than we had anticipated, but we were able to work it out. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Got Produce? is a hydroponic greenhouse design and installation company.

What is your position?

I am the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with KindGeek?

The value add of our business is in providing automated control systems that operate the greenhouse, both on the ground and remotely. The reason I came in touch with KindGeek was to get them to help us in cloud-based projects, in IoT [Internet of Things], and the control system and [upright] servers, so we could offer that as a value-add to our product range.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

KindGeek provides a range of services for us. They created a cloud database for us, and then they created [environment] sensors and actual control system, which acts like a small computer. They control irrigation and some other things. They set up and did the programming and assembly of the control system. They did design and assembly of wireless sensors. Traditionally, we [moved] from a wired version, or Internet tether version, to a wireless version. They did all the database and UI [user interface] work.

In the beginning, the database was just a MySQL database. I think that the computer serves the system that runs the irrigation controller. 

How did you come to work with KindGeek?

I was looking to outsource this work. Because it involved [design] work, physical assembly of parts, creative thinking, and all these things, it didn't fall under the kind of engineers that we would normally use. I [contacted] different places and two or three different groups when we outsourced this. After talking to Anton [Skrypnyk, CEO at KindGeek], I really felt KindGeek was the right place to go.

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

It was probably between $10,000 and $50,000. That's a lot of R&D [research and development] and we plan to continue with them to continue development of the product designs once we have passed the R&D stage.

What is the timeline of this engagement?

We've been working with them almost a year, since August of last year [2015].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our business model is built around these automated controls, so without having automated controls, it knocks the legs out from under our business model. They provided that for us so it allowed us to continue advertising and doing the value add. [What it amounts to is we] would not have the capacity to grow at all. With their help, we have the capacity to be 10 times what we are.

How did KindGeek perform from a project management standpoint?

They have multiple people, all with different talents, which is fantastic. That's one of the reasons I chose KindGeek. I think that they have a good basic structure going through an analysis of what the project needed, to get the talent for the project that you need. I'm really pleased with the way KindGeek was able to source and provide the right people with the right skills that we needed.

What distinguishes KindGeek from other providers?

I've enjoyed working with them and I can't quantify that. If you're going to have a partner that you're working with long term, I think it helps to have personalities aligned and visions aligned. They're polite and they're knowledgeable – just a good group of people and nice to work with.

Is there anything KindGeek could have improved or done differently?

The only thing I would say is in hindsight, having better access to the online project management, like a tracking tool. They did provide some [analysis] and, whenever I asked for breakdowns, they did provide it. It would be nice just to have continuous online access to tracking.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is Datasembly. We work with CPGs [consumer packaged goods], specifically food manufacturers to help them understand how their products are performing on the shelf, what they’re being priced, when they’re being put on promotion, for how much they’re being put on promotion, and especially in comparison to what their competitors are doing in terms of pricing and promotion strategy.

I am the Chief Technology Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with KindGeek?

With KindGeek, we really just needed developers to help us build out our data collection platform, and that was the original impetus for bringing them on. We work with a lot of pricing data from across the country, so bringing them on was to help us collect all this data and manage it. Now they’re our full-time general purpose developers. They work on all sorts of things that we need them to do, some data-related, some user interface-related, some still data collection-related.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our platform collects hundreds of millions of pricing records from the web every day. What they’ve worked on specifically is helping to improve that data collection platform. They’ve helped write our back-end, which is a pipeline for collecting and processing this data. KindGeek wrote two very important parts of our pipeline, which is product matching. That is, if we get a product from one store that doesn’t have a UPC [Universal Product Code], how do we match it to the same product from another store that doesn’t have a UPC? This involved natural language processing, it involves text analysis, and it involves a large scale search problem. He actually worked on developing that core component of our technology.

Then, he also worked on helping develop another core component, which is brand extraction. Given a string of text that’s about a product, how do we tell who manufactured this product? What is the brand that this product is being sold as? Is it Cheerios? Is it a Hershey’s Kiss? How do we attribute this back to the manufacturer and their product line?

We work almost entirely in Scala. We used Akka for a lot our distributed systems and concurrency work. We use RedShift, the Amazon Web Services database, for a lot of the data storage and aggregations, and we also use RethinkDB for our real-time data collection.

How did you come to work with KindGeek?

We started at the 500 Startups Accelerator Program, which is out in California. We started there last July, and when they published the list of all the companies that are working at the Accelerator, we just got inundated with requests from different development shops that wanted to work with us. I spent a week just interviewing different shops, talking to people there, and we ended up hiring three different agenciens with the idea that we would choose the best one. One in the US, one in Ukraine, which is KindGeek, and one in Poland. After working with all of them for about a month or two, we decided that we liked KindGeek best.

How much have you invested with KindGeek?

It’s about $10,000 a month. We actually scaled up our work. We started out at about $6,000 a month, and now we’re up to about $10,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them for 10 months now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any results of this project?

There’s nothing really I can publically talk about yet, but I will say that we’ve been in a sales process with General Mills for about six months now, and a lot of KindGeek's work has made that sales process possible. Now we’re actually negotiating final terms of a deal with them. They would be our largest customer to date, and we couldn’t have done it without KindGeek.

How did KindGeek perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great. KindGeek came to work with us full-time immediately, so they adapted to the systems that we were using. Actually, my favorite thing about KindGeek is that they’re not afraid to give feedback and discuss ways of improving processes. When we started with them, we didn’t really have much in the way of project management; we were just flying by the seat of our pants. Now we’re using Blossom, which was chosen by KindGeek to manage our tasks. It’s been a real pleasure working with them in terms of project management.

What did you find most impressive about KindGeek?

They’re great to work with. One thing I really appreciate is their personalities. The Chief Executive Officer of KindGeek was in the US, and he made it a real point to meet up with us. We had coffee and a great conversation with him. He was here in the United States to get more clients; he didn’t necessarily have to meet up with us. We really appreciated that. I had a great time talking with him. Both the developers we work with now are very communicative. They’re fun people to work with. They’re not just taking orders and doing things. It’s all discussion; we talk about personal stuff. It’s really like they’re part of the team.

Are there any areas KindGeek could improve?

The language barrier has been difficult at times, and it would’ve been nice if KindGeek, which largely works with US companies, had better processes in place to make communication easier.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We created a new app for last-minute flights in Europe.

What is your position?

I am a cofounder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with KindGeek?

When we started developing this whole app, we used a different agency to develop the app, but their work was not good enough. Then, I found a different agency that will take care of the back-end, and I reached out to KindGeek to take care of the front-end. The goals and the specifications were already made before that. They just had to find a way to continue what the last agency did.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

The front-end was actually Android. We developed an MVP [minimum viable product] that was based only on Android. I was in direct contact with one of their developers, Christina, and she was working mainly with me and with the back-end developer guy. In the beginning, what she received from the previous development company was a bit chaotic. I knew that – this was the feedback that I got from the different agencies – that they didn't do a good job. It took her a little bit of time to understand what was going on in the code, but she did it fast. Then, we continued working on the daily stuff to make the app work.

What I requested from them is just to develop the app and put it in the Play Store. She gave me a bit of support because everything was a little bit new to me with the Play Store.

How did you come to work with KindGeek?

We're a self-financed startup. We were practically bootstrapping. We were looking for cheap solutions in Eastern Europe. A friend of a friend recommended a different agency from Ukraine. I read different reviews, and then I made a list of potential agencies in Ukraine. I just had a call and talked with KindGeek's team.

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

It cost less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

What we were setting up as a goal was completed – it was the MVP. Now, we're focused on the marketing side and eventually developing a companion iOS app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The app is the product of our company. Even if I got feedback on the app, I think it's got nothing to do with the work that KindGeek did because they did exactly what I asked them to do. At first, they did the design with the designer, and we designed how the app is going to work and did the flow, and then they just executed it. Let's say that there was a problem with the fact that on the first page when the app is offline, then you don't see any example how the app looks like when it's online. Can you relate it directly to KindGeek? I don't know.

How did KindGeek perform from a project management standpoint?

With other agencies, the idea is that you have a project manager who is your point of contact and then he's talking to the developers. Since I'm coming from a technological background, I was talking directly to the developer, Christina. We simply had an Excel sheet where we were both updating each other. She was always on time, even faster than what I was expecting or what we estimated together, and always with full communication, which was one of the most important things for me. If there was a problem, she knew when to raise it and how to raise it and ask the questions and, if not, she was just running through the tasks. From that point of view, that was 10 out of 10.

What distinguishes KindGeek from other providers?

That's hard for me to say. I was working with Christina. For me, KindGeek is Christina. She was thinking about further problems and further issues that I might have that I missed, and that was pretty good. Most programmers in Eastern Europe – they don't care. They will do what you ask, and that's it. KindGeek were straightforward, fast and open to my ideas. They went the extra mile.

Is there anything KindGeek could have improved or done differently?

No. I have no complaints. It was a relatively short and small project, so nothing to improve on my side.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Letter Collect is a new start-up in Berlin that runs a couple of services for schoolteachers and works as a marketplace for teaching materials.

I’m the Chief Technology Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with KindGeek?

We partnered with KindGeek to help us with the technical implementation of the marketplace.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The product is a marketplace. You might think about it as an Etsy or eBay for schoolteachers. It is a marketplace where schoolteachers can sell or buy digital materials from the other teachers, those preparations which they make for their lessons: homework, worksheets, tests, and things like that.

KindGeek mainly provides platform development services. They are providing me with consultants who are working under my direct supervision. They are working as a shell company and as a hosting company. It is basic development in open source technologies. We use Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP on a Symphony platform and with an AngularJS front end.

We are a small startup, and that’s a small team, so basically everyone is doing a bit of everything. They are in charge of whatever it take in regards to technical implementation. They take care of the design and quality assurance as well. We do have a designer here in-house, but they need to make a lot of the decisions locally, so I would call them part-time designers as well.

How did you come to work with KindGeek?

I was looking for an outsourcing partner to develop this project, and I posted to Facebook. I started to interview teams because I needed to get a team, not just a single developer; I didn’t have time to handpick them one by one. KindGeek were the first ones who passed my interview.

How much have you invested with KindGeek?

I cannot disclose this information.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did KindGeek perform from a project management standpoint?

As project management is my responsibility, I would say they are performing very well. The nature of our relations is agile-based, and I am the direct supervisor of my team. They are not providing me project management services. They are providing me bodies and minds. The way I organize them and put them to deadlines is my responsibility.

What did you find most impressive about KindGeek?

KindGeek knows what it takes to make a startup succeed. It was really easy to communicate with them from day one. And, they are a young and modern company, which I really like and appreciate.

Are there any areas KindGeek could improve?

They are growing pretty fast, and that speed of growth causes certain issues, but as they are actively working and improving, I don’t see it as a major problem.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We connect people who have struggles with their phones with technicians on the ground. We are working across the United States at 20 locations with around 400 technicians on the ground.

What is your position?

I am an R&D [research and development] officer. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with KindGeek?

We were looking to build a mobile app for our business. When we started to think about an outsourcing company for our needs, we actually had trouble hiring good quality programmers here in Israel, so we then decided to offshore the work.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

KindGeek was involved in the development of our mobile app. It's full stack, which means we have a web front-end, back-end algorithm, and mobile developer. KindGeek takes care of all development. The decisions, planning, and design we are doing in-house. The execution and the actual writing of the code is done there.

Everything actually starts from the technology stack. Since we chose [a group in] Ukraine as our development team, it was easy for us to find PHP developers and iOS developers – part of them are Android, too. In our organization, we have  team leaders here in Israel, and the developers are in Ukraine. We decided to make a dedicated team that is controlled from here, but everything is done there in Ukraine. We are doing a lot of PHP and Node.js. All the back-end, front-end, and mobile development is done there.

How did you come to work with KindGeek?

Since I speak Russian, the guys there speak English, and there is a lot of good professional skill that we found in the company, we decided to go with them. We had three companies involved at first, and we decided the guys from KindGeek were the best for us.

What is the status of this engagement?

KindGeek acts as our home base. We will continue working with them. We are going to increase the team. We have two R&D centers: one here in Israel with mostly team leaders, architects, and so on, and the working hands in Ukraine. They have good engineers, and we are satisfied, so it's going to last at least one year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Everything is working great. We had results after two weeks working with KindGeek. Our first version of the website went out after two weeks.

How did KindGeek perform from a project management standpoint?

We don't need them as project managers because we use KindGeek as a dedicated team. We have our team leaders here who are in charge to schedule and control everything. We have dealt only with developers who are controlled by team leaders. It is part of the job of team leaders to control and give them tasks internally.

When you plan it correctly, then you can expect the team will meet the deadline. Sometimes, they do it successfully and sometimes not. However, what I can say is that they did try to get results in the shortest time possible. For example, two days ago [July 2016], we were working until 2 a.m. because we had deadlines, and we just finished. When something has to be done, it's doable. KindGeek always does everything they can to get it done.

What distinguishes KindGeek from other providers?

There's always struggles and there's always problems. However, you can always figure out how to work it. This is a major part of our partnership with KindGeek. We have great communication with KindGeek. We trust KindGeek, and when they say something, they mean it. The trust in our partnership is the more that I can expect from the company that I'm working with them. I trust them – that's it.

Is there anything KindGeek could have improved or done differently?

I'm not sure if they can do it, but the problem is that I think they are using a very specific stack of technology – PHP. They're working with tools on the back-end, on the databases, and on the front-end. Sometimes, when I want to implement a different stack, it's hard because they're mostly oriented on PHP stack. Maybe they have a few Java developers, but usually just one. Sometimes, for not real big issues, I have to ask them to find someone who can develop some algorithms in a different language. It's hard for them to find relevant programmers to do it, but we work it out.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is a SaaS [software-as-a-service] marketplace for online publishers.

What is your position?

I'm the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with KindGeek?

We were looking to redesign the UI [user interface] of our site as well as some of the back-end functionalities.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

KindGeek did some front-end and back-end development for our site. The technologies used were Backbone.js, CFS, and HTML. The back-end was developed with Java and Play framework.

How did you come to work with KindGeek?

We got in touch with them through LinkedIn.

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

It has cost around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project is completed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Their work drastically improved the design and usability of the application.

What distinguishes KindGeek from other providers?

KindGeek is very responsive to requests. We never had any issues communicating.

Is there anything KindGeek could have improved or done differently?

The original developer that we worked with was not up to par for our project. However, once we got going, we worked with another developer and everything ran smoothly.