MasterBorn

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own a company called UW Action LLC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MasterBorn?

I hired MasterBorn to develop an iOS application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s a networking app where people can engage with friends, set up events, create trivia polls, and more. We asked them to develop a robust mobile app that enables users to do a wide variety of interactions. 

What is the team composition?

I work with Gray (President & CEO) and other eight different individuals including developers, program managers, and designers.

How did you come to work with MasterBorn?

They were highly recommended by a friend of mine who is very ingrained in the tech and mobile app space. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in October 2019, and it’s still ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve had a positive experience with MasterBorn. In terms of metrics, we are using user feedback and the number of downloads. The team has a whole analytics suite. Overall, we are happy with the end product.

How did MasterBorn perform from a project management standpoint?

They have been prompt at meeting deadlines. They provide a weekly recap and it has been excellent. I only have good things to say about them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very accomodating. I was worried about the fact that they are based overseas and there might be language barriers, but there have been no issues with their responsiveness. They have met their deadlines and consistently provided wonderful communication.

In addition, we like that they propose issues that we might want to think about ahead of time. I have never been surprised by anything.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that I can comment on at this time when it comes to room for improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

A person desiring to use MasterBorn needs to be prepared and as engaged as I have been.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a professional Cyclist

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I wanted to create a website to allow one place people can visit to find anything from my coaching services to events that I’m doing. MasterBorn was able to create a beautiful platform for me to share everything

SOLUTION

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

I choice Masterborn for their expertise in the field. They are excellent and listen to what your goals are and will work tirelessly to achieve

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

We kicked off with me sharing my goals of my website and sharing what I’d like. From there they went straight to work and each step we’d talk to see how I was liking.

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

I worked with Leah one of the web designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since I’ve created a webpage I’ve had tons of feedback on how great it is to keep track of events and able to find what I’m up to.

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

Management was great! Communication was top notch. We used phone call, WhatsApp, and email.

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

I loved their communication and how hard they worked to make everything perfectly. They really put the customer first.

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

I’d give a 10 out of a 10. Top notch and no complaints.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Self-employed - CEO of the idea

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Build an MVP for a platform which aggregates sports events from Strava into one publically available platform. The goal was to quickly build a simple MVP with simple functionality to test the idea in the market.

SOLUTION

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

I know the CEO of the MasterBorn

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

Build a two-page fronted & backend with APIs requesting data from Strava Project steps:

1. presented the project/idea/goals/mockups to small circle of MasterBorn people (CTO, Project Mgmt, FE + BE developers)
2. 2-week back and forth to refine the requirements
3. MasterBorn team got together and planned/broke down the project
4. current state was shared end of 2020

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

CEO CTO COO Project Management - Karolina =+ Kasper (design) & Yuri 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

outcomes: frontend was just what was expected, backend provides the basic functionality

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

Communication: only used Slack Due to underestimated features, the timelines slipped a few times. I would like to have been involved more in regular plannings and giving input beforehands.

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

The self-drive of the people and organisation around it. I didnt have to do a lot, but only give feedback a few times and things continued from there on. Professional handling of my input and the overall project.

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

In case you would like to work MVP/Prototype style in the future, a different mindset is required. Even though perfection was not our goal, their team always aimed to work towards it. This is definitely a good trait, but this project required a more loose attitude :) But I believe this was mostly, because this project was different from the other clients, where the "almost perfection" trait is highly relevant.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner and founder of Kingdom Sports, an elite coaching service for cyclists ranging from amateur to the highest level of the sport. I provide affordable, custom-tailored training programs, with 25+ years of experience, to fit any client's needs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The original website that was created has sat on the wayside for the past several years, as my focus has been on expanding my clientele. My lack of investment in marketing outreach/updated training plans that are available was obvious, however, I had no clear strategy of the best way to move forward.

I contacted MasterBorn to share my overall vision for the company and have a new website development, a design refresh and added ease of functions for my clients (instant enrollment + payment options, contact info, testimonials, links to social media, etc).

SOLUTION

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

I was referred to MasterBorn through a trusted friend/colleague that had worked with them previously and continues to work with them today. Trust in our mutual friend's experience was the biggest deciding factor when making my selection.

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

We had a kick-off meeting to discuss goals, objectives, and timelines. I gave a lot of background about the vision of the company and the potential that was available but with very little concrete ideas about actionable next steps.

It was important to me that it was web and mobile-friendly, with a simple user interface and that it was ready prior to the start of the new year.

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

There was a project manager that acted as my main point of contact, along with a developer and designer on the back end.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It has only been live for a few days and already my clients are commenting about the ease of use, overall sharp and clean design and simple way of being able to share it with others.

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

They outlined their timelines clearly and communicated via email (my preferred method), as it was necessary throughout the process with updates.

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

At the initial kick-off I explained in-depth my overall vision + goals for the website and they were able to take a lot of big ideas and execute. I was most impressed about their way of carefully listening to my needs, then their great work ethic to execute in a timely manner.

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

No- I'm very happy with the overall process, timeline, and results.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Fintech startup with multiple branches in the US and Europe. My role is Product Manager over the platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We brought on MasterBorn as we had a key item on our roadmap but didn't have the engineering bandwidth to take it on. We decided to engage with an outside engineering team to deliver this item.

We had never engaged with an engineering outsourcing partner before so we were very cautious and did a lot of diligence before selecting MasterBorn. They were extremely accommodating to this process and stuck with it. Since our initial engagement, we've continued to use them as an outsourcing partner.

SOLUTION

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

I had previous experience with MasterBorn via Droplr and had a high opinion of their abilities. Before engaging, they delivered a project spec with a detailed technical analysis of how they would solve the problem. We agreed with their proposal and had high confidence in their ability to deliver it.

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

They developed a PDF reporting engine that took data from a number of our data sources and rendered it in charts and HTML data using React components. The service then converted the rendered HTML to PDFs and served them back to the client. Technologies used: - Serverless - SQS - S3 - React - Puppeteer - Node.js

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

We had a team of three developers, plus a scrum master: two front-end developers, one backend.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The initial engagement was a success. We released a new report engine with new reports to our customers that scaled easily to meet our demands. The team's output was top quality as well and they consistently delivered. The outcome was that we continued to engage with them to extend the features of the reports engine and build new reports for our customers. We've also engaged them in other internal projects.

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

We followed a bi-weekly scrum style where we would meet in the mornings (PST) their evenings (European time) and prioritize the tasks for the week and review the output from the last sprint.

We would also hold demos for company stakeholders with big milestones. As PM, I would take the output from their deliverables and review them with stakeholders and provide feedback in the form of Jira tickets. As PM, I would build specs in their Confluence and we would discuss them there.

Once we had an agreement on the spec me and the scrum master would decompose those into tasks and stories in their Jira. We communicated primarily over Slack and Google Hangouts.

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

The quality of the dev work is absolutely outstanding, most noticeably in their architecture choices and fundamental good coding practices. It's clear that MasterBorn knows how to hire the best developers available and allow them to do great work. They don't take shortcuts and the output is excellent.

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

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a fintech venture, currently in concept phase. I developed the initial business model and concept approach based on a personal experience. Now exploring the concept with potential customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MasterBorn?

To develop a mock-up to share with potential customers. I am non-technical but was able to provide user personas, user stories, and rudimentary Sketch pages as background. MasterBorn was hired to develop a visual mock-up of the product with clickable pages depicting the product concept.

What were your goals for this project?

To equip me with a clean mock-up that can be shared with potential customers and other potential partners. I plan to use the mock-up as an example "solution" and solicit feedback on the overall concept and specific features.

After receiving feedback, my hope is to use the mock-up as a basis for developing an MVP -- subject to satisfactory interest.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

MasterBorn was referred to me by a friend. My friend used their services for a project and is a current customer. I compared their services and proposal vs. two other development firms.

Overall, I was impressed with their ability to take my raw background information and suggest a discreet project. There was clear value add in translating my vision to a manageable deliverable. The other vendors seemed interested in a more open engagement with less visibility into deliverables and cost per deliverable.

Finally, I appreciated their willingness to take on a smaller project without the pressure to commit to large build.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Development of a product mock-up. The mock-up will be used to test the concept and determine if their is enough interest to build a MVP. I provided raw background information including a concept deck, personas, user case stories, and rudimentary Sketch page examples.

They translated my raw input into a clean InVision project (including logo and general look/feel). I will use the InVision project to share the concept with potential customers.

What was the team composition?

I worked with Gray (Founder & CEO) and Dominik (Front End Designer). Gray provided project scoping, tracking, and overall guidance. Dominik developed the InVision project.

Both are excellent communicators and very transparent. I appreciated the ability to work directly with Dominik. We communicated vis Slack and comments in InVision. It was very effective and efficient.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work was critical to moving my concept forward. It provides me with the ability to visually share my solution. It also provided credibility via proving I have the tools and partners to develop the product. I am very impressed and appreciative of the partnership.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Very clear budget and timeline was included in the proposal. We had a kick-off meeting and two group check-ins. I had daily communications on Slack and InVision comments. They are excellent communicators and I always felt like my questions were addressed and my project was a priority.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Direct, efficient, and thorough process. They provided satisfactory formal project management meeting check-ins and they are great communicators. I also enjoyed the web meetings and the ability to get to know them personally. They are fantastic people and I hope to continue the partnership.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None of significance. I hope future project continue to be as efficient and cost effective as this project. I also hope to continue to engage directly with the team and benefit from Gray's product experience.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the technical founder of a mobile navigation app for truck drivers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MasterBorn?

We hired MasterBorn to work with us on some backend projects around data management, as well as UI work for our main internal admin portal using Next.JS

What were your goals for this project?

Both systems the team has developed are new for our company. We wanted an easy way to manage the data in our system and automatically keep it updated on an ongoing basis.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were referred to us by one of our investors.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They provided UI work for our admin panel, a new tool and environment for data acquisition, and project management services to oversee everything.

What was the team composition?

The group we're working with is flexible between 2 and 5 engineers, designers, and project managers on an as-needed basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This will allow us to maintain updated datasets substantially more efficiently than would be possible manually. This will also allow us to monitor user-submitted content in a way that was done in an ad-hoc basis before.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We have a project manager on point who manages the team very effectively. They use Invision for design, JIRA for task management and prioritization, and Slack for more immediate feedback or questions.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The talent of the team is extremely high across the board. We've been very impressed with all of the deliverables.

Are there any areas for improvement?

N/a

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Odysys is the smart marketing solution for inns, bed & breakfasts, and small hotels. Odysys helps busy innkeepers save time, save money and book more guests with a powerful data-driven roadmap to more direct bookings, easy-to-use websites, marketing tools, services and personal help.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MasterBorn?

We partnered with MasterBorn to augment our staff, eliminate technical debt, overhaul our infrastructure, and launch new features.

What were your goals for this project?

Eliminate technical debt, improve redundancy, update the UI, and launch new features.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Masterborn was recommended by a mutual contact. We interviewed and evaluated several other potential partners. During that process, it was clear that Masterborn was the right fit for Odysys.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Masterborn audited our current application and quickly made recommendations for improving it through a phased and cost effective approach. This began with AWS configuration and enhancements, then workflow, code, and UI improvements.

What was the team composition?

The team consists of a very development focused account manager, system admin (AWS focus), PHP developer, and a front-end developer (HTML, CSS, React).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our platform is much more stable and we now have the code refactored to allow us to rapidly develop features that will provide our customers with more value.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management is quite efficient with Masterborn. We have weekly sprint reviews and biweekly checkins.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The knowledge and work ethic of the team is quite impressive. In addition, they communicate extremely well and are very responsive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Time zone differences can make scheduling a challenge. However, Masterborn has gone out of their way to be responsive during their off hours.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Used goods marketplace, owner

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MasterBorn?

web development

What were your goals for this project?

Build a functional website.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Initial discussions with CEO on the concept evolved.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Web design, architecture and development

What was the team composition?

Project manager/consultant, back-end architecture and design, and front-end designers/developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Masterborn did a great job building a platform from scratch for my start up. I came to them with my vision and a business plan, but not much else. Gray and his team played a huge roll in turning this vision into a reality.

Masterborn is skilled at the 'blocking and tackling' aspects of design and development, which is evident in the final product. Yet, what I appreciate just as much is their collaboration and consulting. Gray showed more than an understanding for the business idea, he understood the passion and belief behind it. He shared his expertise and ideas to help shape critical elements of the platform strategy.

The work process was iterative, with ideas for both technical and business solutions coming from both sides. If you are looking for digital design and development that is collaborative, knowledgable, and technically sound, I highly recommend Masterborn.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an attorney that drafts Wills and Trusts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MasterBorn?

Creating a software / portal for my clients.

What were your goals for this project?

Make the Estate Planning process easier for my clients.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Know and Trust the CEO.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Helped pinpoint the needs I had and translate them into a workable software solution.

What was the team composition?

Great team. Gray is incredibly helpful in coordinating all communication.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are just launching it, so it will be fun to see.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

I worked with the CEO, Gray, mostly. I have a Slack channel with access to the developers as well.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The communication and process are great!

Are there any areas for improvement?

No