mente

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Owner of a consumer products & services company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We create consumer-centred products that harness behavioural AI to turn interaction data into deeply personalised learning and wellbeing experiences.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire mente to accomplish?

• Product realisation: turn our concept and user stories into a fully-functioning, consumer-ready product.
• Infuse smart personalisation and AI features.
• Guarantee operational resilience. Build and maintain a secure, reliable platform that can scale smoothly as our audience grows.
• Deliver an effortless user journey. Design clear, intuitive flows for user journey.
• Lay the groundwork for continuous improvement. Establish automated testing, deployment and monitoring so new features reach customers quickly and safely.

SOLUTION

How did you find mente?

Referral

Why did you select mente over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from mente were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Consumer web app – branded, responsive application covering onboarding, photo-based pantry capture, meal-plan generation/execution and shopping-list management.

AI feature set – computer-vision ingredient recognition and GPT-4o personalised meal/shopping logic, surfaced through the FastAPI AI module.

Business dashboard – inventory management and recipe-coverage analytics for suppliers.

Administrator portal – back-office interface for managing users, ingredients, recipes, tags and admin accounts.

Cloud infrastructure & DevOps tool-chain – Kubernetes cluster, managed PostgreSQL, CI/CD pipelines, monitoring and operational runbooks across all environments.

Comprehensive documentation – technical architecture, API specification, ER diagrams, user stories and hi-fi mock-ups.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Delivered everything we promised, on schedule. All four project phases were completed and signed off when they were supposed to be—no slips, no unfinished stories.
Stayed on budget. The final cost matched the sum in the SOW; no overruns and no paid change requests were needed.
Product works fast.
Photo-recognition does its job.
Reliable from day one. Every minor bug was fixed, zero critical incidents.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Every phase was delivered on time, our needs were always responded to.

What was your primary form of communication with mente?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Highest standard for quality, impeccable work ethics.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of nupont blockchain gmbh

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

nupont is the bridge between traditional corporate finance systems and web3-based crypto as it provides the missing piece for corporations to access blockchains based on established standards like ISO20022 that are already implemented on most ERP Systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Mente to accomplish?

As fintech startup founders, we had the goal to launch an MVP of the nupont service system in March, 2023. However, we didn’t want to end up with a prototype to be thrown away after testing, as it often happens. Instead, we aimed to build a fully viable product, just with a smaller feature set that we could build on later in response to the market needs. 
Typically for a startup, we operated with a limited budget and timescale. mente had the same approach to building an MVP as we did, and we were on the same page in our views on technology, and especially, on blockchain. Therefore, we involved their team to help us define the project scope and then to deliver the nupont.app web application with a backend infrastructure for our enterprise service.

SOLUTION

How did you find Mente?

Referral

Why did you select Mente over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned
• Team experience; Methodology fit; Business model; Team availability.

How many teammates from Mente were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

I worked with the mente team throughout the whole project as the project owner. It was actually an honor to be part of this team because everybody was really working hard on achieving the goals and that has been a tremendous journey, I guess, for all of us. mente created the nupont application with a focus on business and technical analysis, development, and DevOps. 
They translated requirements into technical specifications, identified key features, and built nupont from scratch with input from stakeholders. They were very good partners in discussing those requirements and understanding them, and realizing sometimes how important they are and in prioritizing them (while deprioritizing something else), so that we could, in the end, have a very nice scope. 
There is really this team effort and team environment at mente where you see that people are actually helping each other, which is not always the case. I really liked this spirit because, in the end, that was what was going to finish the project on time and on budget. The Scrum Master facilitated the agile development process, while the Tech Leads oversaw the technical aspects of the project and mentored the other developers. 
The FE Developers built the user interface and client-side functionality, while the BE Developers built the server-side functionality and APIs. The QA Engineer ensured that the nupont application was functional, reliable, and met stakeholder requirements by developing test plans, executing manual and automated tests, and working closely with the development team. mente also managed DevOps, ensuring the application was secure, reliable, and optimized for performance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Coming out of stealth mode - on the planned day - with a great application that we are really proud of has been a tremendous success for all of us: the whole (development) team and of course also the founders. 
Since then we have been able to build on what we have created and make the full product out of the MVP, and this is really how MVP should be done. Also, during the course of the project, the mente team has become friends with our founders team, so this combination is really great. To get to have the feeling of working with friends is priceless.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

According to the Scrum Methodology we had daily meetings, which proved tremendously effective with a distributed team. Regular demos and retrospectives increased the smooth workflow between all participants. The project manager on the mente side was always looking into the schedule and breaking down the schedule into the individual sprints and making sure that we meet our sprint goals in order to keep the whole schedule that we have. 
And, if it was necessary to move something to the next sprint, we were all very clear about what this means for the whole schedule and looked into removing stuff in order to keep the schedule as a whole. I really appreciate that because I know from past experiences, it’s super easy to say “yes” to the customer because he's happy at that moment. But then you build up this huge debt of time. 
You know that you're pushing to the end of the project where you have to tell the customer “Well, we're sorry, but we're not going to keep the end deadline because we added so much to the scope.” This discussions were super fair all the time and it was clear that we had to keep the end goal in mind and not run out of time. 
I was always very happy with the decisions that we made during the course of the project, and I guess the feedback that I gave to the team throughout the project was received very well and translated into changes at mente. We consistently had discussions and agreed upon it on a very nice level. We didn't have any issues that were prolonged or where I would have thought: “OK, I agree, but I'm not really agreeing. 
But I have to agree because the project needs to move on” or anything like that. Being able to cope with those changing requirements during the implementation phase has been really great, and mente helped a lot in not being stubborn on the original specification and by being flexible enough to change things on the run.

What was your primary form of communication with Mente?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The deep technical know-how of the team-members and the laser-focussed view of the project management on the project goals and results. This led to a smooth execution of the project and delivery in time and budget.

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

I don't think there are too many things that we could really do better because it was nearly perfect, right? Maybe, just adding a brief business introduction to the technical specifics during the demos would have helped some business-oriented attendees understand the project’s status better at once.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Project manager of ProfitCard sp. z o.o.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company creates and operates loyalty programs in Poland, mainly on a larger scale and in grocery store chains.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Mente to accomplish?

• Ensuring the highest quality of Customer Experience for customers using the ProfitCard system for their loyalty programs.
• Providing customers with the widest possible opportunities to take advantage of the value of the collected data.
• Increased monetization of loyalty programs by optimizing internal business and technical processes and scaling the business more efficiently.
• Accelerating work on a new version of the system for operating loyalty programs by urgently replenishing - by outsourcing IT services - the composition and competence of the internal technical team.
• Ensuring maximum performance of the older version of the system for handling loyalty programs before the holiday season, especially in terms of reporting.
• Freeing up the internal team's time to work on a new version of the system by reorganizing its workflow and introducing new tools and technologies for software development and testing.
• Eliminating the technology debt associated with the older version of the system.
• Improving the performance of the new version of the system by introducing more efficient technologies at its heart and creating an advanced data aggregation component.

SOLUTION

How did you find Mente?

Referral

Why did you select Mente over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned
• Involvement; Flexible approach to changes in project concepts; Ongoing programming support.

How many teammates from Mente were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Together we have successfully completed the projects of: 

1. System Optimization: Audited and optimized the initial system version before the holiday season. The improvements resulted in significant enhancements to key business processes (e.g., report generation speed, billing notes) without altering the architecture, technology, or tools. This positively influenced team dynamics and customer relations. 
2. IT Team Restructuring and Mentoring: Restructured the IT team to address technology debt and allocate more time for the new system. This initiative led to substantial changes in the team's organization, communication, and software development processes. Automation, simplification, and documentation of various activities increased efficiency. Adoption of new tools and technologies, including different database tools, improved system efficiency. The team's satisfaction and ability to work on both old and new system versions concurrently were enhanced. 
3. Advanced Data Aggregation Component: Developed an advanced data aggregation component to optimize billing processes for various stakeholders and system users. The component surpassed the original scope, introducing additional features operating on extensive data sets. Aggregators significantly reduced the time for operations that previously took hours, enabling tasks to be completed in less than a minute. 
4. Core Reconstruction with Alternative Technologies: Reconstructed the core of the new system version using alternative technologies to ensure optimal performance. This included performance enhancements, streamlined deployment processes, thorough testing for development flexibility, and establishment of a high level of security, crucial for handling personal data. Naturally, additional projects for joint implementation may emerge shortly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

mente's impact on our company is multifaceted and has resulted in a significant technological leap. We have not only efficiently paid off our technology debt, but also moved significantly closer to monetizing the investments we made in the new version of the system. This solution will result in a better offer to our customers in the long term, as well as higher efficiency and lower costs of operating various loyalty programs. mente's support allowed us to gain time to deal with business matters we had postponed and began the process of wider changes in the organization. 
The technical team regained space for priority tasks, and also gained new competencies (technological and operational) as well as tools to work with. Thanks to the inspiration and pleasure of solving problems on the mente side, the team's motivation and commitment have also increased. The solutions we have created together with mente will serve for many years thanks to a customized, scalable architecture that makes the code subsequently transparently written, and its modification and expansion is simple, pleasant and safe for the rest of the system. Last but not least, we have gained more confidence in using third-party IT providers and working remotely with such experts.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

mente perfectly adapted to the dynamic environment of our company. Despite the simultaneous development of multiple project areas, effective ongoing communication and regular business and technical reports were maintained. This provider contributed to the implementation of a new agile approach to project realization, resulting in increased timeliness of project delivery. 
mente's specialists continued to adapt effectively to our diverse goals, needs and challenges both business and technical, with dedication and energy. 
They're ready to respond immediately to urgent problems without losing sight of the broader business-technical context. In their role as mentors and leaders for our team, they effectively guided planned production activities while assisting us in making a number of decisions, including strategic ones.

What was your primary form of communication with Mente?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What makes mente stand out is its flexible approach and willingness to respond to a variety of needs, sometimes even very demanding or "fantastic" ones.

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

There's nothing they need to improve on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Technology and SW Engineering of DS Development GmbH

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Destination Solutions supports property owners in making reservations on the right accommodation portal at the right time, utilizing a suite of internally developed systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Mente to accomplish?

• Augmenting the existing development team with additional resources.
• Enhancing the productivity of the specific team dedicated to internal rearchitecting.
• Implementing internal business workflows, particularly those related to internal rearchitecting.

SOLUTION

How did you find Mente?

Referral

Why did you select Mente over others?

• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Our mutual contact recommended mente for reliability, delivery experience, and technical expertise.

How many teammates from Mente were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The mente developer was mainly responsible for developing backend functionalities in the B2B area, but was also involved in some front end development. Apart from successful delivery of agreed functionalities from analysis through development till end-to-end testing, the specialist contributed to the improved communication and cooperation practices inside the team, increased the good code practices awareness and improved test coverage ratio.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We successfully released the planned products and features, and the collaboration with our external team member strengthened team spirit. Cooperation between internal and external team members went smoothly without any significant issues. Importantly, we met all project deadlines, ensuring the successful delivery of the planned work as outlined by the product owner.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Project Management was done internally. mente staff was part of an agile development team.

What was your primary form of communication with Mente?

Virtual Meeting

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

We had attempted similar collaborations in the past with other software providers, but they sometimes proved challenging due to the differences in mindset between internal and external developers. However, with the addition of mente's developer to the team, we achieved remarkable success. The team exhibited excellent cohesion and spirit, which significantly contributed to the success of our project.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

180heartbeats + Jung von. Matt is a creative agency, which specializes in advertising, marketing, organizing events and developing technological solutions. I'm Tech Project Manager

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Creating the web application for tablet, which will be integrated with Midjourney technology and will be used during the event. The event was organized for a client selling heaters for tobacco. The app during the event had a goal to attract potential customers to client's stand.

SOLUTION

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

The company was recommended to us through our professional network, as well as we've read the positive reviews about the cooperation with Mente.

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

Working on Front-end and Back-end to create a web application for tablet, which will be connected to Discord Midjourney bot to generate images based on user's choices in the app. After the image is generated, it is sent to a specific Google Drive folder, as well as to user's phone number as a personalized link.

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

We worked closely with Lead Backend Developer and Mente Co-Founder, and a Frontend Developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application was successfully used during several big events to attract users to our client's product

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

We were in contact through video calls, Slack conversations and emails. Mente specialists responded quickly and provided a lot of additional details to be able to improve the application.

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

Very quick reaction and great communication. We received a lot of support in this project from Mente. Specialists proactively shared their knowledge, opinion and insights.

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

Everything was great

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Product Management for the vene suite

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had problems growing our local team of developers in Berlin and were searching for an alternative tech team that gives the flexibility we need.

SOLUTION

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

We found them through a referral from our CTO who knew them for several years. The commitment they showed towards delivering towards tough dealine was the deciding factor to go with them

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

We designed a complete new performance marketing tracking tool with the help of the Mente team. We build a Google cloud based solution using Kubernetes and build a whole new frontend with vue.js. We added more and more features on monthly basis which meant increasing complexity over time.

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

There were a few core developers for frontend and backend and one project manager. We increased the team size to over 12 people over time

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We created a SaaS platform that was first used internally and then sold globally to over 50+ customers. We had a tight deadline one big features that needed to be delivered and with Mente we were able to serve both customers as well as internal requests.

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

The project management was very proactive and we could also find solutions in very intense moments. The mente team is very flexible and does everything they can do deliver towards preagreed deadlines.

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

I could always reach out to them and they were always helping instantly without delay. They treat projects as if they are their own, which is why they are not perceived as the external team.

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

Their work was great they were sometimes to humble to disagree on deadlines which also puts them in a difficult situation.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

MEG provides various digital advertising solutions to large clients across the world. A USP of our service is the usage of highly customized solutions for tracking and optimization of complex campaigns. Within MEG, I run the Commercial team, which is the sole client of Mente in this project.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed a partner for a long-term partnership to co-develop an existing platform into an ever more complex, yet highly modular system that is scalable and easy to maintain.

SOLUTION

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

We needed senior experts that can work under a high level of uncertainty and within a quickly evolving eco-system. People that always stay calm and pragmatic; and who help us define what we actually need.

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

Mente helped us to build a customizable software system for campaign tracking and on-the-fly optimization that, over time, grew to contain fraud management and social media/influencer management as well. The project has not ended yet and is constantly evolving.

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

MEG provided multiple touchpoints, mainly the CTO and the Head of Projects. Further input came from me (Commerical Director) and other team members as needed, such as BI and Finance. Main contact at Mente was Robert Bochenski, joined by whoever was important to the task at hand.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is still ongoing; as Mente provides as steady stream of desired improvements and custom solutions requested by MEG clients. It is thanks to Mente, that we have the ability to react so fast and provide such customized solutions.

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

Over time, we developed a very close relationship; managed by regular video sand-ups, messaging and face2face visits (MEG sits in Berlin).

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

Mente continues to satisfy with their ability to find pragmatic, yet solid and forward-thinking solutions to even the vaguest of requests. Their ability to think with the client is unmatched.

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

nothing, we are happy.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Between 2019 and 2020 I was working full time for the mother company freenet AG and sister company mobilcom-debitel GmbH, while still being employed for freenet digital GmbH. 

Mobilcom-debitel GmbH is a German MVNO with direct carrier billing functionality, which was the focus of the cooperation with Mente. Freenet digital GmbH developed various software products that covered a wide range of complicated functions (such as order flows, fraud protection mechanisms, data analysis)

My function was the communication between the technology and business sides, translating business needs into tech requirements and communication with the tech team to find the best solution.

Mente has continued cooperating with mobilcom-debitel successfully, long after I moved to my current employer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Mente?

After successful cooperation between Mente's forerunner company and freenet digital GmbH, Mente was hired by mobilcom-debitel in 2019 to develop and maintain their external DCB redirect page as well as implementing the Vene Overwatch tool as a fraud protection tool for mobilcom-debitel. Mente extended the existing development team with new, unique competencies.

SOLUTION

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

Some professional connections recommended Mente and after the first project it was no question that they would be an indispensable part of our Tech/Development team. This was because of their professionalism, fast pace of work, the open-minded thinking and solution-oriented kind of working, as well as the overall great teamwork. Hence the cooperation was extended.

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

Mente's tasks covered deep business analysis of the company needs and technological situation, implementing external Overwatch API accordingly, testing functionalities, rollout and maintenance. The technologies used included PHP and Symfony, among others.

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

I worked with 5 different people from Mente. They were developers, technical architects and a Scrum Master.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The outcome of Mente's engagement with mobilcom-debitel was the company's being able to fulfill the new compliance requirements in time and keep on running the business.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Having Mente on board increased the efficiency of the whole team due to their professional work ethics, different solution approaches, creative thinking. Mente adapts to our existing procedures, but they will always try to find the best and fastest way to deliver.

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

They are so much focused on doing a great work, to realize any request in the best, most efficient and fastest way, while being such great team players, and always being responsive.

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

Actually... no :). I know there is always room for improvement but I cannot name what this would be for Mente.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO at Next Technology Professionals - Warsaw-based company specialized in outsourcing and IT recruitment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Mente?

Our team has always strived to still more successfully connect the candidates with the most suitable employers and to build professional teams for our clients. Therefore, we decided to get a deeper insight into the importance of technology expertise development for both software engineers as individual professionals and for the whole teams that provide software development services.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?1

We checked out several companies that our professional connections had recommended. We chose mente because of the extensive technology stack that their team members use daily and their focus on solving problems with the best combination of technologies.

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

"During several online workshops with the mente team we discussed among others:

1. how software specialists of different experience level perceive technology expertise and how the employers can genuinely help them grow it
2. how certain technologies are used to solve some typical and unusual business challenges and why
3. What makes or breaks a software team in terms of technology expertise match.

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

We first worked closely with the company leaders with the most experience (over 20 years) and technology expertise to decide on the workflow, and then with several senior and junior specialists from the mente team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The workshops quickly brought about new ideas that can give us a new edge in the recruitment and team-building processes. Our team has gained the valuable and practical insight that we needed and which will help us better match the specialists with employers and build easier, faster most successful teams to order.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The cooperation was very well organized, smooth and has quickly established mutual understanding.

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

The mente team has a unique ability to see through different technologies and rapidly realize how they can be best put to use while solving their clients' problems. Mente loved familiarizing new technologies. They were eager to discover out-of-the-box ways to address challenges.

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

The project results have exceeded our expectations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of adstrong

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

adstrong is a market leading ad-tech company in providing Google CSS solutions to digital marketing agencies, shops and Amazon/eBay sellers

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Mente to accomplish?

• The goal was to build an internal administration interface for our account managers

SOLUTION

How did you find Mente?

Referral

Why did you select Mente over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned
• Ongoing project support

How many teammates from Mente were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

adstrong was looking for expert senior frontend developer that build modern and state of the art user interfaces

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Agile software development using Kanban method. All deliverables were concluded in timely manner

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

A team between adstrong and Mente developers was formed. Seniority of whole team ensured minimal project management overhead. Product owner ensured that all user stories were complete and ready for development. Communication happened in development team only

What was your primary form of communication with Mente?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Mente understands our needs and the technical details of adstrong's project and industry. This enabled us to ramp up the project in record time. Overall alignment outside development team was not neccessary

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

There is nothing to say.