Potional - Out of Business

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company in the scooter sharing business. We have a fleet of over 200 vehicles that are rented via a mobile application.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Potional?

We were looking to build a modern mobile app with a backend system that met our requirements. Previously, we’d been working on two other scooter-related systems, but we faced limitations on both of them. This led to our cooperation with Potional.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Potional has written our scooter-sharing application from scratch. After signing the contract, they worked with process modeling and created the code for the mobile app and backend system. It was a mix of IT consulting and development. They are still fixing bugs and correcting issues on the site.

What is the team composition?

The team consisted of 5–10 people.

How did you come to work with Potional?

We are located in the same startup incubator, which is how we met. After meeting, we determined their capabilities to get involved with our project.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $50,000– $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The initial discussions began in late 2018. The contract began at the end of August 2019. The work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of the system is far better than anything we were using previously. We have released the mobile app and the business operates on the new system. We’ve gotten similarly positive feedback from our customers. It was comfortable to cooperate with a team that consisted of IT developers, business managers, and developers. They present additional results on a weekly basis.

How did Potional perform from a project management standpoint?

We started with the process flow charts to map out what we wanted to achieve. There was one person designated for contact with us. If there are situations where we need to contact a specific developer, they give us that opportunity. There were regular reports on the process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very flexible with time timeframes. We had to have our MVP prepared in two months, and they were able to turn that around.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind at the moment.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The quick turnaround is a strength, but it needs to be backed up by analysis. You should go into the project with the proper planning and analysis to ensure they work quickly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO at AstroMedia, an affiliate marketing platform where we combine marketing techniques, ad trafficking, and performance marketing. The latter is the main scope of our business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Potional?

We were looking for a software house that could create our whole platform from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We came up with the idea of our affiliate marketing web application to represent a whole new product in the sector. We really required Potional's technical knowledge. They were fully responsible for the whole software development and project management, developing the back office, designing the UX/UI from scratch, and creating wireframes, several mock-ups, and clickable prototypes. They also implemented everything.  

The solutions itself is a very comprehensive ad-tracking module. It has a lot of features related to affiliate marketing such as real-time dashboards that display data we are able to categorize to showcase certain campaigns or partners. It utilizes technologies including Node.js, Vue.js, and Elixir, which they said was the most important. Additionally, Potional used Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, Kafka, and Redis. 

It’s still under development; however, it is in a staging environment right now, so we are able to present screens.

What is the team composition?

We had three full-time developers, and one was a project manager who monitors and tracks every single task in the project.

How did you come to work with Potional?

I knew a backend programmer at Potional and was trying to research ideas about what such a development would look like. We organized a meeting with the team and discussed the general footprint of the whole project. I was very pleased with this meeting and decided they were a good team to go with.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent approximately $100,000 USD so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in January 2017, and the work is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It hasn’t been released to the public yet, but it is very close to being finished. From the small sample we have seen, the functionalities work well. The feedback from our employees has been positive, as there haven’t been many major bugs. We haven’t had any serious problems.

How did Potional perform from a project management standpoint?

It has been really good. They helped us a lot in terms of laying down the whole scope of the project and developing the blueprints.

I get updates constantly, and communication has been really good. We normally communicate through phone calls, but we also have meetings on a regular basis where I talk with the project manager and development team. We come up with functionalities together.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve really found mutual ground here.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve been very pleased with the whole engagement in general. Perhaps, they could improve the speed of deployment of several functionalities.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask as many questions as possible because it’s helpful. They’re always willing to answer them. Whenever you have a technical or, even, a business question, they are really helpful and will try to come up with ideas and address issues as best they can.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Collect. We develop food and drink ordering mobile applications for customers to order from restaurants and cafes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Potional?

I started as the main developer and couldn’t meet the demand of the project. I decided to find a software house to help me develop an Android version and help with server-side development and optimization.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Potional is responsible for all development work on my apps. At the start, I created the iOS app for restaurants and based on that, they created the Android version of it and of the customer-facing app. I provided all designs and technical specs and they created the backend server from scratch and designed it. Since then, they took over iOS development as well.

The client-facing app provides customers a menu with product details and prices. The restaurant app enables restaurant staff to see incoming orders through a tablet. We had a pilot implementation last year, but it was a really early version of both products. The official launch with six customers was in June 2019. We continue working on the development and making updates.

What is the team composition?

They assigned at least four or five full-time people for Android, iOS, and backend development, but there are additional resources as needed. There’s a project manager as well.

How did you come to work with Potional?

They were recommended to me by a friend. We had a call to discuss their skills and our project needs. Since I’m also a developer, I was able to judge for myself if they knew what they were talking about. We started with a small project with one or two functionalities and it worked out great, so we’ve been working together ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$100,000 on their work so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2018 until the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The apps are live and in the App Store and Google Play Store, and everything is working well. We don’t have any major complaints when it comes to the functionality of the code. It doesn’t crash and there weren’t any critical bugs or errors during development. The apps work as intended.

How did Potional perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re by far the best ones compared to other software houses I’ve worked with. We established early on that communicating with the development team directly was best. Potional’s project manager is always up to date on everything going on and we communicate via Slack and Jira. I’m very pleased with the overall performance.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Potional is very flexible and easy to work with. The product was refined during the development and they were really helpful with providing technology, functionality, and implementation suggestions. I was accustomed to having to think of everything myself and they really stepped up and delivered great advice.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could do a little testing to find minor bugs before handing me the functionality.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients should clearly explain what they want to achieve. Let Potional help you with all the technical difficulties and solutions. I made the mistake of being too stubborn with things that I came up with, and they knew what was better.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project manager at a small digital company; I handle the marketing division.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Potional?

We had a PrestaShop CMS, but it didn’t fulfill our needs. We wanted a new custom solution to replace that system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Potional met our team to understand the business needs, our aesthetic, and our clients. They then developed an e-commerce site with Spring and Node.js based on our wireframes; the team used Vue.js for the frontend and PostgreSQL for the database. The single page application (SPA) product can server-side render our product pages, as well as all pages that are visible for Google and Redux.

What is the team composition?

We interacted with two frontend developers, one backend developer, and one product manager.

How did you come to work with Potional?

Our CEO knew a backend programmer at Potional and got a referral. They weren’t our only option, but we looked at their projects and liked their designs.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $11,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2018 and the partnership ended in March 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The fully-responsive CMS made our shop faster and more navigable on mobile devices. Mobile traffic represented 80% of total traffic and our conversion rate doubled. We’re now ahead of our competition.

How did Potional perform from a project management standpoint?

The team’s project management was awesome and I’m glad we chose them. I had the option to change resources, but was always happy with the team in place. We worked in agile and communicated every two days via Slack and Trello.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Potional workings with cutting-edge technologies and explains the benefits of each in accessible terms.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches and technologies.