Red Squirrel Technologies

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Above Lending

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Above Lending provides debt consolidation loans for customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Red Squirrel Technologies to accomplish?

Migrate application from Node to Rails

SOLUTION

How did you find Red Squirrel Technologies?

Referral

Why did you select Red Squirrel Technologies over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Red Squirrel Technologies were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Above's underwriting platform has been powered by a NodeJS app written several years ago as an MVP with poor documentation and observability. Red Squirrel joined our team in a staff augmentation role to help migrate this application to the company's standard tech stack and improve its observability, performance, and maintainability. 

This included migrating the business logic and objects that powered 50+ API endpoints while keeping both systems running to confirm the migration was done with no deviation in outcome.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Each endpoint in the new application is run in parallel with the old application to confirm that the behaviors and outputs match - the more endpoints through the application process that return matching results, the more progress has been made.

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

Items were delivered on time with extremely effective communication. A great blend of "here's what's been happening that isn't urgent but you should know about" and "hey, we see this thing, you should know about this now, or help me know why it's not as big of a deal as it might seem." Extremely focused on meeting the immediate needs but always referring back to meta/over-arching issues that might impact delivery in the long term.

What was your primary form of communication with Red Squirrel Technologies?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We were impressed with their commitment to building strong company behaviors while embedding with other organizations. There's one thing to be a hired gun, "just here to do my job," etc. But the Red Squirrel team is committed to working with organizations to facilitate strong communication and support, which will have long-term payoffs for team performance. They definitely feel like an extension of our team!

Are there any areas for improvement or something Red Squirrel Technologies could have done differently?

None!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I was the VP Engineering of Legacy.com

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Legacy’s media technology brands — iPublish Media Solutions, Memoriams and Legacy.com — drive millions in self-service advertising and digital revenue for local news companies while building audience engagement; our obituary content systems and order intake platforms are trusted by eight out of every 10 publishers to serve thousands of daily clients and reach millions of consumers every month.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Red Squirrel Technologies to accomplish?

Modernize and improve data processing pipelines.

SOLUTION

How did you find Red Squirrel Technologies?

Used Before

Why did you select Red Squirrel Technologies over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Red Squirrel Technologies were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We asked Red Squirrel to jump on board and help modernize an older .NET data processing system into something more scalable and written in Python. Additionally, we asked if Red Squirrel could help us with some front end development that was also in need of some TLC.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to create two upgraded and modernized systems that improved efficiency but also had lower maintenance costs.

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

Red Squirrel Technologies was always on the ball when it came to engagement and deliverables. Response time was immediate.

What was your primary form of communication with Red Squirrel Technologies?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Red Squirrel Technologies is the rare company that has great culture, values, and people. This starts with Dave, but is exemplified with ever Red Squirrel employee.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Red Squirrel Technologies could have done differently?

There was nothing they needed to improve on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of a consumer products & services company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We make best-in-class civic tools affordable and accessible to leaders at all levels who want to drive change in their communities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Red Squirrel Technologies to accomplish?

• Assist front end team to develop and deploy features faster and more reliably

SOLUTION

How did you find Red Squirrel Technologies?

Referral

Why did you select Red Squirrel Technologies over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Red Squirrel Technologies were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We had two Red Squirrel engineers come into an existing application team to help out with feature development and testing

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• We were looking to speed up velocity for feature development and deployment

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

They definitely helped us get more features over the line by augmenting our existing staff dedicated to feature development. They folded into the team sprint process and hit the ground running.

What was your primary form of communication with Red Squirrel Technologies?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They were able to very easily fit into out existing sprint process and worked together to onboard to the application. During our check ins, they gave us practical advice on ways we could improve our process and provided insights into how the team was operating on a day to day. Working with them was incredibly easy.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Red Squirrel Technologies could have done differently?

I think we got exactly what we needed during the engagement

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP, Engineering of an ecommerce company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide personalized auto insurance based on your driving habits, so safe drivers pay less.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Red Squirrel Technologies to accomplish?

• Level up our engineering team
• Build new features across several different product lines

SOLUTION

How did you find Red Squirrel Technologies?

• Referral

Why did you select Red Squirrel Technologies over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from Red Squirrel Technologies were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We engaged Red Squirrel to embed with our Claims & Compliance teams, both to help us keep up with the demand for new features as well as to help train & guide our teams as experienced, senior engineers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measured the velocity of our engineering teams closely – the impact of Red Squirrel was noticeable almost immediately. I typically expect new hires to take 2-3 months before they get up to speed, but our Squirrels were improving our throughput within just a couple of weeks from the start of the engagement.

Furthermore, we consistently received glowing peer reviews of their work from the FTEs who worked with them. The tone & quality of our retrospective conversations within these two teams improved immensely

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

I love working with people who can take full ownership of tasks, almost allowing me to forget I assigned it to them in the first place. The entire Red Squirrel team embodied this. Work items were completed on time or we were proactively notified when something was wrong. Furthermore, the Red Squirrel contractors were perfectly willing to adopt our project management processes, making it seamless to manage their work like any other FTE on the team.

What was your primary form of communication with Red Squirrel Technologies?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I've worked with a number of different contracting companies. Usually I get a "one size fits all" approach where I have to babysit our contractors and ensure they are working on what we expect, how we expect. Red Squirrel was a breeze by comparison - they did upfront interviews to find out how we worked and then made it a point to seamlessly integrate with that. They made my life easy, something that rarely happened as a busy executive who was overseeing many different projects in parallel

Are there any areas for improvement or something Red Squirrel Technologies could have done differently?

Not on this engagement. On other engagements, we had contractors who were not direct employees of Red Squirrel but who RS had helped locate & place (because their skill set was beyond what RS typically provided). Our experience with these folks was a little more mixed, but Red Squirrel was very clear with us that they could not take the same level of responsibility & oversight as they do for their own full-time Squirrels.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive at Performance Health Partners

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Performance Health Partners (PHP) provides tech-enabled solutions for patient safety, performance improvement, and quality monitoring.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Red Squirrel Technologies to accomplish?

• Build a modern, HIPAA-compliant web application
• Thorough requirements gathering
• The delivery of an MVP
• Incorporating UI/UX design from a third-party firm

SOLUTION

How did you find Red Squirrel Technologies?

Referral

Why did you select Red Squirrel Technologies over others?

Other

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

We started with high-level definition of what we wanted to achieve, and then moved immediately to spending a few months breaking down the work into milestones, epics, and stories. Due to the nature of the customer data involved, there was also a large infrastructure, security, and compliance aspect to the project’s planning and execution. Additionally, the integration of a third-party business intelligence and analytics tool was included in the scope of work. The core technology is Ruby on Rails and React.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• delivered an MVP that we could use with our clients and that met the project requirements

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

We communicated through regular email, Slack, and video calls. Communication was always timely. Much of the project’s management was done in our dev ticketing software. We started with high-level definition of what we wanted to achieve, and then moved immediately to spending a few months breaking down the work into milestones, epics, and stories.

Due to the nature of the customer data involved, there was also a large infrastructure, security, and compliance aspect to the project’s planning and execution. Additionally, the integration of a third-party business intelligence and analytics tool was included in the scope of work. The core technology is Ruby on Rails and React.

What was your primary form of communication with Red Squirrel Technologies?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The professionalism, technical skills, and friendliness of Dave and the “Squirrels” is unmatched. They always felt cohesive, even though there were several other vendors and contractors we worked with along the way. Dave and his team earned our trust and we shared success with this project.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Red Squirrel Technologies could have done differently?

None. We highly recommend Red Squirrel Technologies.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-Founder of Blockade Games

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Blockade Games made free-to-play videogames with underlying blockchain technology for players to earn NFTs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Red Squirrel Technologies to accomplish?

• Write smart contracts
• Evaluate technical feasibility of projects

SOLUTION

How did you find Red Squirrel Technologies?

Friend

Why did you select Red Squirrel Technologies over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Red Squirrel Technologies were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Red Squirrel Technologies designed, wrote, and deployed proto-NFT and early NFT contracts that included first-of-their-kind features on Ethereum. Two notable contracts include: 

• A trophy contract that included marketplace mechanics to allow players to buy, sell, and trade their trophies 
• A composable bear contract that allowed players to combine parts to craft a bear on a sidechain

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All contracts were deployed to their respective networks, used by thousands of people, and never exploited.

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

They always delivered on time with a very high bar of quality. Communication was excellent.

What was your primary form of communication with Red Squirrel Technologies?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Offering knowledge, development, and insight that was very rare to find in 2018. Delivered top-tier code with tests, on time, and to specification.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Red Squirrel Technologies could have done differently?

Nope