Saeloun

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the co-founder and CEO of Circle.so -- the modern community platform for creators.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Saeloun?

We hired Saeloun for general full-stack development on our app.

What were your goals for this project?

- Add our first external Rails engineer to the team - Build critical features within the product (SSO, custom domains, moderation, etc) - Ship under tight scoping and timelines

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I'd worked with Saeloun's CEO on a previous project for almost a year, and I trusted his competency and instinct.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Puneet from Saeloun started working w/ us under fairly short notice, and jumped right into development. A lot of the bigger features within our product have been tackled by him, as well as a ton of code refactoring and stability recommendations.

What was the team composition?

We've so far only worked with one engineer, but we'd love to add more over time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can't overstate the impact Saelon has had to my business. Not only do they deliver quality features that are well-scoped and in time, but even more than that -- the value they bring is the equivalent of a top quality CTO or lead engineer. The technical recommendations and their level of care for their craft are outstanding.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was done in Notion -- on a kanban board w/ weekly updates. It's been fairly smooth and straight forward.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I find that it's hard to work with engineers who understand and can weigh balance and trade-offs with quality, scope, and timelines. My experience with Saeloun has been unparalleled to any other engineer(s) I've worked with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't see the need for any improvements right now.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a cloud-native enterprise software solution that builds sales automation tools in the life insurance industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Saeloun?

We needed to build our MVP to run a series of pilots with early partners in our close data. We did this within the innovation accelerator of a Fortune 250 company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Saeloun installed a team member into our team but he worked remotely. We had a week trial period for him to get familiar with our codebase. Then, he took on smaller projects that were less mission-critical. He then scaled into owning a section of our development pipeline to create our MVP, which is a platform for the collection of information to quote a life insurance policy. The teammate used ReactJS and AngularJS.

What is the team composition?

We worked with just one member of their team.

How did you come to work with Saeloun?

We connected with another startup that engaged Saeloun for their development services. Their team was recommended strongly. We reviewed many candidates and Saeloun stood out.

How much have you invested with them?

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

What is the status of this engagement?

We collaborated between June–December 2019. We plan on scaling with Saeloun as our company grows.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their team member did an excellent job. The teammate took great ownership of his product. He was always willing to go the extra mile when needed, pitching in when we needed to review other team member’s code. He had great attention to detail.

How did Saeloun perform from a project management standpoint?

On a scale of 1–10 with 10 being the best, he was a nine. His project management was excellent. He was a responsive and engaged team member.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have great familiarity working with early-stage companies. Their team offers unique flexibility and an understanding of the challenges that new businesses face.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would encourage them to work with Saeloun but be aware that their team’s remote. The schedule can be wonky because their team members work while you sleep. Make sure to establish effective communication.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO at a Healthcare IT company headquartered in Boston. ACT.md offers the full suite – technology, tools, and services to help your community integrate health and social care to address the social determinants of health.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Saeloun?

Members from Saeloun have been working along side the in-house engineering team on our care coordination and referrals platform that is the core to our business. They have augmented our team with their knowledge and expertise to help us achieve our development goals.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had previous experience working with members of the team in a prior engagement. Based on their stellar work in that context, we began our engagement in the current capacity.

Describe the project in detail.

We have an ongoing relationship with Saeloun to work with our engineering team on our core application.

The goals are the same as those of the rest of the engineering team: to plan and implement the prioritized features that meet the use cases and business objectives set forth by the various stakeholders.

In addition, they have been core members of the team, and have shared their knowledge, insight, and perspectives thereby providing critical input and guidance to help us achieve our goals.

What was the team composition?

Initially we worked with 1 engineer but have since expanded this based on their excellent work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The engineering team (both in-house engineers and those from Saeloun) have been hitting our development goals and milestones.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

With daily standup meetings, periodic project specific checkins, various scrum ceremonies, and the use of messaging tools (Slack, Zoom, etc), members of the Saeloun team are very well integrated into our engineering process and the transitions between our team and theirs are as seamless as can be with the time difference.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The members of Saeloun who we've worked with have outstanding development skills and knowledge and are always ready to contribute.

They pride themselves in keeping up to date with technological changes and are always willing to provide insights and guidance as part of their work both from how the features are developed and for process and tool improvements to ease and simplify the development process.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Saeloun has been an outstanding partner and I have no concerns working with them and value their presence alongside our team.