SoftProdukt

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of ioAudio, which is a B2B SaaS platform in the text-to-speech space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftProdukt?

We were working with a couple of freelancers and it lacked a bit of structure. I was managing the whole engineering process and we didn’t have a project manager, business analyst, or junior to senior developers. I reached out to SoftProdukt to help with this specific challenge.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SoftProdukt did a couple of things for us, one of which is a backend user console. This is an administrator-facing tool where we could manually edit thousands of documents and feed them into the AI and machine learning models. This is a Django Project that required an Apache web server, with the whole thing on AWS.

We’re currently making adjustments and adding on to the console. We’ve started to use it and put it through production. SoftProdukt has also taken over portions of the frontend development for our customer-facing web app. 

What is the team composition?

We kicked it off with David (Account Manager), who introduced us to the whole team at SoftProdukt. We interfaced with Chris (CEO), the project manager, and a couple of developers. 

How did you come to work with SoftProdukt?

I connected with David through LinkedIn. He represents all the business and development sales efforts at SoftProdukt. The experience was fantastic, especially for a non-technical person; they immediately put my mind at ease when it came to the implementation of the right processes. They were also really empathetic to our current situation and made sure that the manner in which everything would be organized was communicated clearly. 

Another factor that made us decide to work with them was their understanding of our strict contract process. We have a lot of requirements since we’re working on fundraisers and private equity, but SoftProdukt accommodated everything. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $20,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in April 2021 and it is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re still in the middle of development so we can’t yet provide any success metrics, but I will say that SoftProdukt has completed tasks on time and within budget. They’ve been super flexible in terms of working additional hours or reprioritizing tasks. The team has met all of our expectations and their involvement has made it easier for us to plan from a business perspective. 

The team has also demonstrated their technical competence; all of the deliverables work and users have had zero complaints. There have been a couple of bugs here and there, but that’s normal. 

How did SoftProdukt perform from a project management standpoint?

In terms of project management, we don’t have to worry about too much since the project manager communicates everything to the developers. We do have direct communication with those developers as well, so it’s easy to reach out through Slack if we need to have something clarified. They have a good company structure in place. They document everything on Google Drive, which helps us see exactly where we are at in terms of progress. 

Everybody from the team is always available, which is pretty amazing for an overseas company. David, in particular, has really stayed through the entire relationship. He didn’t fade into the background once he secured the deal; he has remained highly involved, making sure that the project is running smoothly and that communication between us and the team is clear. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

SoftProdukt is very trustworthy and technically competent. Working with them gives us peace of mind. They communicate constantly with us to confirm if they’ve met our expectations on documentation and invoicing. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Keep an open mind and trust SoftProdukt because they’re great. Whether you want to be involved in the development or prefer to have a hands-off approach, they can definitely do either and will probably exceed your expectations. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder and CEO of a data analytics company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftProdukt?

We were using a variety of developers based on the different expertise and it was problematic in multiple ways. The experts we hired weren't experts and it was difficult for them to communicate with each other and pull complete projects together. We didn't have a team that could do everything.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SoftProdukt was able to bring us true expertise in a number of fairly technical areas that we were working on that others couldn't address. It's pretty broad ranging, but they've done everything from pretty application specific analytics, to wide-ranging applications in the way users interact with it. It ranges from UI to technical details of working with data. We hired them specifically to code in a Django framework with Python.

What is the team composition?

It varies, but it's as many as five people at any given time. They’re primarily developers.

How did you come to work with SoftProdukt?

I had another developer that was doing Python code for us before that wasn't working out, and I started looking elsewhere. I found them on Clutch, through another vendor who said our project was too small for them. Their sales representative connected us with SoftProdukt and we decided to work together from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in June 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Compared to other developers that we've used, they can address and close issues at 5-10 times the speed of other developers we were working with. They're a very capable team.

How did SoftProdukt perform from a project management standpoint?

We do everything from managing the tasks to the code releases through GitLab. We're small so it's mostly me working with their software developers directly in terms of project management. During projects, we communicate as needed. If there's something that we need calls or meetings, we'll do that. Typically, it's only at the beginning of a project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their capabilities and skills are very good. What we're developing is a very unique application, so one of the problems we've had is other developers couldn’t get their heads around what we were trying to do. Having them understand it at the application level, just makes a world of difference in terms of getting from a starting point to a finishing point in a reasonable amount of time. They've been very responsive as well. Overall, there are a number of things that make me feel very good about working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. There's one staff member I wish they could clone and have more of him, but otherwise no.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It all starts with a good stack and making sure the developer understands the stack. That's something that we've managed to do somehow, and I don't know if it's because of their skills or our chemistry. If you can get that right, everything else gets a lot easier.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO with IQ3R Education Technologies, an education startup based in the Silicon Valley.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SoftProdukt?

We needed an online platform to study the problems associated with online learning.

I developed the core technology in 2015, and it was largely just a video conferencing launch platform. I asked SoftProdukt to help connect our system.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When I came to them, I had about half of my MVP completed. The most challenging aspect of the project was to make two websites look like one. The first was a learning management system, on WordPress, that was already prefabbed. The second was my own development work that was all in Django. We needed to put those two pieces together using a single sign on software.

They also built a calendar tool and a meeting launch functionality. We connected all of these backend components with our video conference tool’s API.

What is the team composition?

There were about 4-5 people on their end. Chris (CEO & Co-Founder, SoftProdukt) is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with SoftProdukt?

I have a business development person and he had connections with their company. What really sold me on them is that they were able to work with the original code I provided, and didn’t need to start from scratch; it showed they were seasoned engineers, who knew there was value in what we provided.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested about $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?           

We began working together in April 2019 and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve gotten estimates from other developers in the Silicon Valley, who offered to build something like this from scratch. According to those quotes, this website is worth $100,000, and we were able to complete it for $30,000 – $40,000 in total.

One of the biggest plusses was that they weren’t promising me something they couldn’t deliver on; they know what they can do and they can get it done in the time they say they will. That also translates into an accurate estimate of how much everything costs too.

How did SoftProdukt perform from a project management standpoint?
They’re outstanding in terms of project management. When I was taking this project to other developers, they just wanted to scrap it and start from the ground up; SoftProdukt was unique because they were willing to build on my code.

From a project management standpoint, it was great because I didn’t have to do any managing. I just told them what needed to be done and they took care of it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very personable. They’re probably the best programmers we can get for our budget. Their speed is very impressive as well; they can get the job done in weeks, not months.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’d like a higher bandwidth for their videoconferencing services, if possible.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I got the most value from them by knowing exactly what I wanted and speaking with them on their terms.