Spiral Scout

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Snapwire is a platform that connects the new generation of photographers with businesses and brands around the world. We give photo buyers the ability to post a photo brief at a price that they can afford. These creative briefs are called requests on our platform. Over 300,000 photographers in 180 countries respond in real-time with their best shots. Buyers get unique photos that match their vision and earn up to 70% when the buyer chooses their photo.

There’s some gamification involved with the company, as we have points and a leveling system. It has an iOS, Android, and web app. All photos that are submitted have a chance to earn a spot in our growing stock photo library. I am the CEO and co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spiral Scout?

The business challenge for us at the time was to replace our in-house dev team. Our internal dev team became unavailable and we had to lay them off. We were looking to move quickly and we needed to find somebody who could quickly understand the space that we operate in.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s quite extensive. Spiral Scout didn’t develop something from scratch, they just came in to do a triage. We had an initial dev team that built the foundation of the product, so they came in with an existing product. Spiral Scout came in to support and stabilize the existing codebase and platforms. They did so with success. Now they’re involved with re-architecting the existing codebase to support the company’s growth. Their involvement fluxes and changes depending on a sprint. We practice an Agile Scrum workflow development process with them, running in 2-week sprints. Right now, I believe the team is anywhere from 4 to 5 individuals. 

How did you come to work with Spiral Scout?

Spiral Scout and I have worked in the past on other projects. They had built platforms that are comparable or complementary to ours.

How much have you invested with Spiral Scout?

We’ve paid $50,000 to $100,000 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Spiral Scout in April 2016. Our engagement is ongoing and it will certainly be long-term. We hope to be business partners with them in the future for another development and other projects that we’re building.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I suppose I am the Scrum master and the project manager on the product, so I can say with certainty that they have been meeting their targets, deadlines, and goals. They meet our deadlines, needs, and objectives on time. They’ve successfully launched several major features for us. As you probably have heard from other interviews, the development product management workflow is an ongoing iterative cycle. There are milestones and accomplishments every day. Every time they push deployment code to the protection environment, we do micro celebrations.

We get accolades and compliments on our product and the platforms that we’ve built with Spiral Scout. However, the customer-interfacing comments that we receive are about our product and are not directly related to their work. Other than our internalization of how they’ve helped us achieve those goals, we don’t have feedback that directly reflects on Spiral Scout.

How did Spiral Scout perform from a project management standpoint?

We do a Scrum meeting every other week and a sprint planning meeting. The communication with them is exceptional. They’ve very attentive. Initially, we didn’t have a project manager from Spiral Scout. Since we’ve added that headcount to our team, everything has greatly improved. Things like communication, workflows, and the ability for us to measure cadence in speed and velocity in our development cycles. We can clearly see where they are in the development cycles. That’s very helpful for me as the administrator and the project lead.

From a financial modeling forecast, they’ve worked with us on sprint pricing. A lot of companies want to have a fixed price or a fixed budget for pricing, or sprint planning and sprint development. It’s nice that they do that. It’s not just an hourly rate and giving us sprint pricing is a more integrated approach. In some ways, it’s a fixed cost, but they are flexible and can do hourly as well.

What did you find most impressive about Spiral Scout?

Out of every developer I’ve worked with, the Spiral Scout team is probably the most skilled. For an offshore company—partly as they also have an office in San Francisco—their team is highly skilled. I appreciate their ability to work with a company given our budget constraints. At the same time, they still do a high-quality job.

Given our growth constraints, I’m impressed by their flexibility since our company doesn’t always have funding cycles. They’ve been flexible with payment terms and other things like that. They have been a really good choice.

Are there any areas Spiral Scout could improve?

The relationship is relatively early and we haven’t been working with them for years. Of course, we would love to have more developers assigned to our project. Any new development team coming into an existing codebase has to learn the existing codebase—it can take up to 3, 4 or 6 months  to really master the codebase—and we’ve just arrived at that since we’ve started working with them. There really isn’t a fix for that other than just digging in and having more individuals work on the platform. Then again, that’s constrained by my budget, so they can only afford to send so many people. I really don’t have anything negative to say about Spiral Scout at the moment. What I just mentioned is a reflection of our own limitations, not theirs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our app is a mobile and digital content platform. We discover and curate secret menu items from restaurants, bars, and cafes across North America. We have over 100 cities with over 2,000 restaurants on the app. We eat at restaurants and find a few secret menu items. These are very Instagram-able things like big hamburgers and triple chocolatey milkshakes with donuts sticking out of them. 

I’m the director of operations and mobile development. My role was to build out the new app for our team. We probably use 15 to 20 different types of contractors and vendors, Spiral Scout being one of them. I also help develop the app by collecting ideas from our team, advisers, and investors. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spiral Scout?

We were using an app builder that was kind of DIY, called DWNLD. It's perfect for bloggers and has 6 templates that you can use. You can populate content and pictures but it didn't have the functionality that we needed.

The main problem was that we did not have our own proprietary environment for database and analytics. We also weren't able to control the content of the layout. Branding was available, but only in the templates that they had at the time. I couldn't extract reports or really build out the content in the way we wanted to.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spiral Scout was our full-stack developer. They helped out with analytics and with building out our platform. They also did everything in terms of design. I would help spec it out and tell them my proposed layout, then they would build out the panels. 

Spiral Scout was also responsible for everything in the back-end. They handled all our connectivity issues, database, storage, hosting, servers, security, design, and functionality. They also made sure that we're in the cloud. If we had any issue, whether it was a bug or a feature, I'd take a screenshot or spec it out in Visio and send it to them. We'd go back and forth using Redmine, our ticketing system. We also used Amazon and Google Cloud.

We're at a really good milestone right now. In the last 2 1/2 months, we've only had to write out one more iteration because we wanted to add videos. We're going to add a few more features over the next 6 months. We work with a few celebrities and when one of them does a Snapchat or an Instagram, we get a surge of downloads. We've just graduated to the cloud servers and we did a lot of stress testing on the load. Right now, it's really stable. They're probably going to do about 5 more big changes to this version of the app, which is great.

How did you come to work with Spiral Scout?

My role was to find a full-stack mobile developer and I didn't want to use local vendors. I looked at 6 different developers and sent them our spec. 

As a start-up, we have a team of advisers who guide us and take equity as their consulting fee. One of our advisers highly recommended Spiral Scout and said a few people had worked with them successfully. 

We went back and forth with them and they told us what they could do. They were very timely. Some of their demos showed they knew how to build a database and how to handle analytics. Spiral Scout really stood out and everything was just right. I knew they had the right skill and they were already familiar with our work. It was a pretty easy choice for us.

How much have you invested with Spiral Scout?

We’ve spent around $50,000 on their services and the technical infrastructure.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Spiral Scout in October 2015. The first launch date was July 21st, 2016. We're going to continue working with them. I like the ability that they have. They have about 12 people that we have access to when we need it. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our app is in a really good state because of the work from Spiral Scout. We didn't have to have the app ready until Fall, but we were ready in July. They said we'd have it by a certain date, so when they needed more resources, they put staff on our team in the last 2 weeks of the project.

We have 10 5-star ratings on the app store and some fairly positive feedback, so we've had fairly good responses for that. We haven't done much marketing and but the downloads have been nice and consistent. I think it's because of the simplicity of our app. Whenever we returned ideas, Spiral Scout would always keep the idea very simple.

How did Spiral Scout perform from a project management standpoint?

I was the project manager for our company and I collaborated with a project manager from Spiral Scout. The good thing about Spiral Scout from a project management standpoint was that their project manager was always available. They have one in Europe and one in San Francisco. 

Honestly, I had no issue at all with them. We had great communication, thanks to a really good ticketing system that recorded everything. That way, we wouldn't miss emails going back and forth. We would log everything with Redmine. When we started our development, there were 300 tickets about the different pieces that needed to be put together. Right now, I think we only have 15 and there's nothing pressing, nothing immediate.

There was no overstepping. It would all be in the ticketing system or if an email was required, I'd sent it to the project manager's and they took care of it. I would always get a very quick response, usually within a couple of minutes. If it was late in the day, it would be only a few hours. They also helped us save money and time by not including features that were technically difficult and a bit more expensive.

It's very tough for me, being an outsider, to go in and tell people how to do their job of finding bugs. Having that ticketing system was really helpful. There were no arguments or anything like that; they were able to solve problems really quickly. If we wanted to tweak a feature, we were able to do it. If we were swiping left and it was actually logical to swipe right, we were able to change that really quickly.

What did you find most impressive about Spiral Scout?

Spiral Scout was a one-stop solution for all our needs. One of the things that definitely stood out was the database sophistication; they built a database that our team can use. It has dropdowns, radio buttons, and tick boxes. The app also has autocompletes, for when you fill in things like a city name. When we needed to build out a database, they put resources there, and they had the people when we needed design. We had a great working relationship and I would recommend them if someone came to me.

Are there any areas Spiral Scout could improve?

I would say they need more bug testing. That would be it. My role was to test a lot of the bugs. Sometimes, I found things that were obvious, but that's one of the reasons why I’m testing. I've done this type of work for 8 years. When you’re building software or apps, there’s going to be things that don't work. There was no issue that went live; we cleaned everything up before that, which is good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

The company is called eLearning Brothers, and we're located just south of Salt Lake City, Utah. Our mission is to create e-learning awesomeness. We create digital assets and templates, so that people can build engaging, interactive and inspiring training courses.

What is your position?

I am one of the founders of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SpiralScout?

We needed a back-end system that we could add thousands and thousands of digital assets into as well as let customers go and browse through. We also wanted them to be able to purchase these assets, and then download them. We needed a way to manage all the customer names, a signup process, a way for us and our developers to upload thousands of assets.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Besides development on the back-end, they did some design, UI [user interface] and UX [user experience]. Mostly, it's the development side that we used from them. They do some front-end design for us, but it's all around that particular digital library system that they've built for us. We have done other custom projects with them for our customers. They've helped us build HTML5 games but, typically, we did the visuals on those.

How did you come to work with SpiralScout?

We didn't really go through a huge process to select them out of others. John [W. Griffin], their owner, owns a site called Cutcaster, which is a digital stock photograph kind of site. We had done some work together in the past and I just said, "Hey, who built your digital stock library? That's the kind of system I want." He said, "Oh, it was my other company." We just kind of ended up together, and it ended up being a really good relationship.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

For the digital library, all the upgrades, and all the stuff we've done with them on that particular project, we're probably $80,000 to $100,000 into it.

What is the status of this engagement?

We got started in 2012, and we are still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

SpiralScout is our key partner. We don't have any other partners that are as critical as they are to our business. In 2012 when we were talking to those guys, we were probably six employees, or something like that. We're at more than 50 now, and have consistently been one of the fastest-growing companies, and they've been a huge support.

For us, they're super responsive. JD is John's partner, and we deal with him probably the most because he's really the hands-on developer side. The guy responds to us at any time – day, night – it doesn't matter. He understands what we're doing so well. This sounds cliché, but half the time I will start a sentence, he finishes it and he's already said, "Yes, I already thought about that and I'm half way done with it." It's been fabulous.

What distinguishes SpiralScout from other providers?

They treat us just like we're their own company, and they're like owners of my company. SpiralScout been fabulous to work with, and the cost has been good for us. I have no complaints about the cost. I've had plenty of development companies come to us and try to get our business, but there's no way I'm leaving SpiralScout.

Is there anything SpiralScout could have improved or done differently?

Yes, and I've talked to John about this. As we've grown, they've grown also. We use them for many different things now, for many different projects at multiple times. Sometimes we have big projects that we want rolling out, and then other ones are just the spur of the moment, "Hey, this broke. We need this fixed. We have this new upgrade we want right now."

I would think as they continue to grow, the one piece they need to improve on would be project management. They're getting bigger, they can't have JD run everything. They need project managers in place that can really handle clients like us, who might have five, six, or 10 people trying to talk to him at one time, and multiple projects going on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company's name is framed and matted. We run a website that does online custom picture framing, and we're based in Oakland, California.

What is your position?

I am the cofounder and chief executive officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Spiral Scout?

We needed them to build a website for us from the ground up.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We had no technical experience, so everything that goes into building a website – from integrating, implementing the e-commerce platform, design tools, simple text and image-based pages – they did all of that for us. Spiral Scout has services to help with SEO [search engine optimization], but we didn't initially use those. In the beginning, we were much more heavily focused on web development rather than design. We worked more on back-end implementation as opposed to coming up with original front-end designs.

How did you come to work with Spiral Scout?

I knew their owner earlier, although I hadn't spoken to him for a few years. I saw on Facebook that he started a web development company, so I reached out to him and a couple others. Spiral Scout was the most responsive. They came in at a price that was much lower than other people, and they had the ability to start and turn things around much more quickly than the others.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The initial website, including all the back-end, including custom orders, frame instructions, and payment processing, was around $35,000. As we learned the business, we've added features and changed designs, so we've probably put in another $100,000 doing those things. All of that just came from figuring things out as we grew. It wasn't that we needed to fix anything; we were just learning about the business and adding more features.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Spiral Scout about three years ago, probably since September 2012, and we still currently work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics, or other feedback from this engagement?

The overall experience has been great. Spiral Scout understood what we were looking for. The work was pretty flexible, with no set number of hours that were contracted. Their hours could range from zero one month to 50 the next. Now, we work with them on a project-by-project basis. We describe what we're looking for, they come back with their understanding of the options and challenges, and then we proceed.

Additionally, they come in at or under budget, and their turnaround time is always spot on. If they say a week, they mean a week. Obviously, I wish things could magically be done overnight, but we've never had a delay because of their scheduling.

What distinguishes Spiral Scout from other providers?

I would say that it is their responsiveness. They don't assume things for you. If you tell them what you want, they're going to do what you want. Spiral Scout is not going to think that they know better and add in a feature that you didn't ask for. They deliver exactly the design that you asked for.

Of course, they'll make you aware of things that don't make sense or recommend an easier way, but it's an iterative process throughout. They will tell us what they see and where we are. They might even suggest another direction we might want to go. That's been good. We're not left in the dark as they do their work. Even though they're in Belarus and we're in the United States, they are very responsive.

Is there anything Spiral Scout could have improved or done differently?

In the beginning, I relied on them a little more than I probably should have for the design aspect. I wasn't clear on how they worked. I partly regret that we didn't put more money into the design work upfront. We let them build the functionality and have a default front end, but that was on us, not on them. The problem was their lack of design strength, but they've fixed that. They now have more design resources available.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Product Officer of Project Fortress

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Project Fortress is a legal CRM platorm for corporate transactions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Spiral Scout to accomplish?

• Platform Development and Integrations
• Artificial Intelligence

SOLUTION

How did you find Spiral Scout?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Spiral Scout over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Spiral Scout were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Spiral Scout has developed all parts of Project Fortress's legal CRM platform and integrations with third-party software. Spiral Scout has done an amazing job customizing features and handling issues. Spiral Scout is also helping Project Fortress implement artificial intelligence into the platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Spiral Scout has done an amazing job developing Project Fortress's legal CRM platform in all facets and integrating third-party software that is critical for the platform's use. Spiral Scout has developed all parts of the platform, ranging from the user interface to custom legal features. Spiral Scout has also made tremendous strides with artificial intelligence in a short amount of time.

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

Spiral Scout has done a great job meeting deadlines. Spiral Scout does a great job of quickly responding whenever we have a need.

What was your primary form of communication with Spiral Scout?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Spiral Scout was great at understanding what we were trying to accomplish and trying to do so in a way that works for our company.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder of Syllables

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Children's book publisher

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Spiral Scout to accomplish?

• Shopify website development

SOLUTION

How did you find Spiral Scout?

• Online Search
• Clutch Site

Why did you select Spiral Scout over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget

How many teammates from Spiral Scout were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Develop Shopify website based on a provided Figma file.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I hired Spiral Scout to create a fully operational Shopify site. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with the Spiral Scout team. I discovered Spiral Scout after having had negative experiences with two previous web developers. I’d worked with a designer on a Figma file and needed it to be translated to a Shopify site. From start to finish, the team demonstrated professionalism, creativity, and technical expertise.

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

The communication throughout the entire process was also great. We had weekly meetings to review progress and troubleshoot any concerns. As someone new to web design and e-commerce, they took time to explain the process and were patient in answering my questions. All items were delivered on time.

What was your primary form of communication with Spiral Scout?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

As someone new to web design and e-commerce, they took time to explain the process and were patient in answering my questions.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Engineering Manager of a healthcare company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Ours is an evidence-based weight care platform that combines the best of modern medicine with lasting behavior change, access to personalized coaching, and a supportive community. Centered around clinical excellence, our platform provides its members with a doctor-designed, comprehensive, and personalized weight loss program that delivers long-term, sustainable results.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Spiral Scout to accomplish?

• Turnkey development of our first mobile app
• Maintain the app and support us while we hired an in-house team
• Help our in-house team evolve the app

SOLUTION

How did you find Spiral Scout?

Referral

Why did you select Spiral Scout over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from Spiral Scout were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Develop from the ground up a custom mobile app for weight care using React Native.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The mobile app became the surface used by 95% of our customers

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

They offered very good stakeholder management, realistic timelines, and clear communication.

What was your primary form of communication with Spiral Scout?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The flexibility to evolve from a turnkey development team to an staff augmentation organization.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Pedestrian Safety Alliance for Small Cities (PSASC) is an international association of academia, industry, government officials and media dedicated to improve public safety. As Vice-President of the PSASC, I had the responsibility to establish our Web presence.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Spiral Scout?

Development of PSASC.org Website.

What were your goals for this project?

Provide a highend Brand image for the PSASC.org

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I've know them for over 15 years. I went with confidence in their selection.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Turnkey website solution, from design, to integration and hosting.

What was the team composition?

I had one main contact and access to their team's specialists when needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Spiral Scout provided the Brand image necessary to onboard clients, sponsors and participants.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Simply by email. No phone call has been necessary as they have worked greatly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We're most impressed by their simplicity.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Digital advertising agency, Director of Engineering

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Spiral Scout?

Additional developers for ongoing project

What were your goals for this project?

Augment our in house development team, help complete several new projects / maintain existing site

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Prior recommendation

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

SpiralScout provided a Wordpress developer to help augment our team. He was a great asset to our team, with good technical knowledge and strong communication skills.

What was the team composition?

The team was composed of 4 developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The developer provided by SpiralScout was able to turn around several complex features on time and budget.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was strong, the developer was punctual and diligent in recording what their status was throughout projects.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Very easy to work with - we had a great experience.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None