StackOverdrive

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder, president, and CEO of the U.S. Vote Foundation. Our most important initiative is Overseas Vote. We’re dedicated to helping all kinds of US citizens take part in democracy by finding out the information they need to participate, no matter where they are in the world. We provide information, answers, and action.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with StackOverdrive.io?

Our system has lots of moving parts, applications, and integrations. These are in place so that people can register and request absentee ballots for every state, from everywhere in the world. Our developer team is contracted, but they’re absolutely integral to our success. We have broad reach, but everything depends on our online services and websites, of which there are quite a few.  

StackOverdrive.io is our technology partner, responsible for keeping our website running. They’ve done up to 50 projects at a time for us. They’re the main party responsible for our technology operation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

While onboarding, StackOverdrive.io was given a very tough task. We had a big and complex legacy system with a vast myriad of technologies. Our previous development team didn’t pick a direction and stick with it; the technologies were all over the place. Our system had been designed long ago for vertical scaling, and there was no horizontal scaling. 

StackOverdrive.io had to pick that mess up with zero documentation and reconfigure it. They rebuilt our entire hosting without redoing every line of code and with zero downtime. Before, we were suffering from constant website crashes, and we had very limited online capacity. 

Since they took over, they’ve never once had to contact our old developer team. Our previous team said it would take 100 hours to transfer the system, and that we couldn’t switch from them because of their legacy work. They convinced me switching would be the worst disaster, and this kept me stuck with them for too long.

StackOverdrive.io proved them wrong. They did a masterful job of getting this project going and dealing with unexpected problems along the way. There are so many moving parts to our system—I could discover something new every day. They somehow managed to deal with everything while keeping the other ongoing projects going.

Currently, they’re implementing Cloudflare for us. That’s huge—after we’ll have a much better system overall. They put together a plan before we started. We talked it all through and I agreed to everything. It was pretty obvious that we’d have to upgrade to survive, but they didn’t take advantage of us in our distress.

Instead, they were very reasonable and willing to negotiate rates that would allow us to pay them every month without going bankrupt. We don’t have a lot of funding, but even with our constraints, they’re really helping us out.

What is the team composition? 

Jason (Founder and CEO, StackOverdrive.io) is my main point of contact. He does the day-to-day work contact work for our website. He has to interact with me all the time. It’s really hard when you have 50 states, and every single state has a different process for absentee ballot requests. He’s becoming an expert in election law.

I believe there are five other people working on our project, doing the longer-term tasks. They have a parallel approach. He’s doing one thing, and the other people are doing other things, and he delegates into the team all the time.

How did you come to work with StackOverdrive.io?

I found StackOverdrive.io through Clutch. I couldn’t find a lot of developer firms that had both the right profile for us and whose fees we could pay. On Clutch, I could look at each developer and see what range of technologies they were familiar with. 

We absolutely must have US citizens working in our system because we’re working on American elections. StackOverdrive.io understood that situation and could promise us that.

They were the ones that matched all those criteria:

• They had the range of technologies we needed
• They were the right size (we previously worked with a company that was too small)
• They were based in New York
• They were all American citizens
• They were willing to look at our system

Getting a developer to look at the legacy system and take it over was nearly impossible. I talked to 2–3 other firms, but they got scared, said no, or freaked out because of the range of technologies. StackOverdrive.io was courageous and took us on.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with StackOverdrive.io in September 2019, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Whenever there was an issue, it wasn’t from StackOverdive.io. Rather, it was from a longer-term problem that they inherited. We don’t get a lot of complaints. We could always make the site better, but nothing is that urgent. 

How did StackOverdrive.io perform from a project management standpoint

I’m in Germany, so they haven’t worked on-site with me. We have multiple ways of communicating. They have a strict protocol, and everything gets documented in Jira. That’s our meeting place for every project, and I communicate with them through up to 30 emails a day, depending on what we’re doing. For instance, if we’re testing, we might be using email, Jira, and phone calls, all on the same day. 

Because I’m in a different time zone, it’s important that our communication is written. When we’re doing testing, Jason will give me a list of sites where I can test all the form processes. I write down my feedback on what to do, either into Jira or email, whichever we’re using for the particular task. We read each other’s messages almost instantly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This is the first time I’ve felt like I can sleep at night without worrying that something might go wrong. I have a feeling of assurance that StackOverdrive.io is there for us, and that I can trust them. They’re reliable and honest. If they find a problem, they’ll tell me right away, and then they always figure it out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s already been a great improvement, and I don’t have advice for them at this point. I’ve only experienced positive changes.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They’re very engaged, and clients need to match that. It’s worked for us because I’m very engaged, and we’re able to communicate very efficiently. This will enable clients to benefit from the same things I’ve been benefiting from.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a financial technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with StackOverdrive.io?

We wanted to have a single entity manage and support all of our internal systems.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We gave StackOverdrive.io complete control of our infrastructure to facilitate rapid system changes. In this role, they handle data backups and disaster recovery. Other tasks include setting up new users, getting permission rights, and managing security upgrades. About six months into the engagement, we asked them to design and build an Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform. We’re rebuilding our software and the goal is to program everything on top of an AWS system in a cloud-friendly manner. StackOverdrive.io collaborated with one of our in-house developers to create and maintain that system. We’re currently working with them to discuss an overhaul of the systems in our legacy platform.

What is the team composition?

Their CEO is our primary point of contact. However, other resources interface with us regarding specific development tasks.

How did you come to work with StackOverdrive.io?

I searched for companies that had a breadth of experience in both systems administration and development. They seemed like they could perform well and were willing to accept a fair price.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $300,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2016 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have defined metrics that illustrate the effect their work has had on our company. However, the experience has been slightly positive so far. When integrated with an existing team, they communicate effectively and perform great.

How did StackOverdrive.io perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve struggled with their timelines, estimates, and communication approach since the beginning. They’ve improved a lot, but this is still an area they need to work on. We’ve incorporated their project management strategy with our internal approach, but they don’t provide the level of detail we often need. Honestly, we’d prefer to only utilize our management staff. We rely on Slack, Jira, and Confluence.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They do a great job of coming into an unknown situation and improving it. Their ability to absorb new information and respond to it is uncanny. I’ve worked with other companies that don’t do well an in that kind of environment.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Allowing our team to control project management tasks would likely simplify the process. Also, they didn’t assign a dedicated team, so their resources have to split their time between us and other projects. This has caused delays on several occasions. However, that’s probably an inherent issue that’s present when outsourcing work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Schedule regular update calls with them to monitor their progress.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a former software engineer at a small real estate company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with StackOverdrive.io?

We needed a partner to do maintenance and build out our deployment pipeline and production infrastructure.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a monolithic Django app on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The only ops work we’d done on it was by a fairly junior person who left our company, so StackOverdrive.io came in to overhaul our pipeline and infrastructure. They provided both operational support work and planned development work.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of two.

How did you come to work with StackOverdrive.io?

We found them on Google, so we interviewed them. They were new and excited to work with us, plus their pricing was competitive, so we hired them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March–October 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They exceeded their contractual service-level agreement and sometimes resolved problems before we even knew they existed.

How did StackOverdrive.io perform from a project management standpoint?

They were incredibly responsive and always ahead of schedule. We could get a response back from them within twenty minutes, regardless of the day or time. We used Slack to communicate but also had a few face-to-face meetings. They also had a ticketing system for task management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They do what they say they’re going to do, and they offer highly competitive pricing. They’re a proactive team that meets goals as quickly as possible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They like to use technologies they’re familiar with, even if it doesn’t always integrate cleanly with your existing team’s skill set. They’ll adapt, but you’ll have to ask them to.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Communicate with them frequently and openly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the former director of engineering for a data analytics company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with StackOverdrive.io?

I’d worked with them in a variety of capacities while providing interim engineering management for another company. We brought them on board for development operations (DevOps) work. At the time, we lacked an in-house DevOps specialist and had a legacy infrastructure that needed attention.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us build our Airflow ecosystem and set up a new Redshift cluster, which allowed us to better monitor our workflows. To do this, they established an AWS infrastructure and put up the necessary automation.

What is the team composition?

At the peak of the project, they assigned two team members.

How did you come to work with StackOverdrive.io?

I’d known Michael (Founder and CTO, StackOverdrive.io) professionally for about five years. I knew the quality of his work and was confident in his abilities.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work lasted from 2017–2018; I believe the engagement took about four months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They completed the project according to our requirements. This was helpful because it was a project that we needed to complete but couldn’t do in-house.

How did StackOverdrive.io perform from a project management standpoint?

They managed the project well. We communicated via Slack and tracked the work using Jira. Their co-founder would attend meetings telephonically and, on occasion, would meet us in person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated the quality of their staff. The team had a real understanding of our needs, and their project management was fairly tight.