Tanooki Labs

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Executive Director of Heat Seek, Inc

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Heat Seek builds simple, low-cost temperature sensors and a companion web app to monitor indoor ambient air temperature and help New Yorkers hold their landlords accountable when they’re not providing sufficient heat in the winter.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Tanooki Labs to accomplish?

• Maintain our existing web app
• Design and build a new temperature sensor

SOLUTION

How did you find Tanooki Labs?

Referral

Why did you select Tanooki Labs over others?

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

How many teammates from Tanooki Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Heat Seek initially engaged Tanooki Labs in order to fulfill our need for a CTO. Tanooki Labs' consulting model enabled us to engage a team of advisors and developers rather than a single individual. Our initial scope of work with Tanooki Labs included: 

• Migrating our existing rails application to Heroku 
• Ongoing rails application monitoring, and security update patches/updates 
• On-call maintenance and issue resolution
• Ongoing feature work 
• CTO advisement on 3rd party solutions and product selection 

We have undertaken several feature sprints over the past seven years with Tanooki Labs, and developed three new versions of our ambient air temperature sensors in addition to maintaining/improving the web application.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Heat Seek is a small nonprofit without a dedicated tech team; however, our mission-related work includes highly technical activities, including temperature monitoring via IoT sensors, database management, data analysis, and sensor design/development. 

Heat Seek does not have the in-house skills to design, develop, and maintain these tools, and we have benefitted enormously from Tanooki Labs' expertise in maintaining both our hardware and software so that we can focus on utilizing the tools in service of our clients.

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

Tanooki Labs has a project management system in place that includes numerous weekly touch points, which means it is always clear how the project is progressing at all phases of the work. Any changes or extensions to deadlines we discussed in advance and mutually agreed upon -- there were never any surprises. 

The Tanooki team is incredibly responsive on Slack and via email, and takes great care to explain their work in terms that are accessible to both technical and non-technical clients. I always feel like I know exactly where the team is in terms of progress on the work. 

Although Heat Seek's tech work often happens in short spurts with long periods of relative quiet in between, there has never been a time that I've felt like our work wasn't a priority at Tanooki Labs. I know I can go to them at any time with a question, big or small, and expect a thoughtful response.

What was your primary form of communication with Tanooki Labs?

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

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

It was clear from my first conversation with Eric that Tanooki Labs would care about our mission and our work as if it were their own. As a non-technical co-founder, I was concerned about having the necessary skill set to manage a tech team, but Eric and the Tanooki team are able to meet companies exactly where they're at. 

The team is thoughtful and attentive, and they take care to get to the root of what organizations are trying to achieve so they can find the most efficient and cost-effective way to bring your idea to fruition. They have consistently gone above and beyond to deliver exceptionally high-quality work to Heat Seek, on a flexible cadence that meets our needs and our budget. 

As a non-technical co-founder, I have benefitted enormously just from watching the Tanooki team work. Because they take such care to ensure their clients have enough working knowledge to make informed decisions about the work, and they include clients in conversations about the technical components of their projects, I have learned a great deal about everything from how to query a database to how the internet works.  

It has made me more effective in my own job, and better able to translate real-world program needs into technical requests that a team of developers can execute. That professional development is invaluable and something I will take with me in all my future projects. 

Finding Tanooki Labs was the best thing to happen to Heat Seek, and we've benefitted enormously from their tech expertise. Their integrity is unimpeachable, I trust them implicitly, and I would recommend them wholeheartedly to anyone looking for a tech team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Tanooki Labs could have done differently?

Honestly, no. They have a great project management system and are extremely communicative.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Hardley, a venture-backed startup. We help families save for school and make it easier for anyone to send money to anyone’s education savings.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tanooki Labs?

I’m a non-technical solo founder, and I don’t have a finance technology background. Therefore, I hired Tanooki Labs to help me create my app. I’m a registered investment adviser with the SEC, and I’ve learned how to save for school.

When I was researching how to save for school for my own niece, I saw firsthand how difficult it was for families to find and access the best-rated ways to save for school. This was out of reach for so many people. Therefore, I wanted to create a free solution to drive people to a top-rated plan for education savings.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tanooki Labs has taken my idea and prototype, helped me redesign its flow, and engineered a new technology stack that moves money from anyone’s bank account to any 529 accounts. On a high level, their scope has included mobile app development, website development, and UI/UX design.

Before starting this project, a different developer created a prototype for this product. Then, I worked with an incubator, and my venture partner in that incubator was able to take that prototype and further flesh it out. Thus, we already had some documentation to start from.

Still, we initially went through a process that Tanooki Labs called Sprint Zero, during which they ensured to align on the project and helped us understand the use cases and the reason for building the product. Then, they showed me a roadmap for how the user flow would look based on my input, as well as their product design work. For the design portion, I let their design team advise me on the best design approach.

After Sprint Zero, which lasted around six weeks, we went with Tanooki Labs into the development phase. This process was very iterative and lasted around 4–5 months. Toward the end of the development process, their team started developing our marketing website.

We ultimately launched the app in August 2022, after which Tanooki Labs helped me refine things for the MVP. Since then, they’ve helped me add new features to the product and provided me with maintenance services.

Our site routes users for free to a top-rated school savings plan. This site also has a robust line of FAQs that solves concerns that otherwise would prevent a lot of people from going forward. I’ve done a lot of research on what these plans are and how they work, so this platform matches every American family to their most beneficial, top-rated way to save.

Through the mobile app, users are also able to answer a few questions to route them to their top-rated plan. Additionally, this app works with any 529 plan, so users can send money to their plans through it.

As for the technology stack, Tanooki Labs has built the website in Ruby on Rails and used Figma for the UI/UX designs. The app is available for both iOs and Android devices, and the entire platform is hosted in AWS. Additionally, we integrate with Plaid.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with around 7–8 teammates from Tanooki Labs, including a product manager, three engineers, a designer, Lauren (Associate Director of Product), and David (Co-Founder), who acts as our CTO and oversees the entire project.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent around $390,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2022 and launched the app in August 2022. Still, our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product that Tanooki Labs has helped us create has a very humanized UI/UX design, making it very easy to understand. Now, we have over 500 downloads, and we’re getting more sign-ups every week. I haven’t done marketing for the product nor SEO work for the site yet, but we’re still ranking on the first page of Google search results.

Thanks to those achievements, the very families for whom the 529 plans were created are starting to access them through our app. These special tax-free plans are the most robust and meaningful way to save for school at all levels, from K–12 and graduate school to college, apprenticeships, vocational and technical school, degrees, and certificates. For example, a shift manager at a fast-food chain restaurant has started saving for her baby’s education using our app.

How did Tanooki Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Tanooki Labs’ performance is incredible. Lauren is probably the most competent professional I’ve ever worked with. She’s very organized, keeps everything buttoned up, and manages me very well, for which I’m very grateful. She’s not afraid to push back on me or follow up on me to get the information she needs and ensure the project stays on time. Everything Tanooki Labs does from a project management standpoint is very well done.

We haven’t experienced any crashes with this product. Still, whenever there’s an opportunity to make something better, we flag it, and Tanooki Labs turns it around. For example, there was an issue with Plaid where our integration with JPMorgan Chase & Co was down. However, Tanooki Labs moved swiftly to create a technical workaround, lessening the dependency that our product had on Plaid’s technical integrations.

We communicate a lot with Tanooki Labs via Slack, and we have video conference calls twice a week. Moreover, we use GitHub for project management.

Throughout the development process, Tanooki Labs explained what they were working on during the conference calls based on what we had defined during Sprint Zero. This process was very iterative; I was able to review their work and provide feedback, which allowed us to move very swiftly. Sprint Zero was very critical for the development phase because we were able to define our requirements upfront.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Tanooki Labs has been impressive in every way, and they’re very good at working with founders. As a non-technical founder working first time in the fintech app space, it is hard for me to communicate things to their CTO when I don’t have a depth of experience. Still, what I really like about working with Tanooki Labs is that they work with me in a very optimal way for the partnership.

From the start, I explained to them that I was a first-time founder who had raised money but didn’t know what to do with it because I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I even tapped into a level of transparency where I, for example, shared my bank account statement and told them that I wanted to be very conservative with my budget. I did this because I wanted to optimize my time with them and ensure that I had enough funds so that we could build the most critical features of this product.

During that process, Tanooki Labs’ willingness to work with me spoke volumes of their professionalism and empathy. In a world where other technology companies tend to take advantage of a lot of people by hiding things, Tanooki Labs’ level of intent was wonderful.

Very early into the project, we identified that our successes were aligned and tied to each other. Tanooki Labs’ level of candor and transparency isn’t something that other founders get to enjoy from their partners. Their team has helped us maximize the outcome for success for both of us.

In addition to that, David is a good counterbalance to me. He’s very empathetic and caring while not being very reactive. Additionally, he handles me very well, which is tough because I’m obsessed with my budget.

Moreover, Tanooki Labs’ entire team believes in my mission. For example, I’ve gotten to meet Presidents Bush and Clinton and worked with their teams directly, so Tanooki Labs has seen the value I bring to our country. Thus, they’ve taken the time to fly from New York to Los Angeles to meet with me and see what’s next. Moreover, they’ve used their own time and resources to share with me the user-traction channels and strategies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing Tanooki Labs could improve on. Although their price is high, I can’t wish they had more non-billable hours dedicated to our project because that wouldn’t be fair for their business. They’re very good humans, and their expertise, professionalism, empathy, and care exceed by far the services of a cheaper option with less attentive hands.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront and direct about your concerns, build a culture of partnership, and be very transparent with them. If you want to hide how much money you have available for this project, the engagement won’t work as well because Tanooki Labs needs the full context.

For example, given that they know our budget, they’ve let us know when a feature is close to exceeding our budget. They’ve even told me to hold off on things, even though it would be in their financial interest to simply do what I request.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a partner at a private capital solutions company. We provide wealth management firms with the ability to aggregate capital and invest in private capital efficiently.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tanooki Labs?

We needed to build a web application to get us an advantage in the market from a technological perspective.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tanooki Labs has helped us with design and web application development. We initially partnered with them to discuss our ideas. We’ve gone back and forth to collaborate on the agile development process and built the product from scratch. They’ve used Figma and other typical tools.

The portal gives access to clients and advisors to all their investments. We use APIs for our investment reporting providers and pull them daily. Tanooki Labs has built a proprietary algorithm to forecast and budget our private capital decision-making and portfolio management. We’ve also partnered with DocuSign to automate all our execution documents and document retention. Lastly, we’ve integrated Skyflow for security.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had 1–2 project managers, a lead developer, and a developer throughout the project. We’ve also worked with Dave (Co-Founder) as our project lead; he coordinates everybody and translates the project’s complexity for us. Additionally, the designers come in and out depending on the project’s needs.

How did you come to work with Tanooki Labs?

We looked at a few outside developers and connected with Tanooki Labs through one of our clients. We immediately hit it off with Tanooki Labs because they were very straightforward. They gave us good answers and had a structural advantage over their competitors because they had a US-based team and a great communication style.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2021. Tanooki Labs delivered the first and second phases in 6–7 months. We’ve continued to use them on all our product’s iterations; we’re now in the third phase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve saved hundreds of working hours thanks to Tanooki Labs. Their ability to code in any language is wonderful.

How did Tanooki Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been under budget on every project we’ve had. Moreover, the team is on time in everything they set out to do, but they’re still flexible when we add to their plate. Overall, Tanooki Labs is consistent in their project management.

We communicate back and forth through Slack and meet twice a week. They use some project management tools, but I don’t remember their names.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication is their biggest strength. When people hire someone outside, they expect them to be a partner. Tanooki Labs is our partner; they’ve gone above and beyond. They push back when it’s right and do an excellent job of ensuring their opinion is heard.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they do a good job. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you have an idea to build something, the best thing you can do is provide the structure. Tanooki Labs is there to build your idea, but they don’t give you the idea. If you want to make the process more efficient and realistic, my advice is to be extremely organized and thoughtful about the details you want to include.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-founder of Reportable

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Provide communications and business intelligence software and services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Tanooki Labs to accomplish?

• Build out our core software platform
• Maintain the software
• Add features to our software

SOLUTION

How did you find Tanooki Labs?

Referral

Why did you select Tanooki Labs over others?

• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned
• Experience in media

How many teammates from Tanooki Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Tanooki has built our entire communications and business intelligence software product. Most recently this year, they added on a tool to automate the drafting of news releases from a few custom prompts in a specific format that follows best practice. They also synced this new tool with an updated onboarding workflow, permissioning, and online distribution tool.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

1. Completion of project in a timely manner, which in this case was well ahead of schedule 
2. Effective tool which it is

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

We held weekly 15-min update calls to review progress and prioritize next steps. Between this time we used Slack to make requests or respond to questions in realtime.

What was your primary form of communication with Tanooki Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We were impressed with the speed and process by which they completed the work.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Tanooki Labs could have done differently?

None.