Tooploox

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-Lead AI Lab of Ashoka

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Ashoks is the world's largest network of social entrepreneurs. We word toward a world in which every person can be a changemaker.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Tooploox to accomplish?

• Turn four existing AI prototypes into a cohesive application
• Create a modern user interface
• Expose the functionality of the prototypes via an API

SOLUTION

How did you find Tooploox?

Referral

Why did you select Tooploox over others?

• Referred to me
• Pro bono partner

How many teammates from Tooploox were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Ashoka had four prototypes around semantic search and AI-powered analysis of data about social entrepreneurs. The prototypes were implemented using Jupyter notebooks. The goal of the project was to consolidate the prototypes into one cohesive application with a modern user interface and an API.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We deployed the application for internal use at Ashoka. Feedback from colleagues around the world was very positive. The application is saving teams a lot of time.

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

Tooploox implemented the project on a pro bono basis. The team went above and beyond to make sure that the application is working for us, including support around DevOps issues that were not at all within the scope of the project.

What was your primary form of communication with Tooploox?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Tooploox's team had an amazing can-do spirit. They focussed on what was needed to make the app a success, even if that meant going beyond what we had initially planned. We had partners in crime and not just a service delivery partner.

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

If this had been a paid engagement, the application could probably have been developed faster. That is not a reasonable standard to apply to such an extensive pro bono project, though. We are very happy with the time it took to get the app.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I'm an executive at Airspace Link, Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Enable the safe integration of drones into the national airspace and communities at scale through digital infrastructure, strategic partnerships and thought leadership.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Tooploox to accomplish?

• Assistance with feature development of our flagship software product.

SOLUTION

How did you find Tooploox?

Referral

Why did you select Tooploox over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Tooploox were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Tooploox engineers and their designer were meant to integrate seamlessly into existing teams in order to affect development and delivery of features slated for release in our major product offering. 

They were to deliver code and designs meeting our development and design standards and in line with our existing pipeline. The specific scope of those features was not decided ahead of time, and their team was meant to be flexible so as to help deliver whatever was necessary during the time they were working with us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Tooploox completed nearly every deliverable asked of them on time and within spec. Any delays were known and discussed and not a reflection of the quality of their work.

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

We had frequent touch points and checkins with their team, and their work was managed by our own project management structure. Their engineers were flexible and receptive to the needs of our company and easily integrated into all of our cadence without issue.

What was your primary form of communication with Tooploox?

Virtual Meeting

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

The team is wise beyond their years. They are very knowledgeable about development best practices, and I could always trust them to do things “right”. Everyone we interacted with was helpful, friendly, and interested in driving the work that needed to be done to completion.

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

Generally speaking there's nothing that stands out as room for improvement. It took us a bit of time to get the right mix of folks on the team, but Tooploox was very good about swapping people around until we had just the right set of people for the job.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Pluck.eco is a delivery ecosystem for farms and local businesses. We're making local delivery more sustainable and affordable for all.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Tooploox?

Map the most important decisions for the company. Design a UI to test assumptions about customers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They partnered with our accelerator.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The team led a four-hour assumption mapping exercise which allowed us to identify the critical assumptions that needed to be tested to prove the value and feasibility of the product. The team then designed a UI to be tested with real customers to prove out our assumptions.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

My Team worked with about 5 designers and product-facing contributors throughout the process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The designs were on-brand and focused on testing key assumptions for our product. Not only were the designs very well done, but they also had clear criteria for success established in the previous sessions. This made it possible to objectively test, whether the designs were working or not.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Tooploox used tools that made collaboration, very easy and effective. E.g. Miro - a interactive whiteboard tool

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

The designers and individual contributors were all very engaged with the problem. They produced clean, professional designs and forwarded resources, ideas, and examples of other companies in the space. They were more like real business partners than a typical dev studio.

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

A clear description of available resources and the related pricing would have been helpful for planning upfront.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Head of Engineering at Salvo Health.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Tooploox, and what were your goals?

We hired Tooplox for one backend engineer who can partner with our PM and current senior eng focused on building out a lot of the backend infrastructure to support our Beta and post-Beta member and care team experience services.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

This vendor was hired by the ex-CTO who has had a good working relationship with Tooplox for several years.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The engineer was mainly focused on a variety of projects to evolve our backend infra, build out Fastify based api services, and a variety of other projects that laddered up to multiple launched features.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

1 Backend Engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The engineer was a fantastic addition to our team. Completed most, if not all, deliverables on time with high quality. They are careful with quality, set a high bar for themselves, and execute with satisfactory speed.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The engineer was added on to our engineer team just as any other full-time hire would. He participated in all the team rituals (standups, sprint planning, retros, etc..). He was active in Slack and email.

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

Very easy to communicate with, receptive to feedback, and made an effort to meet in person.

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

The only nit I'd add is I wish they were proactive in adding automated test coverage as part of the successful commits and launches.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CTO of a software company called Adaptive. We make software and do billing and expense management for construction companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tooploox?

We hired them to help us with our engineering efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tooploox provides additional resources for our engineering team. At the moment, we’re working on a web development project. They’ve provided three experienced engineers to help us build out new front- and backend features from scratch, including integrations with third-party platforms. Key technologies being used for the site are Django, Python, Heroku, React, and JavaScript.

Their team also takes part in the planning process and provides us with advice to improve our engineering.

What is the team composition?

Currently, we work strictly with three full stack engineers from their team. We also worked with a project manager, QA engineer, and an ML engineer on a short-term basis.

How did you come to work with Tooploox?

They were introduced to us by a former colleague of mine.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2021, and our engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The three engineers that we work with are all top-notch — their code quality is very good. They also frequently comment on other people’s code, providing really helpful advice and suggestions for improvement.

How did Tooploox perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication skills are very strong, and we mainly interact through Slack and use Zoom for video calls. We also use Jira for tracking tasks and Github for our code management. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re really impressed with their engineers’ ability to learn new things. They’re really smart and versatile people who can jump in and understand new technologies quickly. That’s why I always feel confident in giving them any type of task.

Are there any areas they could improve on?

They couldn’t provide us with resources in some areas. Nevertheless, our engagement with them has been great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to pull their engineers into your organization as tightly as you can, involving them in the planning and decision-making process. Based on our experience, they really have a lot of good insights to offer.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of engineering at a computer games company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tooploox?

We wanted to build an entirely new product offering with a partner of ours. Still, we couldn’t do it ourselves in terms of staff and expertise, so we reached out to Tooploox to help us with software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tooploox has been providing custom software development for us. We started by working with their account manager to identify members of their internal team who might be a good fit for our project.

In terms of tasks, they’ve been responsible for working with our team to define the product requirements for what we’re building and are also helping us with technical architect solutions, code writing, and making the interfaces to put the product on the market.

Regarding technologies, they’ve provided expertise in TypeScript, React, data engineering, and general software architecture and backend services.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with their account manager, project manager, a designer, a backend engineer, and four software developers from their team.

How did you come to work with Tooploox?

They were referred to me when I was at my former company, and I decided to reach out to them for this new project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2021, and the engagement is ongoing; we’ve been working for two quarters already, and we plan to continue with that indefinitely.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our partners are pleased with the progress so far. Tooploox has done a good job with our development cycles; they’ve been very consistent in delivering products that exceed our expectations.

How did Tooploox perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management has been excellent; they have a world-class approach to ensure success for every project we work on together. It’s a structured process where they make sure that everyone has everything they need for a certain task, including a clear idea of what needs to be done through the information they upload to our ticketing system. Overall, their team is professional and organized.

In terms of tools and communication, we use Slack, video calls, emails, Jira, Confluence, and Miro.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their work is great; it’s difficult to find professional software developers experienced with large companies, but Tooploox brings great expertise to our software necessities, is good at communication, and has the technical skills to execute what we need.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should hire more people to ensure that they can serve more customers.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear idea of the product you’re trying to build; Toploox does a great job working collaboratively to ensure a good execution if you provide them with a clear plan.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-founder and co-CEO of a technology startup. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tooploox?

We hired Tooploox to help develop our mobile app. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tooploox has developed a social discovery iOS mobile app that allows users to chat with each other. What really sets this development apart is that they've used technology that hasn't been used on mobile apps before — the users find each other on the app using Bluetooth when they're within 200 feet of each other. Once users find each other, they can message each other in chat boxes. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with 6–8 teammates from Tooploox, including the account manager, project manager, iOS developers, QA tester, and backend developer. 

How did you come to work with Tooploox?

A friend referred Tooploox to us, and they also came up in our searches on Google and Clutch.co. One of the main reasons we hired them was because they provided a reasonable quote that was significantly less than what other firms quoted.  

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested $110,000 with Tooploox, but our original quote was around $180,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

This project with Tooploox was from August 2021–January 2022. However, we've recently rehired them to update the app.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Tooploox has delivered exactly what they promised and their service is excellent — the app is successful. Their team was honest and adapted the final cost to match the work they ended up providing. 

How did Tooploox perform from a project management standpoint?

We had regular meetings to discuss what needed to get done for the next stage of the project and the cost. Tooploox always met their deadlines, even when we'd add extra tasks to the weekly project task list. They always ensured they delivered what we needed and never overcharged us. Typically, we communicated via Slack and used Jira to manage the project.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Tooploox's work ethic was excellent and we never had to remind them to complete tasks. Also, they collaborated so well with us that it always felt like we were on the same team. Their feedback and suggestions were incredibly valuable. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything for Tooploox to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I'd suggest that customers be upfront about what they need from the project with Tooploox so they can help walk through the processes. Also, if Tooploox doesn't think a project is doable, they'll convey it. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our product is a platform where you can improve your mental well-being, learn how to manage your thoughts and emotions, support your body, or build your support system through relationships with people. I'm CTO and coordinated Tooploox work during MVP development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Tooploox, and what were your goals?

We hired Tooploox to have a dedicated team working on building our SaaS platform, both frontend and backend, as soon as possible without time lost on scaling internal team. Goal was to get traction with customers after only 3 months and we managed to ship beta version of application in that time.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Tooploox was recommended by different sources from our VC and network as software house that has already experiences with development of similar solutions for US companies. Fast they could scale team and provide necessary skills and competences in short term were key for us.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Tooploox dev team broken down requirements and high level mockups of application into specific frontend and backend solutions. First they started by designing a monolithic backend in Python based on Django framework, created models for key objects and transaction with necessary API REST endpoints for communication. In parallel along API frontend application was created with React & TypeScript. Everything was published on AWS infrastructure for each of development environments with CI/CD, performance monitoring & tests.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

In peak we had 3 python backend developers, 3 frontend developers & 1 project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We managed to launch beta version a month earlier than original estimated and MVP according to previously made estimated based on high level plans only. All key deliverables were done on time without any issues.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We communicated via Slack, used Jira & Confluence for project management and GitHub for repository management. Ultimately everything was delivered, thou some wiggling was necessary at some point.

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

We had access to entire team directly, got really good specialists in their field that got really involved in the project. Team was great.

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

We didnt encounter big issues or problems, so probably nothing that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief technology advisory of a D2C healthcare provider focusing on obesity treatment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tooploox?

We needed to engineer solutions quickly to address our challenges.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tooploox provides the skills and resources we need. For example, if we need a Python engineer, they’ll provide one. If we need someone experienced with data warehouse technology, they’ll provide someone with that skill set.

We don’t have a project-based relationship; rather they provide additional team members to support our existing engineering team to build in-house, proprietary software.

What is the team composition?

Currently, we’re working with six people from Tooploox.

How did you come to work with Tooploox?

They’ve worked with me on multiple projects for previous companies, always providing skilled engineering and product support.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent a couple of hundred thousand dollars so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together at my current company since August 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We always strive to get better, and Tooploox is essential to our continuous improvement.

How did Tooploox perform from a project management standpoint?

We have daily meetings, as well as plenty of documentation on Google Docs and Jira. Everybody stays in sync and up to date on the requirements and context of what we’re doing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Tooploox is extremely transparent and upfront about what they can and can’t achieve.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re in a difficult space trying to provide engineering resources to help companies expand, so they need to have a constant pipeline of people.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be transparent and set expectations upfront, in addition to creating success metrics. This gives the whole team something to work toward.