UppLabs LLC

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO at a SaaS company that does forum promo campaigns and link building.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Initially, the Upplabs team was asked to customize an existing financial solution for clients billing and to integrate it with our new CRM. Still, eventually, we decided to build a new one from scratch with the help of Upplabs.

SOLUTION

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

One of our colleagues recommended paying attention to Upplabs. At first, Upplabs was asked to fix the bugs left by the previous development team. Soon, when we saw the team is great at what they do, the scope got bigger and we decided to build a new better solution with their help.

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

We started our collaboration with Upplabs in October 2020. Firstly, we ask their team of experts to review the existing solution and share some ideas for its improvement. Also, we needed to connect it with our new CRM system. After the detailed review, we decided to create a new billing solution with Upplabs, as the cost of its development from scratch was almost the same as the cost of improvements of an old one. As for today, I am delighted with Upplabs team of developers. The project came alive on time with no major bugs and all integrations with payment systems needed.

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

There were 3 developers, 1 Project Manager and 2 QA engineers. Also, Upplabs experts in fintech development consulted us for payment solutions integrations and legal requirements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As it was a billing solution for our service, it had high requirements to data security and service stability\uptime. Guys at Upplabs were proactive: they don't hesitate to offer improvements and share their expertise to help us to come up with a better product.

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

With Upplabs, I could always see the status of the project and get in touch with PM. The project communication style was effective enough, we were satisfied with the duration of the project. Also, we saw a few opportunities for future improvements.

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

The general approach to the project done was really impressive. The team delivered everything on schedule and made a significant impact on the quality of the product.

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

There are none. I would recommend Upplabs as a reliable software development partner. Working with them is both a pleasure and a wise investment.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the head of product at a mobile payment company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I hired UppLabs to help me with creating BuyFree price aggregator and shopping platform.

The team had to step in when we needed skilled software engineers for e-commerce web development. They knew a lot about online marketplaces and different 3rd party integrations.

Besides, we needed a team that already had solid experience in working with custom data and filters, performance optimization, and securing payment processes.

SOLUTION

How did you select UppLabs LLC and what were the deciding factors?

When I familiarised myself with UppLabs' portfolio and relevant experience, I knew that they are the perfect candidates for the type of project we were developing.

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

Responsible for web development, project management, and quality assurance parts, UppLabs were capable of adding a bunch of viable features the platform couldn’t exist without. Listings, price comparison, refund option, payment integration, etc.

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

I worked with one frontend developer (Angular) from UppLabs’ side.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

UppLabs showed a great experience in e-commerce, solid knowledge of technology, and ease of communication.

From the very start, they knew what are the business goals and, through software development, helped to reach them. Always responsive and professional.

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

UppLabs frontend developer was always easy to reach out to. We had regular status updates. Every issue was immediately addressed and treated accordingly. We used Slack, GitHub.

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

I had no doubts about their experience and professionalism. Accurate deadlines and a lot of useful advice and insights during the development process.

UppLabs developer knew exactly how the platform will work and what metrics we should pay attention to. Also, it was a pleasure to communicate with him as he was always ready to help.

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

Everything was great. See no critical points to be improved.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and director of a software consultancy. We provide software development services to companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with UppLabs LLC?

We needed frontend developers to help us build a healthtech software on React. We wanted a team that would provide expertise in quality assurance and test automation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

UppLabs LLC’s developers built the entire framework for the software using React-Redux. The software allows for appointment scheduling and reporting, and provides a location for individual profiles and other components.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three React developers, an Android developer, and a QA expert.

How did you come to work with UppLabs LLC?

I came into contact with Vitaliy (Founder & CTO, UppLabs LLC), and found him to be very genuine and knowledgeable. We began working with him, and our partnership with UppLabs LLC grew from there.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project lasted from August 2019-January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve stopped using other companies because they’re not at the level of UppLabs LLC.

How did UppLabs LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. If they were ever behind schedule, the team put in the extra hours to get their tasks done at no additional cost.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to deliver a great product in a timely manner stands out. The team is extremely conscientious and quality-oriented, and they have a really good understanding of user experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of a fin-tech startup based in the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with UppLabs LLC?

We are an early-stage startup working on an MVP build of a web development app. Our team had some in-house technical capabilities in terms of backend development, and we were looking for a firm that had the capability for frontend development with React.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built out a web-based application that was portable to go mobile native in a later phase. 

We were pretty specific about what we were looking for as far as the design and the backend architecture. 

Another firm did the mockups and frontend design for us. Then, the team was given the first mock-ups we had. They used best practices and took over a lot of the technical design decisions on the frontend. 

We talked through the key decision points, but they made most of the recommendations on what specific technologies to use on the frontend, how to set up the architecture in the app, and the choice of APIs.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about three people in total. At any given time, there were no more than two people actively working on the project.

How did you come to work with UppLabs LLC?

We found them online through one of the online freelancing platforms. We liked working with them on a separate project and got to know each other. 

Vitaly (CEO, UppLabs LLC) and I had a pretty good dynamic.  He showed that he knew what he was talking about from the technical side of things and he had a good background. When we had a larger ask for this project, we decided to work with them again. 

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent between $25,000–$50,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on this project from July 2019–December 2019.
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I would say the frontend development capabilities of the team are pretty high. In general, we are happy with the end result, the budget as a whole, and the quality of the code.

They were proactive about applying best practices and looking for ways to improve (even on the design aspects that were presented to them).

They were looking for ways to improve the overall product, rather than just the delivery of what we asked. They had a conversation with us to see if we would be open to it, and that shows a lot of initiative on their part.

One of the team members was a junior member. We discussed whether we wanted someone that was more senior or junior on the team because there was a risk in having a junior member take on a large chunk of the tasks.

From a process perspective, we were able to leverage the senior members of the team in order to get the work quality we needed. It did take a little bit of time in order for it to get where it needed to be. 

How did UppLabs LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

One key factor to consider is that they are out in Ukraine, and there is a pretty sizable time difference between our timezone in New York and where they are. For the most part, we had about three hours of overlap on any given day. 

They are pretty autonomous. We operated in a Scrum manner and had daily stand-ups every day at 10 a.m. During the daily stand up, we checked in on what was being done, talked about any challenges we needed to address, pushed requests, and went through anything that needed to be reviewed.

We also had a pretty active Slack channel, and Trello provided a transparent method to manage the scrum board. Since our collaboration was quite good, it enabled us to keep them engaged without being in the same time zone. 

However, we did have to establish some things as we went on. For example, we needed to get more specific about each ticket and its scope. We linked it to specific parts of the backend, and that made the code review and emerging process easier to manage. 

They were pooling a lot of different tickets and requirements and then making giant pushes that made reviewing the code extremely difficult. Through our retrospective process, we did make a couple of changes that increased efficiency. 

As we progressed throughout the course of the project, we asked their team to take on more of the creation and project management side of the work. (We were able to find an individual who was really organized and had some good experience.) 

The team had a pretty deep roster, and they were able to be flexible when drawing from the team and adding people dynamically throughout the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We enjoyed working with them. As a budget-conscious startup, we were looking for people who really got our challenges.

UppLabs LLC figures out where they are going to fit in, and they actually look for ways to make your product better. They aren’t just trying to “nickel and dime” you, get the project done, and send you the bill.

The team was good to work with. In general, they are well-intentioned people who enjoy technology and the challenge of building something good. 

Also, they are pretty forthcoming about giving a reasonable estimation of the cost. They give you a heads up before they feel the spend is about to change. Those characteristics along with the fact that they showed flexibility helped to bring trust in the relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are probably opportunities on their end to do more internal training.  They have a variety of people with various levels of experience within the team. While working with a junior member of the team, we had to be proactive about pushing for specific changes on their end in order to make the engagement more manageable. (He was good, but it was more about the level of experience and the growth that still needed to happen.) 

Sometimes, they were a little bit behind in what they would recommend compared to what we were seeing in the US in terms of best practices. When it came to front-end development, we definitely pushed them to take on some new initiatives and they had to do research.

For example, the progressive web app architecture and using service workers were things they hadn’t done before. I think they are good, but as a startup, we are pushing things to the limit. They were very accommodating, did the research, and were able to apply their technical chops to do the right thing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We came in with a pretty specific ask looking for technical development. From my point of view, they are more technical developers. We had another team do the design, and I think that worked out pretty well with them. 

You should be specific and proactively give them feedback if you feel things are not going as smoothly as they can. They are very proactive at incorporating feedback once you give it to them. If you are a manager and you let the project run without paying close attention, there’s a risk it could run in the wrong direction. 

It isn’t the kind of engagement where you can just hire them, look away, and come back in a couple of months. In order to really ensure quality results and that they are meeting your expectations, you have to keep a close eye on how the engagement is going and be proactive in providing feedback.
 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the sole owner of Lord Abbey, LLC. Our company provides marketing and website development services for real estate firms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevUp Labs?

I needed an affordable, independent development vendor that could quickly build a web app prototype. Our in-house staff worked with two other development teams.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first step of our project was an IEX feature connecting MLS data from our real estate data aggregate to a searchable online web app. The team developed custom features based on user feedback to improve our offerings and make the platform more unique. After the initial web app launched, we gathered requirements for customization. When this was complete, we passed the product on to DevUp Labs for MVP development. They conducted a Facebook integration to replicate some of the existing Facebook software. The entire development took about a year to complete.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two fulltime developers and one part-time Quality Assurance staff who conducted basic software testing. The founder, Daniel Killyevo, worked directly with us once or twice per month. We required resumes from all the programmers who worked on the project. We usually had one dedicated resource, with two full stack developers working fulltime at one point. A database administrator was assigned to the backend development for half the project.

How did you come to work with DevUp Labs?

While we searched for a vendor, it was difficult to discern who had the required experience for this project. I interviewed seven or eight companies in total. The founder of DevUp Labs had experience working on real estate projects with common technologies to create the features we needed. He also had proficient English language skills, despite being based internationally.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000-$60,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project lasted from November 2016 to March 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve worked on several similar projects. Ultimately, the team successfully got the web app on the market. It took Daniel’s team a very long time to fix some challenging bugs.

How did DevUp Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

The team was not always able to solve the technical problems. We used JIRA for task tracking, and shifted to Trello four or five months ago.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The founder consistently maintains a talented staff. Five to six people worked on this project throughout the year, and everyone was qualified.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When I first started working with Daniel, I had the impression that he would be doing the development. I thought I would be able to communicate well with him. I didn’t learn that different programmers were doing so until four to five months into the project. I would have preferred to know that up front.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My recommendation is to make sure future clients understand the technologies and are informed about the software and code that DevUp Labs will developing. They are more proficient when working with ASP.Net and C## as opposed to branching out in different directions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the manager of operations at MMI Direct.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevUp Labs?

A lot of our infrastructure was antiquated, so we had Daniel come in to revamp and update a lot of our infrastructure systems.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They used .NET for this project. Several of our infrastructure systems needed updating. The one he’s been working on for the majority of the project was very old technology and not user-friendly at all. His group rewrote that system on the technology side, working with the specs I gave them. They’d ask questions and make suggestions, which I really appreciated. They’re a really good group.

The product is a list fulfillment system for direct marketing. Our clients enter the specifications for an order, and it does the processing behind the scenes, then spits out the list requested by the client. We use that internally as well. The clients have access to an almost endless number of combinations of criteria they can request for these lists. Each list we maintain has different data elements, so the selection can vary based on factors like age, income, geographic information, or date of the last donation to a nonprofit.

How did you come to work with DevUp Labs?

Years ago, I think he was on one of the freelance sites we used to find developers, but I can’t recall the name. He’s since gone off on his own.

How much have you invested with DevUp Labs?

I’d rather not say.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October of 2014, and the work is ongoing. They’ve completed the development on a couple projects, but there’s ongoing maintenance as well as additional projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve really enjoyed working with them, and I’ve continued to give them projects. I wouldn’t do that if I wasn’t thoroughly satisfied with their performance. People find the new system easier to navigate and use. Our salespeople couldn’t even go out and sell the product the way it was before. Now that we’ve got this new product, our salespeople can show prospective clients something that’s slick and state-of-the-art.

How did DevUp Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They keep up on everything. They do a good job sticking to priorities. They ask the questions that need to be asked. I highly recommend them. We use JIRA to keep track of tasks within projects, and we also communicate via Slack on a broader level. We also have weekly Skype meetings. They’re very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about DevUp Labs?

It’s their responsiveness and the quality of their work. I like the way they look at a project and try to understand it. The average person off the street is not going to understand what we do, but they really want to understand the project, and they do a great job.

Are there any areas DevUp Labs could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential clients?

I would highly recommend them. I don’t think anyone could go wrong by hiring them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of EvalX. It’s a survey software web application geared towards nonprofits and their surveying efforts, and it leverages charity giving and improves participation by giving to a charity.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevUp Labs?

It’s quite expansive. The first part of what we’re trying to do is really get the survey software up. We were coming out of Washington University and had some really good success in the university, but it was software that was on the local servers. The first thing we needed was to get that technology up in the cloud.

Our other challenge has been—and they’ve done just an amazing job at making this happen—to connect. To be clear, we’re connecting with schools, which are nonprofit, hospitals, which are often nonprofits, and then businesses. For all of those, we most often will connect not with them but with third-party software. To give you an example, Washington University is interested in Big Brothers Big Sisters. And they find a donor who says, “I’m going to give a dollar for every Eval filled out to Big Brothers Big Sisters.” Now the students fill out the Evals at much higher numbers because that motivates, in a way, that telling them that they’re going to get money, yet telling them to do it because they should just does not. Getting that message across and clarifying the space in what we offer is part of our current challenge.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built our web application. Anybody can go there and create a survey, a lot like SurveyMonkey. We have an additional piece where you connect to a fundraising space. But at its core, it’s a survey software, and all of that data storage interactivity is all there. It’s not just a here are some images and a website. We went from that space and had it developed.

We then needed to drive people to our site. He’s got two folks that work with him, one in particular, Kate Ukrainec, who has just been masterful at keeping the Twitter and Facebook space going and getting social media generally activated and driving people to our site. That’s the whole second arm. Those have been the two principal needs for us.         

They make use of Buffer and G Suite. I know he’s a Microsoft shop, and that was what I was looking for, coming out of Washington University. I get the sense that he’s pretty flexible on code, but he seems to be particularly good in the Microsoft space. We got a grant to work on the Azure web cloud space, so having somebody that was skilled in the Microsoft world was really important for us.   

To be clear, about a year and a half ago, it was really to my knowledge only Daniel. When something wasn’t working in X, we brought on a guy named Gregor who's working full-time in that space. Then I believe there’s one other person who does debugging and she’s been helpful in making that stuff happen as well.  

How did you come to work with DevUp Labs?

When I was at Washington University, I worked with some real duds, so I was pretty apprehensive. If you work with somebody and they turn out to be a dud, you’re screwed. If you start up with somebody else, they have their way of doing things and want to start over again, so that’s really not desirable.

I went to Upwork and I spent a lot of time sniffing around. I was exploring my options because I really didn’t feel like I could afford what was being quoted to me. For example, I had worked with Foundry Software. I love those guys, but they were way out of my price range. There’s just no way I was going to get there. That was an option, but it was just too steep. There was one other group that I was looking at that was based in St. Louis and also just a little not doable. I looked at a company that was based in India but heard too many horror stories of incredible ability, but when there are crucial things that can’t be done that were promised, they go, “I’m sorry. I can’t do that.” And then they walk away. I was like, That can’t happen to me. I can’t be in that space.

Other than price, the Microsoft thing was huge. I had worked with Foundry Software for almost a decade, and they were a Microsoft shop. I needed somebody to understand what they had done and then create the equivalent on the web. It was important that it had to be somebody who is very skilled and had high recommendations in the Microsoft area.

I was very circumspect and careful, but we got going on it. They did a great job, and we’ve now been together close to two years now. He’s extremely reliable and organized with great follow-up. I couldn’t be more pleased.

How much have you invested with DevUp Labs?

I’m right around $100,000 in the last two years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September or October 2015. I feel like we’re really in the promotion phase at this point. Perhaps down the line, I think we really need to get a revenue. We need to be getting clients at this point, so I’m really more focused on sales. We spent the last year and a half developing this tool, and it’s got a lot of different components. It may suffer from being a little bit too much, so I think we need to be in the sales space at this point. We need to be driving people to the site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re in the first three weeks of marketing, so I feel like it’s too early to tell. Although they just jumped in that space for me only fairly recently, I really still see them as a web development software company. However, they’ve been able to bring my vision to life. It’s just spectacular.

Since we’re a startup, we’re just starting to get clients and feedback. I’ve had a few people jump on it and say, “It’s really easy to use.” The American University of Central Asia start in the fall, and they really liked how easy it was to use and how great it looked.

He also went out of his way to make me a better deal, which not everyone would do. I really appreciated that.

How did DevUp Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re fantastic. There was really never a technological question, problem, or issue that I had that Daniel Killyevo couldn’t solve within 24 hours. And then the larger more complicated development things, he would say, we need two weeks for this and so forth. He’s incredibly easy to work with and understands what you’re doing. That, for me, is a huge plus, and it’s not always true in the tech space. They have great flexibility. Another thing that is good is that his English is perfect. He grew up speaking English in Tanzania, so he’s not like a heavy-accented person trying to formulate the sentence and figure it out. He knows what you’re talking about, and it’s a huge advantage. We work through Trello primarily. Trello for me works great, and that is a fantastic program for organizing projects. It’s done a very good job prioritizing things and making it work.

What did you find most impressive about DevUp Labs?

I can code; I’m a very poor coder, but I know what good code is. I know people who can make stuff work, and those who really try and sound like they can, but they actually can’t get it done. When I worked with Daniel, for all the issues that I talked about—whether it’s creating the payment function, creating a more interactive thing that’s going to work with a database and interface and not just be an image-focused website, when it comes to creating an editable web page—he finds the right software and knows the right code. It’s really his technical expertise that I find the most impressive. The social media work has been good, but I’m early in that cycle. It’s really impressive to me, having dealt with people who can’t do what he does, to see how well he does what he does.

Are there any areas DevUp Labs could improve?

I really don’t. They’re exactly what I need.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with DevUp Labs?

Don’t work with Daniel because he’s mine. I don’t want to share him with anybody. (I don’t know if everybody will get the sarcasm in that.) He’s what the doctor ordered, and he’s going to solve your problems.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a product that helps customers produce mobile and web apps with either no code or small amounts of code.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire UppLabs LLC?

Development of bug fixes and new features. Project management.

What were your goals for this project?

To improve the quality of our product and improve management of our development process.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found them via Upwork. We trialed 2 vendors together and selected Upplabs.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Development of bug fixes and new features. Project management.

What was the team composition?

2 developers, 1 project manager and guidance from the CEO.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our backlog of bugs has been dramatically reduced, our development processes has been streamlined and the quality of our product has increased.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Initially the project manager was OK but not technical enough. We then switched to a different project manager who was more technical and they have been more effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They care about their clients and are eager to help when we need assistance. They are friendly and client-focussed.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I would be keen for them to assist with providing long term plans for how they could help us. They have access to our targets and plans but are not necessarily driving how they could work with us in the future. I feel that I need to drive the priorities and strategy.