Vinta Software

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I was the founder of a coffee-trading startup platform. It unfortunately no longer exists, but this doesn’t lessen the relationship we’ve had with Vinta Software in working through much of it.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vinta Software?
We hacked together a platform, which would be shown to investors to obtain funding. We were getting more business than we initially thought we would, so we needed someone to go in and test everything, write scripts, and make sure all features functioned as intended. We also needed to build many of the feature-sets that didn’t previously exist. I had worked with several other developers and was shocked at how quickly Vinta’s developer was able to start the initial process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
We worked directly with Flávio Juvenal, one of Vinta’s developers. I believe he also used other coders for writing scripts, but I don’t know how many. He was a value-add developer and walked us through why we should prioritize one thing over another and what should be done sooner rather than later. He not only identified issues, but also showed us why certain elements weren’t working.

Instead of just working on what we assigned them blindly, Vinta worked on the consulting side of things as well. They really were focused on understanding what we were trying to accomplish and providing alternate ways to develop. Our CTO was also impressed by his collaboration with Vinta’s team.

I have a limited knowledge of the development side, whereas our CTO had experience in this area. We were using a newer dynamic frontend platform based on JavaScript with NoSQL and MongoDB. We had a client-side database in place and were able to run and update certain things in real-time on the user end without going back to our main database.

How did you come to work with Vinta Software?
I looked through the top listings and reached out to Vinta Software based on their position. Their price and knowledge of our tech stack were good.

How much have you invested with Vinta Software?
The cost of their work was between $10,000­–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?
We initially reached out to Vinta Software in April 2015 and worked together for 5-6 months. We had a lot of ongoing work along the way, which Vinta tested for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
The most important reflection on Vinta’s group is that we continued to use them after the initial work. We occupied the WeWork coworking space, and there were other dev shops there that engaged with Vinta Software based on the work they did for us.

Flávio Juvenal flew out to San Francisco to meet and work with our team, but we also introduced him to several other partners. My understanding is that Vinta got business from this.

How did Vinta Software perform from a project management standpoint?
What really stood out to me was Vinta’s flexibility and responsiveness. If something happened, even if it was during late hours at their location in Recife, Brazil, I could send them a message and get a reply immediately. Usually, I’d have to tell them that it could wait until the next day. Vinta was more responsive than we needed them to be. I don’t remember what was used as a bug-tracking platform.

What did you find most impressive about Vinta Software?
The most important aspect was that they didn’t jump into any work without understanding it first. Sometimes, things can be complicated between 2 different cultures and languages, but not only is Vinta’s team proficient in English, they also made sure they understood what we were trying to accomplish without a lot of direction. This made me a lot more comfortable working with them compared to some other developers I’ve used. We never had to recode anything Vinta did.

Are there any areas Vinta Software could improve?
They could have moved to San Francisco. Had we closed our funding, we were hoping to convince Vinta to open an office in our city since that’s how closely we wanted to work together, going forward.

I am working on another project on which I hoped I could use Vinta, but they’re pretty booked. I would like them to grow substantially so that we could continue collaborating. Even though they don’t have the availability to take on certain projects, they’re still advising us without even charging us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of PlusPlus, which is an enterprise web app that simplifies internal learning event management for medium-sized to large technology companies. We offer assistance in areas like internal classes, tech talks, and tech-a-thons.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vinta?

Initially, we wanted to develop our MVP. Vinta came highly recommended to me.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vinta is my engineering team, and I act as the project manager. I have a UX designer, but Vinta also contributes to the design. I use them primarily for development and engineering. We are using the Django stack with Django Python, deploying on Heroku, and using React for the frontend.

How did you come to work with Vinta?

I wanted a stack that was great for enterprises and has a community around it. I evaluated everything from Java to Ruby on Rails and settled for Django because it met my criteria. My background is in Enterprise Java, so I would normally be much more comfortable with that, but Java did not have some other qualities that I liked about Python and Django. Then, I looked at Django, thinking that I would do some of the early engineering tasks myself. I contacted the authors of what I thought was the best book on the topic, asking if they would do some pair programming with me so I could pick up the skills faster. They were busy but recommended Vinta. By having an outside team, I can scale the work depending on customer feedback.

How much have you invested with Vinta?

I’ve been spending between $5,000 and $10,000 per month and between $70,000 and $80,000 per year. If we’re waiting for a customer to do a security review, we may not be developing that fast. Once we have a backlog, I can scale.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May if 2016. The product took 6 months to develop, and we launched in January of 2017 to power users of Salesforce. We launched to general Salesforce users in February of 2017. The project is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have great results and happy customers. We have thousands of users internally. I’m happy with the velocity. I’ve managed multiple engineering teams before when I worked at Twitter. Initially, I selected Vinta because of their Django Python skills, but I found that they have a Silicon Valley approach to software. We have a pretty good workflow in terms of how we create features and release them.

For my customers, the key metric is engagement. It’s not so much the number of users because that’s a finite amount. So far, those metrics have been really good. For me, what’s important is being able to build an attractive product that can serve many different companies. We’re looking for a perfect market fit that we can iterate fast, and we try to keep the product relatively lean in case we need to make changes. At the same time, we wanted to release enterprise-grade solutions that meet the needs and security concerns of large tech organizations.

How did Vinta perform from a project management standpoint?

I really admire their social conduct around work. The team has a shared understanding that the work is going to get done at a certain level of quality. They’re my engineers and my technical leads. They also protect the quality of the code and make sure that we’re not accumulating technical debt. I want features released quickly. Vinta recognizes that, but they also push the quality of their underlying code so that we don’t end up with something that falls apart.

Are there any areas Vinta could improve?

I don’t have any suggestions. It would be nice if their rate cheaper, but I wouldn’t get the same quality for that. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the chief marketing officer of the business. We offer a subscription mail delivery program.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vinta Software?

We needed to build a software that would allow us to create menus and set delivery dates in a flexible manner. There were no off-the-shelf options, so we started looking at a custom Python Django solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vinta Software developed our Python solution. There was some JavaScript involved, and we used Heroku for hosting. We used five developers across the run of our project and communicated regularly with three of them.

How did you come to work with Vinta Software?

After searching domestically and abroad, we found Vinta Software on Angel List. Vinta Software specialized in Python Django, which was important to us. The time zone was important as well. Vinta Software is close to Eastern Time, and the team is proficient in English. They offered a good price, much better than what we could find in the States. Because their team is part of a shop, we were confident that we could always add more hours and developers as we grew.

Initially, I spoke to one of Vinta’s developers. He seemed very confident and competent when it came to building what we needed. One of my colleagues also vetted their engineering and programming skills. He also checked if they were implementing best practices. He said that they were very good on all counts.

How much have you invested with Vinta Software?

The cost of Vinta Software’s services is $55 per hour. We use 80 hours per week with an open-ended agreement.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Vinta Software in August 2016. We expect that the collaboration will continue indefinitely.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to Vinta’s work, we managed to give our customers the ability to pause and skip more easily. We also provided customized menus. These improvements have helped decrease churn significantly. Users can take control of what they’re getting every week, so the process is more efficient. Our revenue has increased as well as the number of active customers. The general feedback about the ordering process has been extremely positive.

My team members are extremely happy with the work, especially since they aren’t always available for troubleshooting issues. Vinta Software is always helpful. Even though they work remotely, they feel like a part of our team.

How did Vinta Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Trello for project management. Vinta Software’s team is more active on it than myself, but I do check it from time to time. We also use Google Drive for keeping everything organized. Project management has been good. We have weekly check-ins. Everyone’s available on Slack, which is where we do most of our communication.

What did you find most impressive about Vinta Software?

Their ability to scale has been great. We’re able to add developers when we need to. The flexibility is also important, and Vinta Software is available on weekends. They had the ability to bring our vision to life without any difficulties. It was a challenging project, but we had no major issues.

Are there any areas Vinta Software could improve?

No. We’re happy with everything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of E.life, a Brazilian company. We do business in Brazil, Latin America, Portugal, and Spain. We provide software and services in social media data analysis, like social media monitoring. We also outsource people for CRMS [customer relationship management software]. We have customers like Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Nestle, but we’re always in the Spanish and Portuguese languages. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vinta Software?

Many customers now want to have customized dashboards. We have a solution internally, but many clients want to have data visualization that’s very customized for them. That’s why we hired Vinta Software. They did two dashboards for a big meat-exporting company in Brazil and for a mall chain that’s also in Brazil. They worked with Ruby and Angular JS, and they connected the dashboard to our database through APIs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I’m not really into coding anymore, so I only know Ruby and Angular JS. I talked to three people: Felipe [Founder & Frontend Developer, Vinta Software] and two more. It wasn’t a very big project; I think it took about three or four months. They did both dashboards in the same year, two years ago.

How did you come to work with Vinta Software?

I come from the same city in the northeast of Brazil, so I have a lot of contacts there. I tend to hire smaller companies there because I know the environment and I have a lot of contacts. I look on Facebook, Twitter, or GitHub at the new startups to see if they can provide services for us. Basically, I just browse around. I found them that way.

How much have you invested with Vinta Software?

I would say $20,000–$30,000. That’s the average fee for a small dashboard project.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project has been completed. We are in contact. For now, they haven’t done anything else, but that’s just because we don’t have any demands that they could help with. We started in 2015. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was a small project, and we didn’t actually measure anything. The customer still uses the dashboard. It’s just frontend and connected to the API, so there wasn’t a ton of complexity involved. But, as far as I know, there were no complaints from my IT team.

How did Vinta Software perform from a project management standpoint?

We just used Trello and Slack, plus a lot of emails. I did a very rapid prototype because we already knew what we wanted based on the customer’s needs. It was a very small project, so the management wasn’t that challenging.

We communicate in Portuguese, but we all tend to write comments in English. Normally, we do coding in English. I haven’t heard from them in English, but a lot of small startups work overseas, and I don’t see English as a problem.

What did you find most impressive about Vinta Software?

If I compare them, I think they’re more flexible and more up-to-date with software quality procedures and software development management. That’s why I like to hire younger companies, so our company can learn the latest ideas. Vinta Software is pretty up-to-date with software development standards, whereas I stopped coding nine years ago and don’t have any idea what the best practices are today.

Are there any areas Vinta Software could improve?

I really can’t say much since it was such a small project. If it was a one-year project, I might have something to complain about, but this quick project was very smooth and unproblematic. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The product is a private messaging platform with the specific use case to allow people to send delayed messages that will be sent after that person passes away. I am the interim Chief Technology Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vinta Software?

We were looking to build the MVP for Wanted You To Know. We generally knew what we wanted to achieve. We needed to assemble a team to build that. In reviewing our options, Vinta was the most compelling for what we were trying to do.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us build the initial web product of Wanted You To Know. It’s mobile, desktop, and tablet friendly; it has a Python and Django backend. On the frontend, we used jQuery along with Bootstrap. We took a more modern approach in using Babel and ECMAScript6 to write all the JavaScript on the frontend. There’s the message creation process itself, and then in the backend, there’s our verification process where there’s some API integrations of how we figure out if a user is still alive or not. If we determine that the user is not alive, we’ll send the messages. There’s a message viewer as well.

How did you come to work with Vinta Software?

I’m involved in the Django and Python communities. I lead the Django NYC user group. One of the partners of Vinta came to visit New York, and made a presentation to the group about open source projects he created using Python based API wrappers. We started talking. A few months later, I started working with Wanted You To Know, and we were looking at our goals. I’ve helped companies build their MVP and launch it, but I didn’t have the personal capacity to spend time building this, so I was exploring who would be a good fit. I reached out to Vinta. When it came to availability, price, and skill, they offered a lot of compelling value.

How much have you invested with Vinta Software?

The initial build was around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s completed. There will be another product if everything continues to go well and we have funding.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re in beta right now, collecting user feedback. They did a really good job on testing. The app has 94% test coverage. My personal baseline is 80%.

How did Vinta Software perform from a project management standpoint?

Really well. There were some issues that came up, as every project has. It’s more about how problems are handled, which they did a good job on. The one major problem wasn’t their fault; we had some unclear design decisions that caused us to switch things. They did a good job adapting to that. The initial estimated scope, which I estimated, didn’t account for some added complexity, and some features were subsequently added. So we went over the initial estimate. They handled that very well.

What did you find most impressive about Vinta Software?

One thing I appreciated is that they were very receptive to my feedback. I’m extremely technical, and was code reading and offering feedback. I know that’s something that can be very difficult to have. They were very open to that, and willing to listen to me. They were willing to adapt.

Are there any areas Vinta Software could improve?

It was circumstantial in things that were going on in the personal lives of some members of the team. There were a couple of issues where resources had to be shifted around. They could’ve been more proactive on bringing up those issues earlier. There are some parts of their process that could be more flexible, but it’s not a huge issue. They have a pretty strict process in place and that can be a constraint. That can be frustrating to some people.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I have a company that contracts web application developers. I'm based in New York.

What is your position?

I am the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Vinta Software?

I would have a number of clients that would ask me to build products for them. I got to a point where I needed to contract out some of the work because of the volume of work I was receiving.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They handled Django, Flash, and Python web development. I would hand Vinta Software wireframes, we'd talk about implementation strategies, and they would code it and create the work. We mostly collaborated on an e-commerce site although they did some work on a different project as well, which was more of a social network. They did a proof of concept application that had a visual recognition component to it. You could feed it a photograph, and it would recognize certain things in the photograph.

How did you come to work with Vinta Software?

I had experimented with trying to hire people locally, and I wasn't satisfied with the quality I was getting compared to what I was paying. I started looking at offshore resources. I think I posted an ad, and I wound up working with two companies. One was Vinta, and one was a developer out of Pakistan.

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

Vinta Software charged $65 an hour. I think it was about $10,000 a month for four or five months. They weren't working with me on a fixed basis. It was between $50,000 and $200,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I enjoyed working with them. They're smart people. They know what they're doing. They do seem to have access to good, local talent in Brazil.

How did Vinta Software perform from a project management standpoint?

They did good. They missed a little bit in terms of making accurate project estimates. There were good lines of communication and they were good in terms of interpreting specifications. They're hungry to expand their business. They were looking for ways to please their clients and get into new areas. We discussed the possibility of doing iOS development, but I never used them for that. They're expanding to do that. That's a good solution because a person like me could just go to a one shop for everything.

What distinguishes Vinta Software from other providers?

Vinta Software has good quality control. One of the issues that can happen with outsourcing is that the quality of the work is not sufficient. Vendors can differentiate themselves with the quality of their work.

Is there anything Vinta Software could have improved or done differently?

There's things I could've done differently. I was in a position where I was doing a project for a fixed amount of money, but they were hourly. If I would do it again, I would say here's the scope and get a bid for the entire thing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company does equity administration. We have a system that distributes stock certificates online so there's no paper involved. Users can also exercise their options on our company site and we perform the money movement.

What is your position?

I am the head of engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Vinta Software?

We had many existing bugs, so we hired Vinta Software to help us fix them. That was the main thing they did. We didn't have any major security issues but, when something comes up, they would triage those to see if they're valid.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Vinta Software developed a few new product features, and then we started moving them on to fixing bugs. They're strong Python developers.

How did you come to work with Vinta Software?

We found Vinta Software on Angel List, where they were looking for opportunities. We were also interested that they were based in Brazil because there's a big Python Django community there.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement is ongoing [as of August 2016].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We had a big bug issue at first. We would fix stuff locally and new bugs would come. It was an escalating issue. Our goal was to have only 10 to 15 bugs in the pipeline. The first month, we got it down to 50, then down to 20.

How did Vinta Software perform from a project management standpoint?

It was good, I can't say how that would have been if we'd had them work on features. We're not a company that puts out specs. We're an interactive development organization.

What distinguishes Vinta Software from other providers?

We were looking for very good Python developers. Flavio [Junior, founder of Vinta Software] was our point person, and he was really responsible. That helped us a lot.

Is there anything Vinta Software could have improved or done differently?

As you hire people, you always have the key people who are very good, then you'll have some folks who come in that aren't as good. You have to be on top of stuff making sure everyone is performing. It's not an issue as much as making sure everyone is performing at a high level.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company is called Code Union. We're a software development firm based in New York City that started about a year and a half ago. We focus on front-end JavaScript development in both web apps and hybrid mobile apps. We work with venture backed early-stage companies, large companies, and bootstrapped apps by nontechnical companies.

What is your position?

I am the founder and lead developer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Vinta Software?

I had a client that wanted to build out a dashboard project. I didn't have the bandwidth to take on the project in-house. I was looking for someone who did good work and was reliable and affordable.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Vinta Software did 90 percent of the development on the dashboard project. I was the point of contact with the client where we would check in on a weekly basis.

How did you come to work with Vinta Software?

I had been referred to Vinta Software through another client of mine who was using them. They said they were good. By looking at their site and talking to them, I got a good feeling about working together.

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

The project cost between $10,000 and $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was completed early this year [2016].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Everything went well, and the client was happy. We haven't done any follow up work, so I don't know what the current state of the project is.

How did Vinta Software perform from a project management standpoint?

The quality was great. The project management was good.

What distinguishes Vinta Software from other providers?

They were very responsive, and the quality of work for the money was good.

Is there anything Vinta Software could have improved or done differently?

At first, there wasn't much oversight of hours logged, and they transitioned to having a minimum contract.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the CEO of a healthtech company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We specialize in developer tools for healthcare, enabling the development of custom health applications.  We are an ONC certified Healthcare IT.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Vinta Software to accomplish?

• Reference implementations of various features
• Customer specific applications and workflows

SOLUTION

How did you find Vinta Software?

Referral

Why did you select Vinta Software over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from Vinta Software were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

Much of the work was open source.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Number of PRs merged and engineering velocity.

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

Team was able to work independently and deliver implementations on time.

What was your primary form of communication with Vinta Software?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We valued their attention to detail in the implementations.

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

More domain specific knowledge (healthcare) would be a plus.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the VP of Engineering of a healthcare company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We're a behavioral health company focused on providing accessible treatment to patients diagnosed with autism.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Vinta Software to accomplish?

• Develop MVP of EHR software.

SOLUTION

How did you find Vinta Software?

Referral

Why did you select Vinta Software over others?

• High ratings
• Referred to me
• Experience with specific technology

How many teammates from Vinta Software were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Design and implement a custom frontend for an EHR application using a third party backend.  Key deliverables were a frontend application built using React and Typescript, API integrations with additional 3rd party software vendors and our own internal APIs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Completed MVP scope of project which was to have a functional, stable EHR software for our users.

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

They were consistent with delivering features on time, and were responsive to priority as well as scope changes.  The flexibility allowed us to build a better product

What was your primary form of communication with Vinta Software?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The engineers were very capable and could independently come up with solutions for new problems they encountered.  

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

Digging deeper into requirements earlier in the software development process could have helped with some specific features being more refined when delivered.