WeezLabs

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work for a financial services firm that owns another business, which is the client for WeezLabs.

What is your position?

I'm senior vice president of portfolio operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with WeezLabs?

WeezLabs has been very integral with helping us develop our enterprise application during the past four years. They're a valuable part of our team.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They're doing more back end development for our database than customer-facing applications. It's all coding work, so there's no consulting or testing.

How did you come to work with WeezLabs?

I didn't select them, but I think my team found them several years ago. I liked their online profile and portfolio. They had a local liaison representative in Los Angeles and a team in Russia that helped reduce costs.

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

It was from $200,000 to $1 million per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's ongoing work for now with no immediate plans to stop.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We have made significant progress with our company and core product with the help of WeezLabs.

How did WeezLabs perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very talented and good at what they do. They're very professional. They're more like team members than contractors. I think they are good at providing feedback not just listening to directions. They will think about the technical problem and recommend solutions. They have a sense of ownership that most vendors lack.

What distinguishes WeezLabs from other providers?

They've got a presence in Los Angeles and Russia. They are an offshore firm but with a liaison in the United States. WeezLabs has a nice, hybrid model that has helped manage the project.

Is there anything WeezLabs could have improved or done differently?

I cannot think of anything major to improve.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an e-commerce site in the live entertainment industry. Basically, we sell tickets. 

What is your position?

I’m one of the co-founders. I’ve been here for six years, and I serve as the head of technology as well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with WeezLabs?

We have found it difficult to hire qualified engineers here in Los Angeles at the pace we need to. In order to accelerate our hiring needs, we’ve used WeezLabs to augment our team.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

They provide us with developers. It’s not a project based relationship. It’s a staff augmentation relationship. We’re a pretty mature tech organization with well defined processes so they aren’t responsible for project management or testing. They’re part of our team and follow all the same processes that our internal developers do.

It’s not that we’re trying to save money by going outside the US. We needed more velocity out of our technical team and we couldn’t recruit fast enough in the United States.

How did you come to work with WeezLabs?

One of their sales representatives used to work with us before. When he moved over to WeezLabs, he gave us a call. We probably interviewed 10 different vendors from Eastern Europe, India, etc. 

We gave them online tests. All our developers have to pass online tests in order be interviewed and strongly considered for the job. They had to do online coding and an interview with three coding questions during the interview. Most of the people didn’t pass the testing, but the engineers at WeezLabs did.

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

It ranges between $500,000 and a million.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we started the relationship in March, 2015. We have worked together for over six months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We’re very satisfied. We adopt a bit of a different view when working with partners like this. We don’t care about who the company is. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is each developer working on our project. I don’t believe in buying the company. I believe in buying the developer. 

So we require each person to go through the same testing as someone who works on our project here in Los Angeles. They’ve been very accommodating. Each person they propose, we test, and we probably accept 60 - 70% of the people they propose. 

The Eastern European developers we’ve surveyed from around that region are extremely talented. The ones that have passed our testing have done very well. I think we only replaced one out of ten, and I think that was more for communication and language issues than coding ability. Half of them that we’ve rejected are probably because of language related reasons.

We need to meet with them every day and they’re very interactive with our team. We need them to speak with us and think strategically. It’s a different method of work compared to what most people would use them for.

We track all our developers and we have a ton of data on how they perform. We have a team in Belarus, in Russia and ours in LA. For us, WeezLabs is our second most productive team. They’re working at the same velocity as our team in LA, and they’re doing really well.

How did WeezLabs perform from a project management standpoint?

They don’t manage the project although they are able to provide that service.

What distinguishes WeezLabs from other providers?

I found them very easy to work with. We’ve had the team fly over here, and we have enjoyed working with them. Weezlabs is a long term partner for us. We have had others that just don’t work out, but Weezlabs has so far.

Is there anything WeezLabs could have improved or done differently?

No. They have access to a big pool of talented developers. That’s what we want to tap into. They’ve been really good with us in that respect.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are developing a mobile application that will allow anybody with any sort of food allergies or diet restrictions to create their food profile. We are going to have a page where you can see if you have any food allergies or diet restrictions. From there, it is automatically going to present you with a curated list and menu items that fit that profile to place an order for delivery. We are trying to optimize for nutrition and diet restrictions and then connect users with the restaurants around them.

What is your position and responsibilities?

I am the CEO and co-founder of Green Grab.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with WeezLabs?

We are starting with delivery and with people who already have diagnosed problems. The reason we are starting with that is because it is the biggest pain point. First of all with delivery, you are the farthest away from getting help. When you are at the restaurant, hopefully, you have the luxury of talking to a trained waiter.

However, there are only two states that require waiters to be trained to know the dietary information in the food. It is even harder for people away from home when they call a hostess who has no idea because he or she was never trained to know what is in the food. That is the reason we are starting with that.

Overall, what we want to do is optimize people's nutrition for the best outcomes. Our vision is to help people optimize their nutrition and to know what is best for them even before they have the problems. How we are going to do that, I do not know yet, but we want to create a more educated restaurant community.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

WeezLabs definitely helped us. Besides building our initial prototype, they are now helping us to develop the application. They have been able to mentor us. This is the first company that I have ever started. I have always thought of ideas my whole life, but I never knew what to do with them. It was not until we got in there with Sam [Strasser, chief operating officer at WeezLabs] and other members of the WeezLabs team that we felt like we could get it to come to life.

Besides building applications and creating the software and the look, they have been able to mentor us, and make some introductions to some investors. We did not just pay them to develop an application, and they threw something back at us. They really got us involved in the project and have been teaching us along the way how to be true entrepreneurs. That is what has been exciting about working with them. 

How did you come to work with WeezLabs?

I found them on Google. I was with one of my co-founders one night, and we were trying to find some developers through Google. He pulled WeezLabs up and said that their website looked cool, so we shot them an email.

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

As it stands right now, it is in the range of $10,000 to $50,000. If you combine it with the prototype, it is going to be $200,000 plus.

What is the status of this engagement?

It is ongoing work. Right now, all we have done is build the initial prototype that has helped us to reach out and start to raise more money. Once we close our next round, we will actually be able to get applications to build development and prepare for launch. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I would say what was great about WeezLabs was the information they provided that helped us to understand what a "lean startup" was. I am a first-time entrepreneur, and I know the traditional business model: write a business plan, go find investors, and stick to your vision.

WeezLabs helped me to understand what it means to have a lean startup as opposed to a traditional company. Instead of writing your business plan and sticking to the vision, you pick something you are passionate about and figure out how to build it, and to let your customers speak to you. I think that was one of the most valuable pieces of information that they provided for us.

We actually did not start our company with WeezLabs. Being able to go to WeezLabs helped us not only to get started, but also helped us to calm down and figure out if we were on track. They helped us figure out the philosophy of how to approach the startup world. Helping us make connections to investors and to understand the process of developing an app was also helpful. That has been the most valuable piece of information.

What distinguishes WeezLabs from other providers?

I have not worked with any other mobile development companies but, in terms of setting up some initial meetings, we knew right away that we could go with them. First of all, they are in Santa Monica and I am in L.A., too, so the fact that we could actually meet in person was very helpful. There is only so much you can explain over the phone when you have ideas, and you cannot draw things out. That was one of the reasons we chose them.

We actually met with a couple other development companies before we met with them. They were very impressive as opposed to the other ones. In the initial meetings, they knew what they were doing, they had genuine interest, and they wanted our dream to be a success. The other companies were not like that. When I talked with them, they said that it sounded good, and this is what it costs. Even in the initial introduction, WeezLabs was very welcoming, and you knew you could trust them.

Is there anything WeezLabs could have improved or done differently?

There has not been anything that I can think of, and that is what is surprising. They run a very clean process so far, they have kept us on a good pace, WeezLabs has kept us in the loop.