Yellow

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of SmartCenter, an intelligent practice management solution for small tax and accounting firms. I do everything I can to help our company grow.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yellow?

We needed an adept team to step in and work alongside us as our technical partner to develop a product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They came in to replace a team we were working with previously on the product. This required them to work on a code base that they didn’t start, but they managed to jumped right in and take the product where it needed to go.

They’ve taken the mobile responsive Ruby on Rails application from a minimum viable product (MVP) stage to a fully functioning app. They’ve implemented some login and security features, as well as developed our client collaboration portal. It’s a unique document sharing portal that meets IRS requirements for our industry regarding personal data (e.g., social security numbers, year-end numbers). The portal is a leader in the industry because it integrates real-time chat features with secure document sharing.

They’ve also helped us integrate the app with Microsoft Outlook, 365 Exchange, Gmail, QuickBooks, and Zero.

What is the team composition?

My initial point of contact was one of their founders, but that moved over to the project manager once development started. There have also been two frontend and two backend developers.

How did you come to work with Yellow?

I’d heard about them through a personal connection in the Bay Area. We chose them because we felt really comfortable with their efficiency and ability to finish the work in the timeframe we needed. Their price model was also aligned with our objectives.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent approximately $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2016 and the relationship is ongoing as we continue to build out new features.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Users often comment on the app’s simplicity and seamless functionality. Many apps in the B2B sphere are outdated and inaccessible. They may have complex functionality, but they don’t feel good to use. Yellow worked with us to build an app that is both functional and easy for the user. A potential venture capitalist partner did a code review and said that it was the cleanest they’d ever seen.

How did Yellow perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Slack and Pivotal. I’m very pleased with the project manager. We’ve worked with four development teams over the life of our business, but Yellow is by far the best at helping us make decisions to push our company forward. They don’t just take requirements and start coding, but instead go to a much deeper level of understanding what we’re trying to do. They work with us to develop our vision in a unique way. They translate our goals into their project management on a daily basis, which is something they’ve done really well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There are a lot of development teams out there that can produce clean code, but the majority of them don’t really care. Yellow stands out because they’re invested in the results and clients. If the team doesn’t truly care about the product, then it will show in the end result. Every single person on Yellow’s team genuinely cares about what they’re doing. I really appreciate that about them and it’s the main reason we will continue our relationship for as long as possible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve had a great experience from day one. I couldn’t be happier with their team and we haven’t had any issues.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

There are certain things you have to take care of on your own before you bring in a team, but you don’t necessarily have to do that with Yellow. Their onboarding process and approach allow both parties to really figure out how to handle the project to end up with the best results. If you follow their process and trust that they want to help, then that’s a really good start.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a mobile app company focused on improving family communication. Established two years ago, we are a small company with fewer than five employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Yellow?

We hired them to help develop our mobile app product. This included a project outline, project management, iOS and Android development, backend and database development, and UI design. Working in conjunction with ours, the team also needed daily and weekly accessibility via Slack and Skype.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to develop and launch the alpha version in less than one year, with a beta version available for public testing three months after. We wanted a fast, reliable, and scalable product that could integrate third party services.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We initially tried to hire direct staff in the San Francisco Bay Area but were frustrated by the talent level available at our salary. After finding Yellow on an Angel List posting, we conducted a phone call, follow-up technical questionnaire, and product thought exercise with them. We were impressed with their correct responses and clear, well-developed outline. Once we agreed on rates, we established a team composite, basic goals, communication needs, and a budget.

Describe the project in detail.

Within two or three weeks of selection, Yellow submitted a project outline and wireframes for both iOS and Android. After several iterations, development began with a focus on the minimum value properties necessary for launch. We developed most of the app features ourselves but also used multiple third-party programs like Amazon Web Services, Heroku, and QuickBlox. Progress updates were available daily and all completed quality-assured code was stored in our repository. Yellow helped deploy the app on TestFlight and manage both the Apple and Google Play stores.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of a designer, a backend architect, both iOS and Android developers, and a project manager, who was responsible for most of the communication. Additional developers and resources were also made available to us as needed. Discussing the project with us multiple times a month, Yellow’s CEO was very involved with input on product development. We had the support not only of a core team but of the entire company.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within a year, a few family members were testing the alpha version launched in both stores and the results are great. The product is solid, unique, and fast on both platforms, and improvements are currently being made for public launch in one month. We are very happy and this has been a fantastic relationship. Engaged every step of the way, Yellow elevated our product’s outline and vision. I highly recommend them.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager was great, highly communicative, and easy to get along with. We would Skype on request and communicate primarily via Slack. Invested in improving the product, deep consideration was taken for our product, the users, and new technologies. He has also been very honest when confronted with an issue.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I've very impressed by their knowledge of the entire app process and user-focused approach. Yellow dispelled my concerns that an outsourced team would simply do as they were told. They are deeply invested in making our product successful and are unafraid to voice their opinions; they would often develop concepts into features that were better than the original idea. All in all, I am very impressed.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Speed of delivery can always be improved, but not necessarily while maintaining a high quality of work. I wish they lived in my time zone!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Speed Digital builds cloud-based technology solutions for the collector and specialty car markets. Our core product is a dealer management software that helps dealers process inventory, create and organize leads, and automate the marketing of hundreds of online classifieds. The integration of our document management system (DMS) into our website platform allows us to build beautiful, modern websites that instantly update with inventory changes. As product manager, I'm responsible for product roadmapping, creating and defining new features, and coordinating website builds with our development and design teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Yellow?

As a small, rapidly growing startup with an accelerating client base, we needed additional resources to help address our backlog of website builds and updates. We hired Yellow to build out new custom website designs for our DealerMarketing platform, which links to our DMS and provides additional development resources for clients’ existing queued updates. 

What were your goals for this project?

Our primary goal in supplementing our current frontend team was to increase our custom website build and maintenance bandwidth. We are fast-paced, and our developers’ industry experience allows them to build websites without mocking up or prototyping every detail of a build. We needed agile development resources with UI/UX skill sets that could immediately boost our output and keep up with growing demand.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Yellow responded to our Angel.co post detailing the type of resources we were looking for. After a call with their founder to discuss our needs, we decided to hire them for a single project. The great results of that first project led us to move forward with additional work and long-term support.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They were responsible for the homepage UI design and the wireframes of secondary pages used to build out websites on the DealerMarketing platform. Although this was frontend work, the platform’s connection with the DMS backend required knowledge in Ruby. Yellow also completed some requested updates to existing client websites.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of a project manager and two frontend developers. A development lead and I worked with Yellow to establish access and setup for the platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Despite a rapid onboarding from initial contact to actual work, Yellow completed all deliverables within their time estimates. They picked up on the nuances of our platform quickly, directing communication and questions to the appropriate members of our internal team. As a result, we have been able to reduce our work backlog with minimal additional management overhead.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management and process expectations were established during an introductory call with developers. Yellow joined our task and communication platforms (Asana/Slack) without the need for additional training or demonstrations.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Despite their location abroad, Yellow has been incredibly responsive to updates or questions sent during our workday. Their UI/UX improvement suggestions and ability to develop single-page mockups into full websites have been incredibly valuable to our team.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

There is not much for them to improve upon; any issues in communication or process were quickly resolved. We look forward to continuing our relationship!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing Manager of Pynest LTD

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Pynest is a Python development company that specializes in AI-related services. We work with data engineering, big data analytics, machine learning, automation, data analysis, and Python-based backend development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Yellow to help us with a computer vision project for one of our enterprise clients. We needed an AI-powered image classification system built in Python, but our in-house team didn’t have enough capacity to meet the timeline. Yellow stepped in to support the development, training, and optimization of the model.

SOLUTION

How did you find Yellow?

• Online Search
• Clutch Site

Why did you select Yellow over others?

they had both strong Python/AI expertise and prior experience building similar solutions

How many teammates from Yellow were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The project kicked off with a discovery phase where we aligned on data requirements and defined success metrics. From there, Yellow’s team handled the model architecture design and set up a pipeline for data preprocessing and augmentation.

The next stage was model training and iterative testing, followed by fine-tuning for accuracy. Finally, they helped us package everything into a deployable microservice that integrated smoothly with our client’s backend.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The model achieved over 92% accuracy on the client’s test dataset, which exceeded the target KPI we set at the beginning. But most importantly, we were able to deliver the solution on time, and our client was happy with both the functionality and the speed of deployment.

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

They were proactive, transparent, and responsive. We mostly used Slack and Jira, with occasional Google Meet calls for more detailed discussions. Tasks were always tracked and updated on time, and they flagged potential risks early.

What was your primary form of communication with Yellow?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What impressed us most was Yellow’s ability to combine deep technical knowledge with a collaborative and flexible approach. They were proactive and suggested improvements to the model architecture and data pipeline that made the final product stronger.

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

The only small thing is that sometimes the documentation updates lagged behind the code changes, but once we flagged it, they improved quickly. Overall, nothing major.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of SumatoSoft

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide custom software development services

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Yellow to develop an AI-driven customer support system. Our objective was to enhance customer experience by reducing response times and improving the accuracy of solutions provided.

SOLUTION

How did you find Yellow?

Clutch Site

Why did you select Yellow over others?

Good value for cost

How many teammates from Yellow were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We began with an in-depth consultation where their team immersed themselves in our requirements. This led to building a customized AI model designed to help our customer support. The integration process was seamless, with their experts ensuring that the new AI system worked with our existing CRM and communication platforms.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Post-implementation, we saw a 50% reduction in response times and a 40% increase in customer satisfaction scores. The AI system also reduced operational costs by automating repetitive tasks.

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

Their project management was exceptional. They adhered to the timeline, regularly communicated progress, and responded quickly to our feedback.

What was your primary form of communication with Yellow?

Email or Messaging App

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

Their innovative approach to problem-solving and commitment to understanding our business needs were truly unique.

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

Nothing to mention here.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Social Media officer of Doctors Without Border (MSF) Southern Africa

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is a global network of principled medical and other professionals who specialise in medical humanitarian work, driven by our common humanity and guided by medical ethics. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Production of a Facebook BOT

SOLUTION

How did you find Yellow?

Online Search

Why did you select Yellow over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from Yellow were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

(a)      Creation of Facebook Chat BOT

(b)     Creation of tiles (sections) and their logic for the BOT  

(c)      Creation of database to store information about various diseases 

Quality assurance deployment and launch of the MSF Southern Africa Facebook Chat BOT 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BOT created and completed

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

Yes, the team from Yellow finished the project on time, always responding to our needs and finding solutions for us for any issues. 

What was your primary form of communication with Yellow?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Very impressive

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Preesh, a tech startup. At the moment, we have two employees: my CTO and me.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yellow?

We required a money transfer API.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yellow is our app and website design and development partner; they’re all we’re currently using. We initially discussed the design and the estimates moving forward, and they’ve developed everything from scratch.

What is the team composition?

We mainly deal with Varvara (Project Manager).

How did you come to work with Yellow?

I researched fintech companies, startups, app development, and working with new companies. I stumbled upon some of Yellow’s articles and liked what I read. Moreover, I liked their feel and verbiage. When I reached out, I enjoyed talking to the company, so we moved forward.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We initially reached out to them in December 2022. We continued our conversation in January 2023 and got started in April 2023. We had to pause the project on our end for a few months, but we’ve picked it back up again.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t launched yet, but our app differs from any other app. We’re still testing things, but the design and all deliverables have been excellent so far. Overall, Yellow has done a wonderful job putting together what we were looking for. We’re happy with the slides and pages.

How did Yellow perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been on time and within budget. Moreover, they’re great with response times, deliverables, and expectations. Yellow was great with our need for the pause, and they were ready to go when we could pick it up. Although they had to change one of their techs, the new person moved right into what we were doing and what we wanted to accomplish. Everything has been excellent; working with them over the past year has been nice.

They share everything on Figma, and we communicate through Slack and weekly calls to discuss changes or hurdles.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Varvara has been fantastic throughout the entire project. She’s been our point person since we started.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Yellow has done everything we expected and asked them to do. If we ask them to change something, it’s never a problem. Moreover, they give good insights.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re pretty happy with everything that’s happening. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have an open mind. You might have a plan or layout, but be willing to be flexible and adjust to changing conditions as they arise. Also, don’t be afraid to say exactly what you’re looking for. If you’re not familiar with a form of technology or something else, and they do, just ask. Yellow does a great job of helping you along with that.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the President of Ideas

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

E commerce

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Develop application e commerce
• Make various parts of site seamless function together
• Work with pod company and shopify

SOLUTION

How did you find Yellow?

• Online Search

Why did you select Yellow over others?

• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Yellow were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Took an application e commerce idea and brought it to life A bunch of highly educated intelligent group of people who all happen to be so nice kind and caring as if it was their own project

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ecommerce application went from idea to real world work and to see it all come to life Was amazing

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

• Incredible communication
• Incredible people

What was your primary form of communication with Yellow?

• Virtual Meeting

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

They are talented, nice people who cared and figured out all needed and asked for

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

Nothing more just great

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Co-Founder & CTO of an engineering company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a simple platform to document and maintain electrical distribution systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Build a mobile app
• Help with roadmap items on main app

SOLUTION

How did you find Yellow?

Tradeshow

Why did you select Yellow over others?

• Good value for cost
• Met in person before

How many teammates from Yellow were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Built a mobile app from scratch integrating with our existing API and IDP 

• Graph model data structure rendered into a treeview 
• CRUD interface for edges and nodes in the graph 
• Camera and image upload 
• QR Code scanner Implemented various bug fixes and features in main web app 
• Fixed various bugs around the platform 
• Implemented improvements to various workflows and interfaces 
• Improved features of search functionality on the platform 
• Implemented various fixes and migrations for application data

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• On Budget: Mobile application development was completed within the expected time, estimates were accurate 
• Autonomy: Both developers we worked with were able to get spun up quickly and get work done with a minimum amount of support from our internal team.

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

Never had a doubt or issue with their project management processes, either with tickets we managed on our side for web development or tickets they managed on their side for mobile development project.

What was your primary form of communication with Yellow?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They were able to pickup an extremely complicated project with a very complex data model and get to work very quickly.

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

Honestly, can't think of anything

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive at Kubiy.ai

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

ChatGPT for Devops

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Design our Webapp
• Create a user experience

SOLUTION

How did you find Yellow?

Referral

Why did you select Yellow over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Yellow were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Yellow did an excellent job designing a beautiful UI for our low code Web app that was intuitive and sleek.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

On time and on target delivery

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

Very responsive

What was your primary form of communication with Yellow?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

High quality work

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

Nope