4IRE

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Hackmakers, a build-to-earn web3 organisation running hackathon challenges for clients and learners.

For what projects/services did your company hire 4IRE?

4IRE helped us with the discovery process of our planned NFT mint, and provided an overview of the best ERC token standards for our feature set.

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

We searched through various blockchain agencies and shortlisted down the top 3, based on previous projects listed on their website. We then interviewed all three and found the depth of knowledge and professionalism of 4IRE to be the best.

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

Over the course of 4 weeks, they illicited key requirements about our product and eventual integration with the dapp and DAO. They delivered a concise and effective report with clear recommendations on the build stage.

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

Their blockchain specialist, lead developer and solution architect were our key contacts. Their CTO was also present in many of the meetings. The meetings were well run and provided us with clarity on key details of the project.

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

We have a good understanding of the NFT mint stage of our project which will be implemented at a future date.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Everything was fine, we communicated through email, Slack and Google meet. 4IRE were prompt in answering questions through all of the listed channels.

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

We found their blockchain specialist and CTO to be very professional and have a very deep understanding of the subject matter. They understood our company's business model and requirements very well.

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

This project had many differing levels of difficulty which may not have always required a senior developer for the simpler stage.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO and co-founder of ARterra. We build fan engagement software for the esports and gaming industry. 

What challenge were you trying to address with 4IRE?

Originally, we outsourced our code and it wasn’t a good experience. The code was extremely messy, we weren’t meeting deadlines, and things were only roughly patched together. As a result, we brought on 4IRE to help us organize the code. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

4IRE has organized and cleaned up our code while executing our vision. We’re built on the NEAR blockchain, and we’re using Kubernetes, AWS, Docker, and IPFS for storage. We also use Terraform

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with a total of seven people from 4IRE. The team is composed of a project manager, two frontend developers, two backend developers, a blockchain developer, and a designer. 

How did you come to work with 4IRE?

Our team found 4IRE through one of our contacts within the NEAR protocol. They received good reviews from the NEAR blockchain team. Hiring them became a no-brainer when we told them our goals and listened to how they wanted to scope out the project. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $400,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in May 2021, and the partnership is ongoing. We’re bringing 1–2 in-house developers into our team, but we plan to keep 4IRE on board for as long as they want to stick around.

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

For success metrics, we check whether we complete tasks on time. Our combined team with 4IRE has been great at hitting our target times every sprint. At the end of each two-week sprint, we’ve not only executed the code but also put it under QA. Simply put, 4IRE has done an excellent job of sticking to our timelines.

Given the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, some of 4IRE’s members have been displaced. As a result, we’ve had to postpone everything to give them some time. Even so, their resources are still trying to work to the point that we’ve had to ask them to keep themselves safe. In other words, they’re truly diligent when it comes to timelines, and that’s our number one success metric.

How did 4IRE perform from a project management standpoint?

4IRE’s project managers are great. We’ve started with Victoria (Head of Delivery), and she’s been fantastic. She’s been promoted, so we now work with Ivan (Senior Project Manager), who’s also great.

We use Slack to communicate and a couple of Atlassian products — Confluence and Jira — to keep everything organized. Because of these tools, we’ve planned our sprints together effectively. We’ve had open visibility, which is also crucial. Overall, their project management has been great, and it’s truly easy to work with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In our space, developing a decentralized app is tough. A lot of teams say that they can do it — 4IRE not only can accomplish this; they also have a relationship with the protocol on which they’re building the app. 

That kind of relationship is critical for us, and it builds trust. When things change on the blockchain side, 4IRE is already ahead of the trends instead of reactively coding to catch up. They’re ahead of anything in terms of optimizing our code, ensuring it’s aligned with any new standard. For instance, when they see that a certain ecosystem is blowing up, they stay on top of it and add developers that are fluent in that ecosystem. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. Everything is going quite well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Start the engagement with a full scope of how you see your product. Then, let 4IRE figure out the best way to make it happen. Don’t go in with any preconceived notions of how things should happen. Go in with a 30,000-foot view of your goals, and then let the team do the project planning and use their creativity to figure out how to best tie the project pieces together.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Media company developing a slate of Film projects. At the same time, exploring Blockchain and investigating solutions that can help empower independent film companies. Founder - Director

For what projects/services did your company hire 4IRE, and what were your goals?

Carry out a feasibility study, architecture and design of a new utility crypto token to ascertain whether this is technically possible; understand timescales and costs associated with developing the minimum viable product.

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

Explore a number of blockchain solution providers - met with a few to understand their experience. Ultimately it boiled down to experience and the "people" we would be working with.

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

We had a kick off meeting followed by a number of workshops to discuss our goals and objectives. This included what we envisaged to be core for a MVP. The team delivered use cases and mock-ups/wireframes for our product to discuss and also flush out further requirements.

A number of collaboration tools were used to enable working across three timezones. UK, Ukraine and California. The team were very flexible.

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

A project manager, business analyst and solutions architect were our point of contact throughout. A designer also worked behind the scenes. Furthermore, the CEO was always accessible and reachable.

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

We are now looking at proceeding with the development and are also looking at how we could grow the initial idea/concept further. In parallel, we are are exploring funding opportunities.

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

We had weekly meetings along with ad-hoc meetings, sometimes at very short notice. The team was very flexible in accommodating us - especially as we are based across UK and California.

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

Their openness and willingness to help us achieve our vision. Beyond this, their drive to help us succeed by connecting us with other potential partners from legal through to marketing.

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

No. They were super efficient, friendly and driven to ensure the project succeeds.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a BDM at a software development company

For what projects/services did your company hire 4IRE LABS, and what were your goals?

Our goal was to create a cross-border payment app with intuitive design to enable businesses and individuals to transfer money internationally. We needed to scale our team, so we turned to 4ire Labs to take care of the development process and implement our idea.

How did you select 4IRE LABS and what were the deciding factors?

We selected from a number of blockchain development companies. During the selection process, we were referred by our friend who already collaborated with 4ire Labs and was impressed by the quality of their service and project management.

We mainly chose them because of their expertise in blockchain development and senior blockchain engineers.

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

• Software architecture solution for the blockchain-based cross border system on Quorum blockchain
• Technologies justification including deployment model, 3rd party integrations, and database model
• Detailed project roadmap and estimation
• UX/UI design for the web application
• MVP development of the web app, so the partner bank could provide the EMI license (including the admin dashboard)

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

We had a dedicated project manager, QA, Blockchain Solution Architect, full-stack engineer, and UX/UI designer.

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

With the help of 4ire Labs, we've managed to build an easy, transparent, and highly secure solution for sending payments overseas. They used advanced blockchain technology to process global payments in no time at substantially lower costs.

We opted for blockchain as it eliminates multiple intermediaries that participate in traditional cross-border money transfers.

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

I can say that their project management is on the level. They are very organized and communicate professionally. We explained what we wanted to accomplish and the terms, and they divided the work into sprints.

It worked very well as we had some freedom to make changes during the development process. We regularly communicated with their project manager and the team via Skype or Slack to check on the project stage, set a new sprint, or regulate matters on budget and deadlines.

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

The 4ire Labs team engineers displayed an effort to produce quality code, react to the occurring issues and changes professionally and efficiently, and deliver a strong product on time. Their workflow was smooth and they tried their best to be available whenever we needed their assistance.

I think that their focus and commitment were vital to our project success.

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

We are more than satisfied with the project results. They have refined their processes to be near-optimal and comfortable to work with.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Co-Founder and CEO of a company that focuses on genetic data sharing between researchers in genomics.

For what projects/services did your company hire 4IRE LABS, and what were your goals?

I hired 4ire Labs to help construct a demo that was to be built on NEAR Protocol which could demonstrate the fundamentals of genetic file sharing using blockchain tech.

My goal was to use this as a good foundation to build the future platform as well as use the demo developed to demonstrate to investors of the feasibility of the platform.

How did you select 4IRE LABS and what were the deciding factors?

I decided 4ire Labs because they offered a very reasonable price for development of this initial demo while most other companies I consulted were not within our budget.

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

We had a few kick-off meetings to lay out the framework of the goals of the project. Once there was a clear understanding of what needed to be done, the development team layed out "user stories" which were essential requirements desired for the platform.

The project consist edof three parts - Marketplace smart contract on Near blockchain written with Rust, dApp in VueJs and backend in NodeJs. The development team regularly scheduled meetings to give updates on progress that week.

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

A project manager was the main point of contact with two additional software engineers that assisted with much of the development.

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

After I was given access to the demo locally, 100% percent of people I pitched to, were amazed by the quality of the project.

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

We had meetings on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to go over progress updates. We also used Slack as our main mean of communication within the team. All code was also uploaded to Github so that I was able to review it as well.

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

I am just overall very impressed with the quality of the project, and how professional it is. When I was working on running it locally they were also very willing to walk me through the required steps in order set up the proper configuration. They definitely have a highly skilled team.

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

There were some bugs initially, but that comes with the development process of any project. They quickly fixed those.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I an coo of maitres and we are an app based in Sweden but planing on expansion in Europe within a few years. We are like Uber but for restaurants, Bokning engine and primary a payment System

For what projects/services did your company hire 4IRE LABS?

Development and maintain

What were your goals for this project?

Same as above

How did you select this vendor?

I was not a part of the initial project unfortunately but some previous colleagues had experience with them from before

Describe the project in detail.

Developing and building our app from scratch and making the project better and constant maintaining the features and developing new add-ons

What was the team composition?

It’s been changing throughout the time but mainly 2 full-time developers. Now we have a cto and a full time backend developer.

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

We are very happy with our team and our outcomes. Especially with our cto who is brilliant and leaning the project to the fullest

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective thanks to Oleg

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The close contact to the team and our organizer and their flexibility and constantly being available

Are there any areas for improvement?

Of course but that has mostly to do with language barriers

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO at Blaze. we're blockchain development company based in Ukraine. We've been around blockchain industry from the very begining of cryptocurrencies & Bitcoin.

For what projects/services did your company hire 4IRE LABS?

We had few collaborations last year. We built Pivx based staking platform together.

What were your goals for this project?

The client wanted us to deliver MVP of platform as soon as posible, but our team didn't have senior blockchain architect & skilled project manager avaliable. Thats why we asked Kirill & Max from FireLabs to help. We knew that they had experience with Pivx. So, the main goal was to make client happy with the fast delivery of the product.

How did you select this vendor?

We met FireLabs team at Blockchain Hackaton at Kiev & we were impressed with their skills.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The platform is a service which helps customers to stake their cryptocurrencies & earn interest. Earning comes using custom platform based crypto. User can choose to get interest or reinvest it to platform.

What was the team composition?

We worked with 3 guys from FireLabs team. Project man & Blockchain arch

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

FireLabs team has provided a skillful architect for the project. It allowed us to combine our resources. Our project manager and FireLabs architect boosted and finished the project in time. As a result, the client was satisfied with it.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

FireLabs team has an established structure. Nevertheless, they are flexible so our cooperation allowed us to implement our client's project fast and efficiently. During the project, their architects built themselves as experienced and highly responsible.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The key point is that we have the same values and approach to the work, especially system thinking, productive communication, regular checkpoints. It was easy to be as one with FireLabs. As for me, I was impressed by the level of each employee's awareness and responsibility. They are smart and talented developers & architects.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing immediately comes to my mind.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a CMO at bvblogic company - an IT-company with a passion for innovation. The company has more than 10 years of experience in the IT-outsourcing market. 800+ successfully implemented projects. 500+ satisfied clients from all over the world.

For what projects/services did your company hire 4IRE LABS?

We received a request from our client for a payment application with the invoicing system.

What were your goals for this project?

The client had an idea for the project. He provided us with some references. We realized, that our partners from 4ire Labs had similar projects in the past, so we decided to contact them. The main goal was to deliver the ready product to the client and keep transparent relationships with him.

How did you select this vendor?

We’re working with 4ire Labs for the last few years. During this period we’d successfully collaborated on several projects. 4ire Labs team has solid expertise in fintech development, and we decided to involve their experts in this project.

Describe the project in detail.

4ire Labs team has started from a Workshop with their Solution. During this workshop, they developed architecture design and project road map with the detailed tech requirements as well as UX design for the app.

What was the team composition?

1 Solution Architect, 2 full-stack engineers, UX/UI designer, QA Specialist, and PM - a total of 6 people.

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

The client has tight deadlines, so it was really important to provide the best options in the shortest period of time. The 4ire Labs team provided prompt responses. They were responsible for the full development from scratch. Their team provided all the needed support and resolved all issues quickly during the development process.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

All communication was handled by their Solution Architect, who was responsible for the delivery. The development process was divided into 2-week sprints. The team used the Slack channel and GitHub for communication and knowledge-sharing.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

4ire labs is our partner for a few years. During this time we have worked together on several projects and all of them were successful. They are very responsive and reliable. All our clients were impressed with the experience of their experts. We hope to continue our productive collaboration.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As for now, they always show their best. All misunderstandings were resolved quickly and friendly.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and Co-Founder @ Captain Bitcoin, a video education and advertising platform powered by blockchain technology, that pays its users for consuming video content on a daily basis.

For what projects/services did your company hire 4IRE labs?

We are using 4IRE for the whole range of services from conception of the idea to development, deployment and maintenance of our platform and also for further product design and development as they have been great to collaborate with in all ways.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals for the project were to get an MVP developed for our product as fast as possible but also work with a group of individuals who are highly technical to ensure they are building a robust platform.

How did you select this vendor?

We spoke with more than 20 vendors prior to selecting 4IRE and their knowledge was far superior when compared to everyone else's and clearly understood our requirements and knew what had to be built and how.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

4IRE provided a whole suite of services -

1) Product design 2

) Assistance with product specification

3) Product development mobile and web

4) QA

5) Migration

6) Deployment And more.

What was the team composition?

Team of 5 but I mostly dealt with the Project Manager

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

N/A

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We relied heavily on Telegram and Google Doc's but it worked very well for us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to execute at speed and high-level communication are stellar.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No

This review was updated by the client on June 30, 2020. New content is below:

BACKGROUND
Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Co-Founder and CEO of Captain Bitcoin. A blockchain powered, video content and advertising platform that allows users to earn cryptocurrencies and win Bitcoin while learning about blockchain and cryptocurrencies on a daily basis. Users simply sign up, watch videos, answer multiple choice questions correctly and earn cryptocurrencies. Each question they answer correctly increases the amount of crypto they earn and also increase their chances of winning Bitcoin.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
For what projects/services did your company hire 4IRE LABS?

4IRE Labs helped us at every step of the development from:

1) Web design

2) Product design

3) Product development

4) Blockchain / Smart contract development

5) Maintenance in near enough 'real-time' But more importantly, the team constantly helped us come up with ideas on how to improve our products in ways we had not thought about and saving us significant amounts of capital.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were:

1) Launching a user-friendly platform

2) Getting the MVP to the market as soon as possible

3) Continue to build the product based on user feedback

4) Development of unique smart contracts

5) Keeping low gas costs

SOLUTION
How did you select this vendor?

Selecting the right partner from the get-go was very important to us due to the complexity of our product. We reached looked at 50 different vendors and after speaking with around 25 of them, we shortlisted 5. After shortlisting the 5, we really deep dived with each of the teams to get a better understanding of their skillset and to get an understanding on how these vendors engage with their customers.

4HIRE team's knowledge superseded other vendors significantly and it was clear from the get-go the team had a good understanding of what we are building and more importantly they were excited to work with us. And since then the relationship is going very well.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

4IRE Labs helped us at every step of the development from:

1) Web design

2) Product design

3) Product development

4) Blockchain / Smart contract development

5) Maintenance in near enough 'real-time' But more importantly, the team constantly helped us come up with ideas on how to improve our products in ways we had not thought about and saving us significant amounts of capital.

What was the team composition?

Team composition:

1) Project manager

2) Designer

3) Front-end developer

4) Back-end developer

5) Blockchain developer

6) AWS architect

7) QA I am sure there were others too but we mostly dealt with the project manager and it has been going very smoothly!

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

N/A - the project IS our business.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was done using tools such as Trello but more importantly, we continue to be impressed with the availability of the team and the PM. For active management, we used Telegram for communication.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Most impressive has been the team's passion for our product. Having worked with various vendors before in the tech space, I understand many just see the work as another task. The 4HIRE team felt like an extension of our team and put in the time and hours required to carry out tasks as and when necessary, including working till 2 am on weekdays and working weekends.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nope.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of a company that focuses on male health, based in Stockholm, Sweden. We have a small team but a highly digitised process. I oversee our digital products and strategies.

For what projects/services did your company hire 4IRE labs?

Our company hired 4IRE labs to continue development on our iOS and Android apps.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals of the project were to bring the apps up to date to match the functionality currently provided on our web, as well as to be more in line with our competition.

How did you select this vendor?

I had the fortunate coincidence to talk to a company which had worked with 4IRE Labs before, and I know first hand that they were capable in iOS development. And as luck had it, they were available for our project as well.

Describe the project in detail.

The project involves a series of features that would allow patients to follow up on their treatment, select labs to take blood tests and have a video conversation with their doctor.

What was the team composition?

The team was made up of 1 iOS developer and 1 Android developer.

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

Progress is made continuously, and we release updates to the app on a monthly basis, with either new features or improvements.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between us and 4IRE Labs has been good. Communication has been done via our Slack or Skype, and task assignments and pull requests via DevOps/git.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I find it impressive when the developers give insights on best practices for their respective platforms.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None that come to mind that the moment.