4IRE

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.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We accelerate Sustainable Finance and Investment through Fintech innovation. The Green Assets Wallet is the world’s first Blockchain platform for green bond validation and impact reporting.

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

4ireLabs joined the project in the second year and has in only 7 months helped us take the Green Assets Wallet from MVP to Production Standard. 4ireLabs has developed the application on Chromia.

What were your goals for this project?

Inject transparency, cost efficiency and trust into the green debt market to scale the supply of credible green Investment opportunities.

How did you select this vendor?

Through a public procurement process in which three actors were interviewed and compared.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

4ireLabs has built the front end features that sit on Chromia Blockchain. This entails building, not only the features and functions, but also ensure they comply with a distributed environment, and uploading this to Chromia mainnet. 4ireLabs have built systems for green Bond post-issuance project level validation, project level impact reporting according to the Nordic Public Issuers Position Paper, and aggegated impact reporting at the overall issuer level for all Use of Proceeds. 4ireLabs have demonstrated the ability to grasp complex structures in the green Bond market and build the technology through our scrum process that involves multipel actors including green finance experts.

What was the team composition?

The Green Assets Wallet is a co-creation between green Finance experts, capital market actors and technology innovatörs. 4ireLabs have contributed with Blockchain experts and developers, front end developers.

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

The Green Assets Wallet was launched on Dec 12, 2019, and has received strong market feedback already,

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The Green Assets Wallet is an innovation by Stockholm Green Digital Finance and has been developed under its lead. 4ireLabs have worked very effectively on their part of the overall project that includes many different actors. 4ireLabs has been instrumental bringing the MVP to PS.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Ability to grasp new complex topics and work systematically and in a transparent process. Ability to discuss practical solutions for new complex features. We appreciate their strong commitment to the success of the final product!

Are there any areas for improvement?

Can’t think of any right now

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a business analyst for a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) financial trust platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with 4IRE labs?

We’re trying to upgrade the technology standards in the construction industry, and we needed someone to develop our iOS app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re developing the flagship app for our company for iOS. Users can post an ad through our marketplace, and businesses registered on the platform can reach out to them and create a contract. The more work a certain business does, the better the reputation they accrue. While we’re developing the reputation algorithm in-house, 4IRE is building the contract piece and the API that will allow the two pieces to communicate. We send them detailed feature requirements and business logic, as well as screen mockups detailing how we’d like users to interact with the app.

What is the team composition?

We started with a large team, but our company hit tough times and had to reduce the number of resources. At the moment, we have a backend developer, a frontend developer, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with 4IRE labs?

My boss hired them. Another company in the FinTech space was using 4IRE labs and spoke well of them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2017, and the app launched in November 2018. We’re still working together to improve the solution.

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

We’ve been able to publish our fully functioning iOS app on the App Store in both English and Danish. 4IRE has been able to incorporate all the major features that we required in the release. This includes a robust contract feature that was very complex in terms of number of dependencies involved and integration with third-party APIs. It’s impressive.

How did 4IRE labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We talk over email and Slack. I interact a lot with the project manager and less with the developers. They’re very responsive. We’ve had a few major bugs, but they were very quick to address them. They’re a good team.

Our working relationship has been great. We had issues initially, sending them general requirements and receiving work back that wasn’t exactly what we wanted. We re-evaluated the relationship and decided to provide more concrete requirements that laid out exactly what our market research told us we should produce. Having more control over that process has worked much better.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very responsive, and they address issues quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

4IRE has been very responsive in addressing the issues that we've raised. Despite several initial timing challenges that arose during the development of our project, 4IRE team did their best to resolve the problems. Their focus on professionalism and customer satisfaction has allowed for organic improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s important you choose people for your project that will be in sync with your organizational culture. If you’re strict with timelines and there’s little flexibility in your requirements, 4IRE labs might not be the best choice for you. In my experience, providing freedom and exerting less pressure on them works better. They still deliver quality and on time, so I would not be too concerned about this.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder and CEO of a consulting firm that works primarily with startups focused on blockchain.

What challenge were you trying to address with 4ire Labs?

We have our own in-house blockchain, which we built ourselves. It’s an actual coin that we use for purchasing products and services on our platform. Subsequently, we’ve had some interest from outside developers who want to build into our blockchain.

What was the scope of their involvement?

4ire Labs helped us build out some features on a blockchain for a client. They also helped me with the masternode function on my coin, which is a decentralized governance network-supporting function that's built into a cryptocurrency asset. They used a variety of technologies, including C++ .

What is the team composition?

I worked with a project manager, who was their initial point of contact, and a lead developer.

How did you come to work with 4ire Labs?

I interviewed a variety of software development firms. 4ire Labs had great references. I felt comfortable that they understood my needs. They also had an air of professionalism, which unfortunately is rare in the emerging blockchain industry.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $45,000 USD 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from January–March 2018.

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

All of the internal feedback was positive. Their work was technically sound and quite well done. The usability of their software is excellent; I haven't had any issues with it at all. The quality of the product was top-notch.

How did 4ire Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

The team was very professional. The project manager led the on-boarding and she had a good understanding of technology. She communicated often and frequently. The lead developer put together the quote for the project estimate. He would also communicate if he had any technical questions about the scope of work. They requested we communicate via Skype, which I liked. We did a weekly Skype call but they were readily available if I ever needed to speak with them. They outlined clear deliverables and met them all.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They focused on communication, which I think is important. There’s no confusion at the end of the job about what was delivered because it was reiterated weekly. If there’s not proper communication, developers may start taking on tasks that are outside the scope of the project. 4ire Labs wouldn't progress to the next milestone without clearly relaying what it would cost so that there was no ambiguity.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They don't give themselves enough credit, and they need to focus more on their brand. The way they present themselves doesn't always speak to their level of talent.

Any advice for potential customers?

Don't just hire the least expensive software developer. 4ire Labs wasn’t the least expensive option but their quality is solid, which will save you in the long run.