4xxi

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

I’ve gotten really good feedback on their work. Their quality is great and they delivered on time. 4xxi knows what they’re doing and the importance of delivering on time. We will work with them again to develop the next version of the platform.

How did 4xxi perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re always online and available to speak with you at any time, which makes working with them really comfortable. We communicated through Google Hangouts, WhatsApp, and email, and had some in-person meetings as well with Evgeny, who was always willing to help.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They can look at a startup from different angles and provide insight on how to improve, coming up with interesting ideas that you maybe hadn’t thought about. They don’t only take your money and execute what you want, they provide added value with their input, getting into your customers’ shoes and finding the best way to do things. This means that their earnings will be lower at times, but they’d rather apply their vision and deliver an interesting and well-planned solution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think everything has been really good. I don’t see any areas for improvement.

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

Everyone in our dev team was satisfied with their work. They had skilled developers who worked well with us without any significant issues. The new site is great, and we’ve received positive feedback from partners and anyone else we asked about it. For example, we’ve gotten good feedback on Behance, especially in comparison to the old site.

How did 4xxi perform from a project management standpoint?

Their process was organized. While we were working on the project, Skype released an update that shut down all communication for us; everyone who used to use it now hates the software. We’ve switched to Slack, which works much better for us. The transition actually started at the beginning of our relationship.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They take what they do seriously, doing things well so they can be proud of the work. Based on our 5 years of experience together, they’ve always taken the product as a challenge. They brought ideas and asked why we wanted to do it in a certain way. If I were building a new product, I would definitely get their feedback since I respect their opinion a lot. They are generally a good team to work with.

Skill-wise, they are reliable. I can trust that whatever they make is going to work. We’ve had stability and quality issues with other vendors, but 4xxi builds software to their own quality standards, which are high even compared to Silicon Valley. This makes them a good partner in my opinion.

Even though they have strong opinions, they’re also flexible. When they didn’t agree with our tech team on an item, they explained why we might have issues in the future in terms of scaling. It helped us all understand potential issues and shortcomings.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only friction between our teams happens when they are too protective of their ideas. It’s not that they are unreasonable or emotional. They provide specific examples, sources, and references that highlight why their solution is better. I wouldn’t say that this is necessarily a bad thing since it’s good to find someone who cares about what they’re doing and who is confident about the solutions they’re suggesting.

We sometimes agree with them, but we also decide to proceed with the initial solution at other times. However, I would rather involve their team in a similar project rather than a group who does exactly what they are told. It’s always good to have reasonable feedback.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

The collaboration depends on whom they’re working with. 4xxi is a well-organized team for a startup, but, if they were working with someone like Microsoft, I don’t know how well they could perform. They can adjust and be flexible, which is conducive to the startup culture. Their processes are a reflection of their size and client base, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

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

We would not be here today if 4xxi was not involved in this project.

They did a great job of having the information synchronized cross-platform in a timely manner. Not only did they design an app and add functionality, but they secured it and made sure it scales for tens of thousands of registered users. We haven't had any significant performance or security issues; they've done an amazing job on that, too. We're having great results in the B2B space.

How did 4xxi perform from a project management standpoint?

We established the processes early on, which was challenging. We burned through two, if not three, project managers before finding the right one about a year and a half ago. So for two and a half years, it was definitely more challenging than it is now. It's been easy since then. We use Skype all the time to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their passion, their energy, and their youthfulness impress me. Their management and leadership are senior, which is a good thing, but the development team is composed of younger, hipper, smarter, cutting-edge application users who are able to transfer ideas from cool apps and implement those ideas.

I received three quotes from onshore companies, which were 5–15 times higher than 4xxi. For what I've developed to date, if I had done it onshore, it would've cost more than $10 million. We're spending a fraction of that. We're getting incredible value from 4xxi, in addition to incredible brainpower, commitment, passion, loyalty, and more. Forty-eight invoices later, it's obviously a good relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think there's anything to improve on. They've become smarter about how they build and run their business over time. They've learned a lot in the course of this engagement about how to make their operation and their development environment work smoother.

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

I grew the company from zero users to over 5,000 active community members, who produced over 10,000 ratings and reviews.

How did 4xxi perform from a project management standpoint?

I had a CTO who worked with multiple groups in Russia, India and the US. He always thought that 4xxi was one of the best he’d ever worked with. They were always available, making us think they never slept. We used a project management tool which helped, but I also had a project manager and a CTO involved.

They’re good communicators, but there will always be a language barrier, no matter what. We documented issues extensively and having a project manager with good attention to detail helped as well. We needed to support 4xxi’s team, and we had a good system. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

4xxi’s costs were great. Paying that much money to develop something can get scary, but I always felt fine about paying the bills and they delivered against what they committed to. This can be an issue for people working in non-funded companies; I was pretty much funding the work myself, with no investors. 

They were also always available. I’ve had emergencies with the site going down or being attacked by a hacker. 4xxi got back to me right away and solved my problems. It’s been a good partnership, and I have people I can trust. 4xxi is not afraid to take on any kind of work, they are not pushing me off for the next project, and they’ve definitely taken the time to work with me on anything.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They did a great job. The biggest challenge for me when outsourcing, was that I was outsourcing. 4xxi is not an in-house team, but they were phenomenal. I definitely needed people who could help 4xxi understand what’s going on, but there was never a question of them not being able to deliver against what was being put in front of them.

An additional challenge with outsourced resources is that there needs to be a technology leader in place, who can drive the strategy and execution. 4xxi were implementing a strategic plan, but there needed to be someone leading the conversation, and understanding how the technology needed to be built in order to scale. 4xxi is excellent at understanding issues and delivering against the problem, but they’re not strategists at a CTO level. They’ve definitely made very strong and smart recommendations on how to build things and think about them, but they are not out there selling the product, working with sales and marketing. Within the project guidelines and deliverables they excelled, came up with suggestions and were proactive. I always felt that my work with them was great, which is why I’m giving this review. When it comes to these types of projects, we have to think about the highest-level problem being solved and put research behind it, building a ratings platform was not an easy thing to do.