Archie Labs

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the founders of a private social networking platform for schools that allows users to communicate better with their community. Our users are students, alumni, administrators, and parents. This platform is provided to schools at no cost, they can generate revenues by leveraging their network, and we do a revenue share in their favor.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 8base Labs?

We needed help building out our vision.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

8base Labs provided us with their technology which allowed us to build out the backend structure using their platform as a basis. Separately, they brought in their frontend design team and developers to help us build our platform’s frontend. They’ve finished the design, and the frontend is currently in development.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with three people from 8base Labs directly. Albert (Founder & CEO) has been involved throughout the process, and we work with the project manager. Initially, we also worked with a designer from their team. Once they finished the design, our project was handed over to the developers; we haven’t met them, though.

How did you come to work with 8base Labs?

We’d known about Albert and his past successes and had followed 8base Labs for a while. Once we decided to pursue this project, it happened to be a great fit because we come from the same high school. The introduction was great, and as we learned more about them, we realized how powerful a tool their platform is for developers and programmers.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The confidence we’ve built with 8base Labs’ team has been increasing more and more every day. We were pretty astounded when they laid out the process we would go through because they thought of everything. Although we haven’t finished the platform yet, they’re leaving no unaddressed risk so that the project has the best chance at being successful. 

We appreciate the level of detail that they go through to make sure everything is covered, checked, and done. Typically, development projects are a huge headache with significant worries. Working with a team like 8base Labs and seeing their process, I’m confident that the project will turn out just like I expect — it’s been a great experience

How did 8base Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re unbelievably good at project management. Every aspect of the project is addressed, and if anything comes up that needs to be modified, fixed, or revised, they do it quickly. They deliver on time, and everything has worked out. There’s no way we could have found any other place that would have managed the project this well — they’ve been perfect.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by 8base Labs’ overall thought process and how they take us through what can be a difficult, tenuous process. They’re with us in the trenches to make sure they’re addressing all our worries and concerns. Their execution and their platform bring them above board.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could do a better job of promoting their products so that people know and understand them. More people need to know about their platform because it’s a tool that’s here to stay, and if more developers learn about it, they’ll utilize it more and more. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to take out pencil and paper and map out your costs, worries, and pros and cons. For us, the pros outweighed any concerns we had. Once we learned about 8base Labs, we appreciated how those worries went away. The team can help solve any problems that you have, and you’ll be much better off if you do that analysis when you approach them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a mobile platform that allows sneakerheads to connect with one another to safely and securely trade their shoes. Our company handles the authentication and QC — we act as the middleman. Our main difference with other platforms is that we only strictly allow trades — there’s no buying and selling involved.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 8base Labs?

We were looking for a third party to help us build out our web app. At that time, we had a good idea of the basic experience we wanted our platform to have. However, we hadn’t raised a ton of money so it didn’t make sense to hire in-house developers. As a result, our main goal was to find a partner that could quickly build a solid and scalable web app in a cost-effective manner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our internal team had strong design skills already, which allowed us to have pretty extensive and detailed wireframes and UX flows when we started the partnership with 8base Labs. We told them that we already completed around 97% of the screens and flows we wanted to have. Once we passed those over to them, they told us some of the things we missed. They also mentioned that they understood the higher-level objective we were trying to accomplish, but they had better suggestions on how we could achieve our desired scenario. 

Soon after, we were able to launch our web app last August 2020, and the team proceeded to build our Android and iOS app which was launched in May 2021. We also had a couple of processes in our apps that started to take a long time, so the team worked on optimizing the performance of those processes.

Specifically, we had 4–5 processes that were taking 5–10 seconds to complete, and they worked on accelerating those problems by over 90%. The team continues to make enhancements to our platforms.

What is the team composition?

We have two full-time developers, a project manager, and an account manager. Our project manager is really more of a lead engineer who handles the sprint curation and planning. We also communicate with Albert (CEO).

How did you come to work with 8base Labs?

One of our early investors mentioned 8base Labs to us because they knew we were looking for third-party firms to create our web app. They told us that 8base Labs were building something pretty interesting and that they were just sharing some of the potential builders we could work with. We also looked at three other firms that were based in Austin, but we chose 8base Labs because their cost was 30%–40% lower than the lowest bid we received from other companies. 

More importantly, they didn’t need to pay somebody to build the whole backend because they could do it themselves. Overall, they weren’t a traditional development firm and they weren’t just interested to make money out of the engagement — they wanted to show strong examples of successful companies and apps that could scale up because of their framework.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in January 2020, and we continue to collaborate.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their developers have a pretty decent sense of a good product and UX. In particular, their lead engineer is a beast — he’s been super solid and he understands our product and business well. The biggest thing that’s jumped out at me over the past six months is how quickly 8base Labs has been able to audit and improve performance in a number of places. Due to their work, we’ve been able to have pretty aggressive growth, too. 

On top of that, they’re quick to implement changes when we need them. The biggest headache in development is if the performance of a certain platform is slow. As such, we’re grateful that through their optimization efforts, our overall CPU usage changed from 70%–95% down to 15%.

How did 8base Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management process is very solid, and they’re good at communicating. We have a collaborative partnership; we appreciate that they’re proactive in suggesting things we probably need and there have been a number of times when we really liked their idea.

Additionally, they’re great at hitting deadlines and letting us know if something comes up. I’d say the only challenge that we have is the fact that their engineering team is all based in Russia, which means we only have a few hours to communicate. Despite that, 8base Labs has shown us that they're willing to work late and jump on early as needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We feel like 8base Labs is really an extension of our team. They’ve done a really good job of taking care of us, and they’re willing to go above and beyond to help us. Specifically, Albert is really good at staying in touch and making sure that we’re aware that he’s there if we ever need to discuss or escalate matters. Above all, their technical expertise is exceptional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have a core backend team that’s working on all improvements to their core services. They also have folks working with companies like us and they’re largely frontend developers. As a result, there have been times where there is either a bug on the backend or something that we want to do — that just doesn’t quite play nice with the existing backend framework. Sometimes that could be challenging, but they’ve let us know that they’re looking into potentially improving their backend roadmap.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to let 8base Labs play a truly collaborative role in your engagement. Once you give them enough time to understand what you’re trying to accomplish, they’ll become part of your team. In doing so, you can move faster and flexibly and effectively test things out. Overall, since we’re still a very small team, it’s nice to know that we can just reach out to them and ask them if our ideas make sense.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a financial services company that provides non-dilutive capital to B2B software companies. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 8base Labs?

8base Labs is our primary software development partner. We need them to build software that makes us more efficient and makes our interactions with companies more seamless and streamlined. In other words, 8base Labs delivers technology solutions that our company uses as a growth lever. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first phase of our engagement lasted for about a year. It was a cold start that involved meeting with the 8base Labs team, signing a contract, and getting them up to speed on our business. We showed them what we already built and what we wanted to build with them. In other words, we spent our first year together on setting up the platform for their support, design, and development. 

At present, we’re at phase two of our relationship, and we’re continuing to the next level after building the software. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve interacted with about five people from 8base Labs, including their CEO, COO, designers, and project managers. At present, we primarily interface with their engineering lead, who works closely with our product manager.

How did you come to work with 8base Labs?

I found 8base Labs through an accelerator network. We were both members of that network and had a shared Slack channel. When we were looking for new development resources, they reached out to us, and we took it from there. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent around $100,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2020, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Having team-centered designers and strategically focused product and engineering teammates has been important for us. We’ve reaped those benefits by having a team in place instead of just an individual contractor. As a result, we have no specific success metrics for the engagement. 

Meanwhile, the consistent delivery of products and the ability to iterate them are also crucial in our engagement. Twelve months into our partnership with 8base Labs, we’ve had a great ongoing collaboration and communication. Simply put, they understand what we’re trying to do, so everything has been good. 

How did 8base Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

In terms of project management, their communication has improved along the way, especially with the dedicated resources that work with us. There have been bumps, however. We’ve had to work on their ability to hit deadlines, and it’s taken a while to smooth out our working relationship.

That being said, software development always takes longer than one thinks. It’s like building a house: it usually goes on and on, and we have to recognize it for what it is. In any case, we feel great about 8base Labs’ communication and ability to deliver. 

People sometimes leave companies and we get flooded with projects — that’s the normal course of things, and we’ve experienced them. We’ve moved past the point of those issues, and we’ve felt great over the past year. Simply put, 8base Labs has grown alongside us in terms of project management and smoothing things out on their own. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their responsiveness is great. Requirements, features, and designs change while building software. Luckily, 8base Labs has the ability to adjust and iterate, and they can do everything from design to engineering resource allocation pretty well. Likewise, we don’t have to manage all these things; we simply have to let them know what we’re doing, where it stands, and what can be improved, and their job is to execute on it. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any at present. We’ve had issues with communication, but that has since been rectified. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you want 8base Labs to do engineering work for you, be organized and prepared. In our engagement, we’re trying to build software, so it’s incumbent upon us to come up with our product, vision, and strategy. We also do the heavier tasks of product management because that’s not what they do. If you expect them to do that, it won’t be the right relationship.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the assistant VP of enterprise applications at a university.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 8base Labs?

We had a lack of user-friendliness with our enterprise applications. One of the things we wanted to address with this engagement was a way to integrate different sources of data into a single portal to maximize the student and constituent experience, while simultaneously maximizing the student experience as well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The overall services were a POC on how we could improve the UX for students within our applications. The phases of the project were centered around the discovery phase for meeting and creating a work group within FIU. We took time to understand together what the most important things we needed to showcase.

The first phase was discovery. The second phase was design where 8base Labs provided us with alternatives and options on that UX we had documented as part of the discover process. After tweaking and discussing the design, they provided us with a POC with specific integrations we had chosen as part of the discovery and design phase.

They also provided us with an overview of how the platform would fit in with our individual integration points, as well as what the UX would look like once available.

What is the team composition?

We worked with their CEO, two tech leads, and a web designer.  

How much have you invested with them?

The POC was $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2019. Our work was paused because of COVID-19. We resumed the project and wrapped up in September 2020. We’ve since signed out a contract to do a production build and deployment.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

8base Labs was very attentive to our needs. They took a lot of the things that we talk about and visualized for us to see. They were interpreters of what we were hoping we’d see.

Additionally, they painted a good visual reference for our executives. I was able to interpret their design for our benefit. 8base Labs did a great job of being flexible for us and our sector.

How did 8base Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

The team was very creative with the way that they approached our designs. They were also very forthcoming with how the technology works and how it interacted with our systems as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re flexible and innovative. I’ve worked with companies in the past where you don’t fit into the model that they provide; they don’t go outside that box for you. Creating something unique for a university or an organization lends the vendor a delight.

They were innovative because they’re taking a platform that provides that type of flexibility that you can include and integrate different data sources to deliver the best UX.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could make some of the tools more administrative friendly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to do the homework on the technical and design strategy looks like. Be prepared to discuss what the end goals should be. Trust the process that would provide the features and functionalities that they recommend.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founding technical director at Funkhaus, a creative agency. I am in charge of all the programming we do, which includes design and development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 8base Labs?

A client of ours came to us and wanted to build a web app that's like a project management tool for their client base. They had already sold it to their client and they already had customers in place so when they came to us, they said they had already started building it and wanted to turn it around in a month. 

It was a tight timeline, and the only way we were going to be able to do that at Funkhaus was if we divided and conquered.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

My team and I did the frontend and 8base Labs did the backend. They started the next day which was really good. I worked with Sebastian (Product Manager) and we partnered up. He ran with the whole backend and I ran with the whole frontend. 

We overlapped on some tasks such as email. It’s all GraphQL powered with a PostgreSQL database behind the scenes. It’s written in Node and JavaScript. At the end of it, they just handed off a repo that was all in JavaScript and we’re able to update it as we want.

What is the team composition?

I only work with Sebastian. They also have a team in Europe, and I spoke to a couple of people on Slack when emergencies would come up to try to solve issues. I also spoke with the CEO.

How did you come to work with 8base Labs?

Before this project, I contacted a bunch of GraphQL as a service companies, and one of them recommended 8base Labs. I worked with them on a couple of side projects. We wanted an alternative to Firebase because we had used that in a few other projects and I didn’t love it.

When our client came to us, I knew that we would do the project with 8base Labs. I specifically liked that they would build it and hand it off to me, and I didn’t have to use them again if I didn’t want to. 

The fact that they were building on their own platform was really good. I preferred that as opposed to hiring a development shop to do a custom Node server that only they knew. We also hired 8base Labs because of their speed.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent about $30,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in February 2020. Once they completed the first part, we immediately turned around and hired them for phase two of the project, and we’re still working on that.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The tool is exceptional. 8base Labs has done great work, and we’re very satisfied. I hired them having been totally burned by other development shops in the past. 8base Labs stood behind what they said and gave us a quote. 

If someone is an expert in what they do, they should be able to put a really good scope in place and be able to provide a project rate rather than an hourly rate and then run up the bill. The big winner for them was that they project-quoted, stuck to it, and stood behind their warranty.

How did 8base Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve communicated via Slack and it’s been really good. I haven’t been a taskmaster; I just trust that the team will do it in a good enough window.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Sebastian has been the key to the success of this project. Our scope was to build the backend and he went above and beyond by giving us advice on how to build the frontend. He has helped beyond what our agreement was. If you can get someone like that on your project, your project will always be better off.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Having some transparency on their product roadmap would be great. They had communicated to me internally, but also having somewhere on their website where they explain where we are going would be great. Otherwise, they communicate well and informally. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I have done a case study with them that they use internally, and I gave them a whole bunch of feedback. If you use 8base Labs, at the moment, you are very much tied to using a third-party authentication provider like Auth0 which is the one they are most integrated with. 

You are almost forced to use that provider. If you want to deal with file uploading, you have to also use Filestack which is heavily integrated with their system and I personally don’t like either Auth0 or Filestack. 

You just have to be aware going in that you will have to use those tools. The Filestack one specifically is pretty bad because it forces a UI on you. If that doesn’t look good, then you are stuck with it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Tradeblock, a sneaker trading service. We help sneaker enthusiasts and sneaker collectors discover other people with cool collections. We also provide an authentication service when a trade is agreed to.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 8base Labs?

We have a pretty strong design and development team but early on, we determined that our idea wasn’t unique. Our number one challenge was how to deliver quality UX and product experience as fast as possible.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We decided to use our internal team to scaffold everything. We designed all the UX flows and our lead developer built the foundational data model. We took that to 8base Labs to develop it from there. It was a progressive web app built on the React framework.

We mapped out the user stories and user flows we wanted to be able to facilitate. They created the requirements doc for us and bounced it over to us and had us review it. We bounced that back and forth for a week or two until we all felt comfortable with it. They then got to work.

What is the team composition?

I believe there are 4–5 developers. My main point of contact is Oscar (COO). We communicate pretty directly with the lead developer on the project.

How did you come to work with 8base Labs?

My former boss heard about them from a demo day that they did. I was picking his brain when we were trying to figure out who we wanted to use to develop this thing. He said he’d never used them before but he found their pitch to be compelling. 

8base Labs’ quote came in significantly lower than some of the other ones that we got. We liked the way the partnership was structured. We also really liked that they had a vested interest in our success. In addition, they use their backend as a service, which we appreciated.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re launching the application early next week. The impact on the business has been massive because it’s allowed our entire team to flesh out the other aspects of the business as opposed to having half of our team deep in the weeds of design and development issues.

Velocity and speed to market are important to us. This project has allowed us to free up our team to focus on other things that are more important. We’ve been testing it internally with our small team, and it seems solid. 

How did 8base Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management and communication are good. The team is very accommodating. We have a Slack channel for any issues or questions we have, and they’re incredibly responsive. We use GitHub as well. Also, we were using Figma, which they had never used before, but they had no problem learning it and using it.

8base Labs is really good about tackling little bugs or issues and even ones that weren’t clearly defined in the original scope. That’s one of the things I’d give them the most credit for. They’re incredibly accommodating. 

I appreciate that they’re proactive about calling things out that won’t work and often proposing a solution. What I appreciate is when those things happen, there are no conversations about adding more cost to the contract. There’s no pushback on things that are out of scope; they just take care of it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have legitimate skin in the game as far as your success is concerned. For all intents and purposes, their development team has felt like an extension of our own team. In addition, their responsiveness and collaborative approach are top-notch. 

The big thing they’ve got going for them is that because they use their own backend as a service, they’re able to do work faster and for cheaper because they can spin off the backend really quickly and easily. 

8base Labs is able to focus more quickly on the frontend work. I believe that’s why they were able to give us a quote that was significantly lower than the other established firms.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there are no major areas I’d have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You get what you pay for. They’re definitely going to be more expensive than hiring individual contractors to do your development. The payoff, in my opinion, is well worth it. The quality of the output is top-notch. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Leadvolt is a CRM system designed to aid insurance agents in acquiring new clients via our tailored SAAS product. As CEO of Leadvolt, my vision is to revolutionize how agents acquire new clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire 8base Labs?

8base is handling the the front end design, and back-end development.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal is to bring a fully integrated product to market as a SAAS platform within the next three months.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I was introduced via a personal friend

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Describe the scope of the product that is covered by these Software Requirements Specifications, particularly if this document describes only part of the system or a single subsystem. The scope establishes the boundaries of the requirements and should identify clarify features/requirements outside of scope, for example, if certain requirements were not included due to budgetary or time constraints. General • Creation of a browser-based LCRM application that works across multiple browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge).

A browser-based administration module (administration). • Ability to define users with role(s) and invite them to join the application. • Full text search on single data object. • English language only. • U.S. Dollar only. • Ability to capture basic comments at the data object level. On-Boarding and Configuration • Client, agent, employee, and administrator on-boarding. • Includes demographics, image, and key activities. • Ongoing configuration including ability to create, read, update and delete profiles. • Ability to mark a profile as active or inactive. • Setup of new client profiles by the LCRM administrator(s).

Integrations • Integrations with 1 lead source. • Integrations with social media properties tied to a specific lead. o Facebook • Ability to send text messages • Selection and integrations with VoIP solution(s). • Whitepages integration Lead Management • Ability to identify a new lead, assign a new lead, and follow-up with a lead. • Ability to quickly see and act upon Next Actions with a lead. • Ability to track the history of interactions with the lead. • Ability to sort leads into high-to-low priority. • Ability to act on leads owned by another agent. • Ability to see team member status as a manager o Ability to transfer lead to someone else that is available o Listen, whisper, or barge.

• Ability to dial a lead directly from the LCRM. • Ability to send manual text or email. • Ability to see what leads are next in the agent queue. • Ability to take notes on leads and ability to search by note contents. • Ability to add campaigns & develop workflows. Document Management • Ability to attach documents and other files from the file system to the data objects in the LCRM. • Ability to download documents in the platform onto the file system. • Ability to print documents in the platform.

• Ability to preview documents in the platform. • Ability to capture branding-related assets. Reporting and Analytics • Ability to run and view reports online. • Ability to produce a tabular (rows and columns) or graphical report. • Ability to apply grouping, filtering, and sorting criteria to reports. • Ability to print reports and save them as a .pdf.

• Ability to drill-down on reports. • Dashboard capability by role. • Dashboard gamification for employee tracking o Call Volume o Quotes o Closes o Daily, Weekly, Monthly

What was the team composition?

Team is composed of five people. Programmer, designers and two system admins.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Pending as in process

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was arranged via communication on slack and segmented project sprints on design and programming (parcels).

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to turn my vision into a product. To date they have done an excellent job implementing the functionality needed to make this a viable product.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It would be nice to see a visual depiction of the sprints.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Livo Holdings Inc. We’re in the real estate sector, and we develop technology for property management of multi-family units.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 8base Labs? 

We needed assistance developing as SaaS platform. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a SaaS platform for us that is available on desktop and mobile devices. It’s an application screening and bidding platform. The bidding system incorporates rent amount, move-in date, and term of the lease.

They developed the solution from scratch based on my ideas and illustrations. The project has grown in scope since we began working together. For example, originally, it didn’t include the application and screening process. They incorporated that based on the needs of the market because rental companies want a “one-stop-shop.” 

What is the team composition? 

My main point of contact is Albert (Founder & CEO). I’ve worked with several other teammates based both locally, in Florida, and in Russia. 

How did you come to work with 8base Labs?

I knew Albert previously. However, I got quotes from a few other agencies to determine who would be the best fit– and that ended up being 8base Labs. 

How much have you invested with them? 

I’ve invested around $500,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in October 2019. The original plan was to finish the development by March 2020. However, as the project grew in scope, our timeline changed. We’re expecting to be done by the end of April.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work was highly impactful. They’re an excellent resource and the team has a lot of experience working in the technology industry. They’ve advised me on additional topics beyond the scope of their development work. 

How did 8base Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve exceeded my expectations. We don’t have issues, even when there are setbacks, they stay focused on getting the job done and moving forward. 

We use Slack to communicate and Trello to track progress. I’m not the most technologically savvy, but they were accommodating and helped me navigate through this. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s refreshing to not have to worry about how the project is going because I’m confident in their abilities. I’ve seen a lot of poorly developed and unfinished projects, but I don’t worry about that happening with 8base Labs. They take pride in the product and are dedicated to their work which makes me happy. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

No, as of now, we have a great working relationship. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re only as responsive as their client is. If you can’t get back to them, then they can’t progress on the project. It’s important to get back to them quickly so they can keep moving forward. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO and co-founder of collabtogrow, and we are a SaaS-based technology enablement company specializing in helping B2B companies have successful alliances. We’ve built a product to take to the market that can basically help companies better manage their alliances with other companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 8base Labs?

8base Labs handled the development of our cloud-based SaaS platform from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

From the start of our company, we knew we didn’t want to handle the development of our product in house, and we knew that we wanted it to be a relatively simple system so that we could continue to improve and modify it without too much trouble.

We delivered those requirements to the 8base Labs team, and they brought development resources, and designers to the table for us in order to deliver the full-stack resources that we needed to reach a finished product.

The solution they delivered is highly integrated with the AWS ecosystem and microservices. They provided a low-code backend and then built out a custom frontend from there.

What is the team composition?

Their team included developers, designers, UI specialists, and a project manager who served as our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with 8base Labs?

We had worked with their CEO in other contexts before, so his company was a strong contender in our search for a partner from the beginning. We held some discussions with a few different teams, including theirs, and decided to go with them in the end.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we spent about $200,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in January 2019 and was meant to roll out by now, but we are delaying the official launch until after the current pandemic situation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can only provide anecdotal feedback so far, but not only have we been able to onboard a few beta users who have given us feedback, but we’ve done formal demos with around 15-20 potential clients.

So far, the feedback on the UI has been outstanding. I think 8base Labs completely knocked it out of the park. The system they delivered is intuitive, beautiful, and elegant, and are totally pleased with it. We’ve gotten nothing but rave reviews on it so far.

How did 8base Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We ran the project using an agile methodology, so there was a lot of iteration involved in the process. We used Aha to plan out our product roadmap and Envision for mockups, as well as GitHub and Balsamic to interface between the design and development teams. We also hold twice-a-week standup meetings to make sure we are always on the same page about our status.

They did a good job with project management in that they were willing to go with our flow for the design process, and they were always flexible as we felt out what exactly we wanted the cloud platform to be. Our expectations were satisfied with both the development and project management side as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their entire approach to user design and UX is really a huge asset to the development process. Anybody can build feature functions, but their team is able to build them in a useable and intuitive way that most other teams are not able to accomplish in the same way.

The whole team has also been incredibly helpful and understanding with regard to the collaboration, helping us to really flesh out our design ideas as we went along. We’ve never had one conversation with them where they told us they wouldn’t help with something unless we paid more, and we really appreciate that willingness to work together with us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were probably their first large development client so we’ve learned a bit together, but there’s nothing at this point that I think they need to do differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Engage with them in an iterative, agile way. If you come in with a fixed design in your mine, you will be missing out on a lot of their unique skills when it comes to the user side of SaaS development.