Admios Nearshore Software Development

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Acre, a seed-stage property technology (PropTech) startup company. In my role, I’m responsible for product engineering and design.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Admios Nearshore Software Development?

We were getting started and building an engineering team. At the time, we only had an engineer and a designer, and we wanted to expand our team as needed for our different projects. However, we didn’t want to make any compromises regarding hiring talent internally, so we decided to engage with Admios so that we could expand our development capacity.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Admios provided us with resources to augment our development team. These resources provided us with development services for our consumer-facing website and some of our backend IT systems. Initially, we asked for both web and mobile app developers, but we ultimately decided to focus solely on web development first.

These resources mostly helped us with implementation. Still, they were responsible for developing a couple of components from scratch, for which they also handled wireframe architecture. As for the technology stack, we used Next.js and React. However, Admios’ engineers were ready to pick up on new technologies and libraries if required.

Our customers make substantial purchases through us. Therefore, our product is fairly complex; it’s basically an end-to-end solution for buying properties. Admios integrated features for home importing from multiple listing services, home approval, customer approval, and payment processing. Additionally, users can use our website to look at different properties and tell us when they’re ready to make a purchase.

What is the team composition?

During one phase, we worked with two engineers from Admios. During another phase, we worked with only one engineer. Additionally, we communicated with Kelly (CEO).

How did you come to work with Admios Nearshore Software Development?

This was the second startup for which I hired Admios. In the past, I worked with them for another startup. When we launched this new venture, I was confident that we would have great communication and that the quality of their staff would be excellent, so we contacted them. In fact, one of the engineers we worked with on the first project also joined the team for this second project. I believe that our CTO was the one who originally found Admios.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent above $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2021–November 2022. We decided to end our partnership due to the market conditions; we had to cut some costs. However, it had nothing to do with Admios’ performance, and we would love to hire them again to augment our team when required.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When Admios came into the project, we were a pre-seed-stage startup company. Thanks to them, we went from not having a single line of code written to having a product in the market and a set of pilot customers. They achieved to develop our complex website within a year.

How did Admios Nearshore Software Development perform from a project management standpoint?

The project cost was the one we expected, so we had no surprises there. Moreover, Admios’s engineers worked as part of our team, which required good communication skills and the ability to ask for additional information instead of making assumptions. They were also great at providing updates and had a good command of the English language, which made them more efficient. We used Jira and Slack to collaborate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Admios’ technical skills and the ability to work as part of our team were their most impressive qualities.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. The most valuable feedback we gave them was mentioned in the moments we needed to change direction.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re looking for more engineering capacity, Admios is a great team to work with. Kelly will find people with the skill set that matches your needs. Additionally, be a good partner and figure out how to integrate their resources into your team well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Off the Grid is a mobile food provider that markets and caters with food trucks throughout the Bay Area. We've also historically done corporate dining through a fleet of our own trucks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Admios Nearshore Software Development?

The initial challenge we were trying to address was we needed a system to manage 300 plus third-party food truck businesses, including our own, at markets and catering events throughout the Bay Area and beyond. There wasn’t anything at the time to match up with our needs, so we found ourselves building custom software to organize all that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Admios worked on our product called the Off the Grid experience platform. It’s the heart of our business, and we use it to keep track of our third-party creators and schedules, as well as organize our catering events. It’s a Node JS and React Native web app that’s hosted in AWS.

Our most recent project with Admios was building out a fleet of mobile apps, one of which was the POS (Point of Sale) system built on top of the Square SDK. We also had a guest ordering application so that guests could order ahead from their favorite food trucks.

What is the team composition?

Our partnership with Admios fluctuated along with our budget. For our most recent app project, we had a steady state of 12 developers, with four of them working on the POS system, the experience app, the backend, and other various needs for our other businesses. I would say we spiked up to 20 developers at one point, but had to scale back due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

How did you come to work with Admios Nearshore Software Development?

The partnership with Admios happened before I joined the company, and my understanding is we found the founder in a bar. I would say that we’ve worked continuously for five years thanks in part to their reasonable pricing model and their extremely high software quality. Additionally, the developers that we’ve worked with were all top-tier, so they’ve been a really good partner across the board.

How much have you invested with them?

Throughout our entire engagement, we probably spent more than $4 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

For the most recent project, we worked together from December 2019–April 2021. Due to the pandemic, we shuttered that whole project line. The software works great, but it just doesn’t make sense to use for the current market.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The software quality we get from Admios is very high. We’ve had maybe 2–3 outages that were meaningful in the past couple of years, but those were resolved quickly so in general, the system they built has been robust.

How did Admios Nearshore Software Development perform from a project management standpoint?

We typically used Jira and Pivotal Tracker. Their methodology was slightly different, wherein they had the development leaders take on the project management role in the partnership. Although in our case, we had our own project manager who managed the scheduling and shuffling things along in partnership with the development lead.

In the last six months of our partnership, they stepped up to have a little bit more project management. It was still handled within the development team, but it was in a slightly more formalized role — I would say it was a positive change.

What did you find most impressive about them?

A lot of the other companies we tried to work with were very happy to tell us what we wanted to hear. Admios has always been straightforward about their capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses. We were very impressed with their cleanly-run business and their reasonable pricing model.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think they can improve on getting their project management piece locked in. They introduced having QA capabilities, which has been a step forward, and the overall evolution they have going on has been positive — so they should continue to improve on that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think the area that we screwed up on, was our specifications changed wildly and rapidly. Luckily, Admios was more than happy to be flexible and fluid in accommodating us. I would just say, make sure you have clear lines of communication on a regular basis.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I run the engineering team for an early-stage startup that was founded at the beginning of 2020. Our company builds software for the pharmaceutical industry, targeting groups that handle medical affairs to make their work better. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Admios Nearshore Software Development?

At the beginning of the year, we were trying to launch the first version of our product and needed more developers to help us with building out the solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We brought on some of Admios’ developers to augment our internal team. Their two resources aren’t dedicated to any specific project — it’s more like they work as a part of our team, picking up tasks just as any of our other developers would. That’s worked pretty well for us so far.

What is the team composition? 

They’ve assigned two developers.

How did you come to work with Admios Nearshore Software Development?

Our CEO had worked with Admios before, and he put me in touch with them. We did look at 1–2 other companies, but it made sense to go with them given our history. Even during the evaluation process, it seemed like they were more on top of things than others.

We were also considering partners in Latin America because my colleagues and I have had pretty good experiences working with remote teams there. The time zone difference also isn’t as big of an issue compared to, say, India where we’re literally 12 hours apart. With the Admios team, we’ve been able to work out several overlapping hours between our staff. 

How much have you invested with them?

It’s probably over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started working with us in mid-March 2020, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Not only do they do whatever work needs to be done, but their team members have also been really good at getting through our tasks. They’re easily some of the best developers that I’ve worked with as far as productivity goes. 

Looking at our velocity calculations, they definitely contribute a lot to our ability to build new features into our product. The team produces code at or greater than the quality bar that we set for any other developers on our team.

How did Admios Nearshore Software Development perform from a project management standpoint?

Admios has been an accommodating and flexible partner to work with. They don’t play much of an active role in project management since we just tell them what to do and give them the specs. Their developers are very much enmeshed with the rest of our team, following a scrum agile development methodology. 

I have regular check-ins with each person, and they actively try to see if there are any concerns from either side. Sometimes, we do have some issues with communication, but they bring them up early enough and jump right on to correct them. Our overall project management tool is Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

First and foremost, they have high-quality developers. We were able to describe the kind of developer that we were looking for, and they found resources who ended up being a good match. Our engagement is a little bit different from your typical contracting job since they really just slotted their developers into our existing process. We treat them as we would any other developer on our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there haven’t been any issues. We really get along with their team members.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO/CTO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Admios Nearshore Software Development, and what were your goals?

Start the ground work for our project.

SOLUTION

How did you select Admios Nearshore Software Development and what were the deciding factors?

Kelly is very professional and understands the software business cycle.

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

.NET, React.

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

Front- and backend developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Management was very involved and strived for customer success.

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

Very efficient.

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

Long-term relationship focused.