Base B

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Konzept 33 is a German agency providing software services for clients. I’m the CEO and a co-founder of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Innvation Lab?

We were looking for a software company that could deliver the solutions we needed. We arranged our contracts and aims and started to develop with Innvation.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve had a couple of projects with them, one of those being the development of an Apple TV application for our client, a broadcasting company in Germany. They needed to present technical information, image galleries, videos, livestreams, weather, and sports on Apple TV devices. We developed the iOS app internally, but needed a partner for Apple TV.

We also worked with Innvation on a Windows 10 app for exhibition games, on behalf of another client. They needed to present corporate information at events, for their business clients. It was built for Windows tablets, phones, computers, and televisions.

The collaboration has focused largely on development, but with some technical analysis, adoption, and extension—especially for these two platforms.

What is the team composition?

We had 2–3 developers, 1–2 project managers or business analysts, and one UX designer.

How did you come to work with Innvation Lab?

We were looking for experienced developers who could evaluate our business model, work on UI/UX, and extend applications with native features.

I’ve known their CEO since before their company was founded, from a previous experience. I decided to continue working with them because I knew he could collect good developers and business analysts.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost is $25,000–$35,000. We’ve had two big phases and a couple of small updates.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2017. We’re working on an update for one of the projects, which is estimated to finish by the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019.

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

I’m excited about the results. In them, we’ve found a business partner with whom we can discuss, develop, and deploy our solutions. There’ve been almost no problems and we’re becoming what we need to be. If we ask them a question, we know they’ll find a solution. They’re reliable, on time, and they stick to the budgets we discuss.

How did Innvation Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

They were fast to understand what we needed, they put together the team we needed, and they manage it quite well. We have the option to communicate with the technical staff directly, though the project manager does a good job of overseeing it all. We work completely remotely and communicate via telephone, email, and Skype in a manner that’s always professional.

They know our work process, they’re efficient, and they have quick discussions with us whenever we have a bug or an issue, in order to identify and fix them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand our business and its problems quickly, and concentrate on solution-finding on our behalf, without a lot of meetings, email exchanges, and so on. There’s a high level of professionalism among the developers and business analysts. They deliver solutions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could try learning some German for our customers, but it’s not essential. The English communication is quite good. German language skills could be a small advantage on our market, but it’s not a disadvantage.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should define their strategy, aim, or project precisely, and let Innvation Lab develop the details. The technical and strategic parts shouldn’t be mixed.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Keepers, a receipt collection mobile app that scans and processes a client’s receipt or invoice.

What challenge were you trying to address with Innvation Lab?

We needed someone to develop and design the UX for our application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with understanding the idea and the business processes involved. They created the specifications and UX flow with mock-ups and diagrams, which we approved. Following that, they started the build.

The app has number recognition which enables vendors to scan receipts or invoices. Building this part was challenging, however, through integrations with Google and another platform, Innvation Lab was able to configure digit and date recognition. It’s available for both iOS and Android platforms and was developed using React Native.

What is the team composition?

The number of people involved in the project changed throughout the development period. They assigned a dedicated project manager, a developer, a UI/UX designer, and a business analysis person.

How did you come to work with Innvation Lab?

We had previously worked together.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent slightly less than $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April to July 2018. It wasn’t a big project.

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

The application is live. For us, it isn’t about millions of downloads but rather the number of accounting companies using the application. It’s a white label solution, and as of right now, it’s being used in two big accounting companies. By the end of this year, it will be used by 20 more.

We wanted to test the idea to see if it was good, and it already has market approval. Our clients are happy that everything works and continue to develop this product for themselves.

How did Innvation Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

We had short daily calls and also met them in person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In software development, if the solution works, then it’s perfect. They delivered everything they promised. They estimated it would take four months and it did. We will use them for a new MVP project in the future.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a biometric authentication software as a service, essentially identifying and authenticating individuals based on how they type on keyboards or touch touch-screen devices. I am the CEO of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Innvation Lab?

I had an idea of the competitive landscape in cybersecurity and specifically in authentication. I wanted to find a team in Estonia that would help me develop a product by which we could create a biometric individual profile of every user that can alert them in real time about lost, stolen, and shared login credentials.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve helped developed the technology behind our product. This included the system architecture, and the the overall technical application of implementing a keystroke dynamics-based technology.

We had everything from design mockups to wireframes to the technology development itself. At this point what we have available is an API, a software development kit, the machine learning algorithms they developed, and all of the documentation that we need for clients to integrate our product on their side. It was very important that the solution was scalable and that the infrastructure would support that kind of load.

What is the team composition?

I went mostly through one person and the principal engineer. We had a couple of calls with some data scientists -they’re a team of seven or eight- and also had small interactions with their frontend and design person.     

How did you come to work with Innvation Lab?

I was referred to them through a mutual friend. I was also impressed with their experience and cost. After the first iteration, they were able to execute ahead of schedule and ahead of expectations. From that point, I was confident that they would be able to keep delivering.

How much have you invested with them?

I have invested somewhere between $70,000—$75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with them since May 2017.

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

Pilot testing is underway, with 6,000 engineers from another vendor trying (unsuccessfully) to crash the software. I’ve been very happy with those results. There have been few bugs, if any. Plus, we’re now more accurate than voice or face recognition when it comes to false positives.

How did Innvation Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication is excellent. We’ve had statements of work and estimates for each and every step. They’ve also been clear articulating the process on paper, which was key for our documentation purposes. Overall, we kept to the timeline, which I'm very happy about.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have consistently delivered what they promised. I haven't had much interaction with entrepreneurial development teams before, but their execution has been the best.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve had difficulty communicating with some of their team, but beyond that, I can’t think of anything.