Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
Right now, we’ve done very minimal marketing for our airport parking app, but it continues to grow without being pushed. We have it on our home page and emails for people to download. It's at 7,000 downloads right now on iOS. It's not something that we're promoting right now because we're in the process of updating our product altogether. But the app is very functional and usable. It's pretty amazing.
Due to the way that we received the product, I can see the nuance of the collaboration, the kind of communication that must be happening. Even though I don't get the full picture because I'm not in their developer meetings, I trust him completely. He listens well and can guide the conversation even if I've pivoted a little bit. I'm working with another company right now where they have their own team that does the development, and I haven't been getting enough transparency. I've been reaching out to them, trying to get more, and it's been a struggle. It's frustrating. So, I definitely appreciate how Raj is very transparent.
It's been a great pleasure working with Raj. Because he's worn other hats than just the CTO and CEO position of his own company, he’s able to provide great insights. We’ve benefited from the diversity of his experience. He also has a great knowledge base and a good network, which helps in an Agile structure. When coming up and brainstorming and conceiving ideas, he can get right in there with us.
Right now, oversee.net has really simplified itself. We only focus on consumer-facing products now, when before, we were B2B and lead generation. Our company has shrunk down to full-time three people, and a few outside resources. That’s why when things get delayed, it's usually on our end. We’ve been going through a lot of transition during the whole time we’ve been working with Raj. He’s been very flexible.
How did BitCot perform from a project management standpoint?
With the iOS app, it was very fast and clean with no issues. We had an API problem, but they worked directly with our web developer to quickly resolve it. It didn't matter if it was a weekday or weekend—they always responded quickly. There's no such thing as 9–5, Monday through Friday; we'd have conversations over the weekend or reach out to Raj in the evening or even at 11 PM. He's very accessible and a great person to develop a working relationship with. We have been able to have very honest conversations. It's the type of business relationship that I want to experience in life, so I'm pretty happy that he came across my path.
Our communication was more lightweight. We weren’t using things like Slack because I was text messaging him back and forth, so it was more personal. I don’t know if he does that for everyone, but he certainly did it for me. A lot of times when we talk, it is by phone or text. Documentation is through Google Docs or email, especially since we’ve been transitioning from a bigger company that was using a certain kind of structure. We’ve been changing our mode of operation as well during this whole time and getting more heavily into Trello and ProdPad for product management. We used to have JIRA for our ticketing system, but we’ve now switched over to Rally.
Raj is on top of things, making sure we're progressing even when we fall off a little bit. It's a very nice collaborative process, and he also goes above and beyond. He would recommend certain thoughts outside the range of his role, ideas that stepped into product development. It's nice and refreshing to work with a very smart individual and a very smart team. Everything that I see always feels top-notch. It was just easy—I articulate things once, and my instructions are received and given back. There are only a few notes that I have to make. When I’ve worked with other people in the past, it took an effort to really make them understand the process. In contrast, Raj’s people are just right on it. They're very well-versed.
What did you find most impressive about BitCot?
Everything that they've given us has been really clean development. Everything is very modern. They know what's deemed the next best thing in technology today. It was nice that Raj would say, “Yes, this is new and up-and-coming, but then also think about this.” He gives us that kind of information pretty quickly. When I do research, he’s dead-on about the various foundations of using Java versus using Ruby on Rails. For example, if we wanted a more lightweight product, we'd want to go down this path. If we wanted something that's very foundational, we're not going to be pivoting much on this path. All that kind of stuff helped in the long run because we now have an understanding of how to build a strong product.
Are there any areas BitCot could improve?
I know there's always room for improvement, but there was nothing that was a red flag for me. I can't even say there's any disappointment. The only thing that I would say is that sometimes he was so ready and, being a small team, we weren't. He is really good at pushing, and sometimes I was like, "Back off." That's just me saying back off because I don't have the resources to be able to get to the place where you're talking about. But that's about it. It’s not really a bad thing.
What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with BitCot?
Personally, I would just highly recommend him. Know that you have somebody in your court who is very well-versed in the industry. You’ll be working with someone who is tenacious and wants to do a good job with product development and getting products out there. What’s more, he’s very conscientious of the people that work with him. His company really wants to make sure they have a good working environment, and I find that to be such a great thing when doing business with anybody. They have integrity all around.
The app serves as a good proof of concept for use by other authors. User feedback is positive and future collaborations with BitCot are possible. Their project management and communication were effective, and they provided a very good value.