Blink22

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the Head of Product Management at a beauty-tech company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22, and what were your goals?

We needed a custom integration created between Shopify and our web app so customers could easily jump back and forth depending on if they wanted to shop or engage with our retention features.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Recommendation from a colleague

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

Refactored our legacy web app, migrated to a more modern stack, and created a custom data sync between Shopify and database.

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

4 people - 3 engineers & 1 product manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Very impressed at their communication ability, which is hard to find in contractors. Skill set of the engineers are very good, and even though we were a scrappy startup, they were very good at creating deliverables based on the acceptance criteria. We also appreciate their willingness to accommodate PST hours in the beginning so we can transfer knowledge and adapt them to our processes.

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

They’re very comfortable in JIRA and Slack - providing good updates on progress.

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

The engineers felt like they were members of our team, which is very unique to contractors in general.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

They were really great and flexible given we had internal issues in providing timely documentation.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the lead product manager at KhataBook. We have an Android and iOS app available in the market; we’re one of the top business apps in India. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?

We hired Blink22 to develop our mobile apps. We were growing fast, but we didn’t have in-house engineers to build out our additional requirements. As a result, we needed Blink22’s help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We already had an Android Khatabook app, so we only asked Blink22 to create an iOS version of it. We gave them our requirements, and they broke them down into development tasks. The team then gave us an estimated cost. From there, they started the development process. They also worked a little on the Android app’s frontend. Their resources used Figma for the app’s design, wireframes, and prototype. We did the QA testing. 

At present, Blink22’s workload has increased. They continue to work with us as a part of our team. In terms of core features and functionality, the app is a money management platform. We help small and medium-sized business owners in India and across the globe develop their daily cash accounting; they can track their expenditures, profits, and losses through the app. 

What is the team composition?

I’ve interacted with about 7–8 people from Blink22, including the product manager, developers, and designers. 

How did you come to work with Blink22?

Our founder found Blink22 on Clutch. They seemed a little expensive compared to other Indian teams. However, their price was reasonable on a global standard. Since we had the funding, we decided to work with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $300,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership started in August 2019, and we’re still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within the first 60 days of launching, we’ve already seen success. We’ve reached a single-digit rank on Google, and we’ve even trended in India as we crossed 300,000 downloads. The Android version of Khatabook has 60 million downloads, while the iOS version has over a million downloads. We also have a 4.4-star rating and 35,000 reviews. Moreover, our iOS app is in the top business category chart — we haven’t even spent anything on marketing. As a result, we’ve decided to invest further in these projects. 

Overall, Blink22 has built high-quality and stable products. Our app is light — the team has been able to bring our app’s size down to nearly 10MB, yet it remains functional. Our crash-free rate is 99.7%, and we’re trying to get it to 99.9%. 

How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?

Blink22 has professional and clear communication. They only commit to what they’re confident about, and then they deliver it. Their pricing is also fair for what they do, and we’re happy with what they’re offering. 

Moreover, the team is highly professional in terms of scheduling. They have a realistic timeline, and they stick to it. We don’t need to do follow-ups. We use Jira to track the project’s progress. We have standup meetings there, while we primarily communicate via Slack. Every once in a while, we use WhatsApp and emails. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Blink22 has a high-quality team that produces high-quality work. That’s why we can blindly trust whoever they assign to a project — we can expect consistency in their work. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. I don’t have any complaints about their work. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Document your requirements, and you’ll get the best out of them. When you give them the right instructions, they’ll do the right estimations and assign the right amount of people to the project. 

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was published on 04/04/2020 

Rahul KR

Product Manager, Khatabook ADJ Utility Apps Private Limited

Financial Services

51-200 Employees

Bengaluru, India

$50,000 to $199,999

Aug 2019 - Ongoing

Project summary

After a digital lender's Android app's success, they hired Blink22 to build an iOS app. They were provided with designs on Zeplin, sprinting to build the app, integrate features, and launch on time.

Feedback summary

Within 60 days of launch, the app ranked #9 on all categories combined and #1 in the business category in the App Store with over 250,000 installs. Developers at Blink22 were highly-proficient, handling all difficult integrations with grace and friendliness.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Khatabook is a digital ledger app that allows micro, small and medium-sized businesses to keep a digital log of their financial transactions and accept payments online. I am Product Manager here and lead payments product along with leading the Khatabook's iOS app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22?

Our android app was receiving a lot of customer love and had breached 10 Million plus installs and there was a huge demand for iOS app. Hence, we looked up for firms who could deliver a high quality iOS app and came across Blink22 on Clutch website. Blink22 now handles our iOS app development and also handles few components of our core android app.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to ship our iOS app by November end of 2019 and Blink22 hit that target and since then our goal has been to build on iOS app all the features which are available on our android app. We decide on weekly sprints and Blink22 has been able to meet every sprint deadline consistently. We currently have 250k+ installs on our iOS app and have crossed 30 Million installs of our android app.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our company's co-founder Dhanesh Kumar searched online for all the high quality teams who can build an iOS app and also work on our core android app. After reviewing a lot of firms for over a month within India we decided to look for teams based in abroad and came across Blink22 on Clutch website. Dhanesh got in touch with Blinkk22's cofounder and after few rounds of calls, we decided to finalise them as our app development partners.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we finalised Blink22 as our partners, we took their tech team through our backend and explained in detail how our platform works. Post which, they started building new features for our android app, we provided them with the designs on Zeplin and added tasks on Jira to track the progress. They followed sprint diligently and kept shipping the features on time. The project included building few features on the android app plus to build and maintain complete iOS app right from choosing which platform to build our app on to backend integrations, designing of the screens, complete front end development and analytics logging.

What was the team composition?

We initially got 2 developers and 1 product manager for our android app development from Blink22's end. Then as we started our work on iOS app we added 2 iOS developers, 1 designer and their senior iOS engineer to ensure high quality gets shipped from their team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Within 60 days of our iOS app launch we were trending on App Store, we hit #9 rank on all categories combined. We have been trending on #1 on business category in India since many weeks now. Our iOS app has crossed 250,000 installs and our users are loving the app with 4.9 rating on App Store.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It has been very smooth and effective. Yehia Ezzat, their product manager has been doing a great job in managing the entire project and team to keep things smooth even under very tough deadlines and ad-hoc task requests from our end. I worked closely with Nagendra, their designer to get high quality designs ready for iOS app. Their iOS developer Mohammed Allam has been an absolute rock star and we are very happy with his work and wish to keep building new features with Allam, Nagendra, Yehia and Dalia, their senior most iOS engineer who has helped us with all the difficult integrations and with such grace and friendliness.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their developers are really proficient and know their tech stack in and out. Any challenging problem we throw at them has always been handled with eagerness and curiosity to learn and solve the task at hand. Their commitment to keep proper process and frameworks to ensure smooth delivery of project requirements has been a stand out point. Kudos to them for the same.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None I can think of, we have been completely satisfied and happy with their work. In between when the work was being slowed down a bit due to bugs they immediately replaced and alloted us a senior developer to make sure the project timelines and quality don't get affected.

RATINGS

Overall rating:  5

So far it has been a wonderful journey with them and we wish to keep continuing this for the foreseeable future!

Quality: 5

High quality apps have been shipped by them, top notch designs. Stable, high performance and smooth app.

Cost: 5

Everything worthwhile comes at a price & that's how it should be. We are happy to bear the cost due to their high-quality work which is what matters.

Schedule: 5 

Very professional and on time. Never felt an issue in collaborating with their team.

Willing to refer: 5

Would definitely recommend Blink22 to any team in my network looking for an end to end app development firm.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior growth manager for a business management company. We make utility apps for the Indian ecosystem where we address the B2B side of things.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?

We wanted to enable Indian merchants with software that could bring their business online during the COVID-19 pandemic. We needed a partner to develop the iOS app and website for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built our website and iOS mobile app end-to-end; they designed it, developed it, performed QA, and released it. Both of the deliverables enable merchants to create their catalogs, share them with their customers, and place orders.

What is the team composition?

At least five people are working with us.

How did you come to work with Blink22?

We worked with them in the past; they did a good job and kept up with timelines, so we hired them for this project. Also, their coding is good, and it’s easy for us to replicate internally.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000 with them so far.

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 overall product was good. The paid marketing efforts have been minimal, thanks to the way that we implemented them. We retain a lot of users because of the way the product has been designed and coded.

How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was pretty solid; we use Jira and do the Kanban setup. The person who works on the project management side has technical knowledge — it’s easy for them to understand what we need.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re agile, take ownership, and have clarity of thought. They’ve also been professional and understanding about the requirements for the product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on — quality has been top-notch.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them proper documentation and a clear objective with timelines, and they’ll get it done. They have great expertise within their team and resources for almost every tech stack possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a software company for home service and business owners. Our CRM platform allows home service professionals to schedule appointments, manage customers, and perform jobs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?

We needed them to develop our mobile and web applications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Blink22 has developed our mobile and web apps, which our previous in-house development team failed to complete. Their team has used both React and React Native to generate our tech products. They continue to support our company by applying site modifications and performing other development-related tasks.

What is the team composition?

We work with two mobile app and two web app developers.

How did you come to work with Blink22?

Blink22 understood the technical issues of our products — this was highly reflected in their project proposal, so I gained confidence in their team.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent more than $20,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've only recently launched our apps, so there are no metrics to share yet. However, I can definitely say that I am highly satisfied with their work. Blink22 is an amazing team — they quickly deliver high-quality work and help us address all app-related issues.

How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly communicate via Slack and Zoom. Blink22 has great project management skills — they always provide detailed timelines and documents.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We're always impressed with their communication and development skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Blink22's work meets our satisfaction, so we have no complaints.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Finalize the project scope before kicking off your engagement. Once this is laid out, Blink22 will deliver what you need.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a lifestyle management company. It’s an iOS mobile application that helps users balance their lifestyle through video content, calendars, and messaging capabilities. I’ve worked on a lot of designs, strategies, and branding over the course of 10 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?

We’ve been working with Blink22 to develop and launch our product in the next six months.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Blink22 has developed our mobile app from scratch. We’re building it for iOS and, shortly, for Android and web as well. 

What is the team composition?

Moustafa (Co-Founder & CEO) is my main point of contact. Blink22 has a full development team of probably 12 engineers and a couple of designers working on the project. We also have a QA and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Blink22?

I believe I found Blink22 through a review website while I was looking for different development US-based companies. I wasn’t looking for an agency with a heavy roster of developers because we’d lose quality nor a company with only co-founders. I wanted people who could bring some ammunition to the table; maybe a team of 6–10 people would be perfect.

I got a lot of calls with a lot of different people, but the background, experience, portfolio, and age of the Blink22 founders impressed me. I’d worked in tech for over ten years, started a company in college, worked on global consulting level for a large company after college, started another company, and I’d seen a lot of people in the space of tech, but not like them.

I wanted to slowly meet the Blink22 team. I met the project manager and some of the leads, who I was very impressed with. Then, we gave them the scope of the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $50,000, and there’s another $50,000–$100,000 still coming for the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Blink22 in October 2020. The project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a realistic timeline, demos, and test scripts that we set out for Blink22 to understand and accomplish. 

We aren’t launched yet, but it’s a big piece of software. One of these pieces could be its own app — it has three that are all integrated. We’ve had to break the project down into milestones and subprocess areas. Every two weeks, we have a demo that shows a piece of functionality and later integrates onto other pieces of the platform.

There’s also QA, and we do unit, string, integration, and end testing. Unit and integration testing are big things because, as we build, we make sure the software works with other parts and is standard. We have test scripts that we follow to know if it’s working or not — it’s very prescriptive.

How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate with Blink22 through Google Meet, Google Calendar, and Slack. For project management, we use Jira, Figma for design, and SharePoint for my own personal repository. Blink22 has its own project management tool for internal purposes. It’s custom software that they've built to manage their products, and it’s integrated as a little plug-in into Slack — it can message their team automatically in Slack. It’s very impressive.

I have a weekly call with the project manager and a biweekly call with the sponsors. Everyone that’s onboard has been able to deliver, and they’ve been good about communicating. In addition, Blink22’s quality of work has been great. All development projects need debugging, but they have a good attitude when doing it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve started off in a smaller capacity with Blink22, but I’ve found that their team is highly capable, and they have excellent time management and communication skill set. I have nothing but good things to say about Blink22. They’re probably my favorite team that’s on the project. 

At the beginning of the project, I was unsettled with their project manager — with who I had a good relationship — because we were in the early stages of getting to know how they work. However, when that happened, Blink22 brought in a more senior project manager who wasn’t even billable to help oversee the meetings. 

That senior project manager has been on the project, even though he isn’t part of the effort model for their resources. Blink22 has been very quick to bring in new people when it’s needed.

We’ll keep building software with Blink22 for the next year and a half because of the contract. My mobile app will grow, and I can see our companies growing together to the point where their team would work full-time on my app. I want Blink22 to hire more people because we’re going to need a specialist.

I can see Blink22 growing and being one of the biggest companies in their region. I want to be part of that because of how well our relationship has developed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Blink22 could have consistent project management, such as meetings. I want the project to be faster, but I need to have a more realistic expectation because it’s a big platform. The project is going to take longer, but I’m comfortable with the Blink22 team, and I’m sure that they’re able to do it. It’s the most complex thing I’ve ever seen.

Any advice for potential customers?

You should have your design work scoped out. The Blink22 designers are awesome, but they need something to work off of, so have your inspiration already built out. If you can, hire a consultant to help you with business questions before bringing them onto the project. You’ll have a better vision of your product when Blink22 comes on board because as soon as they’re part of your project, they’re going to take it and run with it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product at Careem, a ride-hailing app in the Middle East. It provides a platform that spins off different verticals such as the ride-hailing app, deliveries, and mass transportation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?

We needed a company to be the software development arm for one of our verticals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re responsible for the frontend web development of our dashboards. They also provide mobile app development for iOS and Android native apps. They’ve been responsible for our customer apps and our driver apps.

What is the team composition?

There are around seven people working with us. We have a couple of people for Android, a couple for iOS, and 2-3 working on full-stack development.

How did you come to work with Blink22?

One of our colleagues used to work with some of the founders. We have an onboarding task for software houses that are going to be working with us. They passed that task and have been our development arm ever since.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $250,000-$300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They had quite a high level of ownership over the project. They didn’t feel like an outsourced provider. They felt like part of our team, working with us to deliver the product as we hoped. The quality has been good. The engineers had mid-level experience and their work met expectations.

How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very proactive and open to feedback. We made multiple changes to our contractual agreements, and we even made requests that weren’t part of our agreement that they have fulfilled for us. They’ve been quite collaborative.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their frontend capabilities are strong.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was a little bit of turnover on their side for some of their engineers who were leaving for other opportunities. The pace of restaffing could have been improved a little bit. It cost us a couple of weeks of development.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have very clear expectations on deliverables. Have dedicated product owners or project managers to work with them. Their engineers are of mid-level experience. Hence, there are some questions that need to be answered and they need someone to refer back to.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Khatabook is a digital ledger app that allows micro, small and medium-sized businesses to keep a digital log of their financial transactions and accept payments online. I am Product Manager here and lead payments product along with leading the Khatabook's iOS app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22?

Our android app was receiving a lot of customer love and had breached 10 Million plus installs and there was a huge demand for iOS app. Hence, we looked up for firms who could deliver a high quality iOS app and came across Blink22 on Clutch website. Blink22 now handles our iOS app development and also handles few components of our core android app.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to ship our iOS app by November end of 2019 and Blink22 hit that target and since then our goal has been to build on iOS app all the features which are available on our android app. We decide on weekly sprints and Blink22 has been able to meet every sprint deadline consistently. We currently have 250k+ installs on our iOS app and have crossed 30 Million installs of our android app.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our company's co-founder Dhanesh Kumar searched online for all the high quality teams who can build an iOS app and also work on our core android app. After reviewing a lot of firms for over a month within India we decided to look for teams based in abroad and came across Blink22 on Clutch website. Dhanesh got in touch with Blinkk22's cofounder and after few rounds of calls, we decided to finalise them as our app development partners.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we finalised Blink22 as our partners, we took their tech team through our backend and explained in detail how our platform works. Post which, they started building new features for our android app, we provided them with the designs on Zeplin and added tasks on Jira to track the progress. They followed sprint diligently and kept shipping the features on time. The project included building few features on the android app plus to build and maintain complete iOS app right from choosing which platform to build our app on to backend integrations, designing of the screens, complete front end development and analytics logging.

What was the team composition?

We initially got 2 developers and 1 product manager for our android app development from Blink22's end. Then as we started our work on iOS app we added 2 iOS developers, 1 designer and their senior iOS engineer to ensure high quality gets shipped from their team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Within 60 days of our iOS app launch we were trending on App Store, we hit #9 rank on all categories combined. We have been trending on #1 on business category in India since many weeks now. Our iOS app has crossed 250,000 installs and our users are loving the app with 4.9 rating on App Store.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It has been very smooth and effective. Yehia Ezzat, their product manager has been doing a great job in managing the entire project and team to keep things smooth even under very tough deadlines and ad-hoc task requests from our end. I worked closely with Nagendra, their designer to get high quality designs ready for iOS app. Their iOS developer Mohammed Allam has been an absolute rock star and we are very happy with his work and wish to keep building new features with Allam, Nagendra, Yehia and Dalia, their senior most iOS engineer who has helped us with all the difficult integrations and with such grace and friendliness.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their developers are really proficient and know their tech stack in and out. Any challenging problem we throw at them has always been handled with eagerness and curiosity to learn and solve the task at hand. Their commitment to keep proper process and frameworks to ensure smooth delivery of project requirements has been a stand out point. Kudos to them for the same.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None I can think of, we have been completely satisfied and happy with their work. In between when the work was being slowed down a bit due to bugs they immediately replaced and alloted us a senior developer to make sure the project timelines and quality don't get affected.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a two year old startup proving on-demand workspaces to freelancers and entrepreneurs. Based out of Toronto, ON with over 8000 members. I am a product manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22?

As we began to ramp up development, we needed help building our iOS and Android products, but did not have the time to hire and onboard a new employee. We were aware that there were a number of features that, if executed rapidly, could unlock a lot of value to our members.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to hire a developer (or developers) who could execute writing code in both platforms that was clean, scalable, and sophisticated. The developers needed to have vast experience in both iOS and Android, being able to navigate from Java to Kotlin (in android) and Objective C to Swift (on iOS).

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We spoke with 6 agencies that were excited to work with us. The factors that we're important to us included experience developing on both platforms, number of projects in their portfolio, and cost. The selection process was a number of interviews, detailed analysis of their portfolio, and a "sample" feature to create in order to test their code.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Blink22 is responsible for developing new features from a design spec, testing thoroughly, and being responsive when bugs are found.

What was the team composition?

The core team is 3-4 developers that are comfortable on both platforms. However, team size increases or decreases depending on number of features being built at once.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our efficiency in development time has improved significantly since working with Blink22. It once used to be a major blockers when testing new features that could unlock value, and it since has been removed as a blocker for us. Blink22 exceeded our expectations in terms of dedication to the quality of their development.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management has been excellent thus far, always meeting deadlines, working with us on expectations, and being incredibly responsive. We've communicated over Slack, Github, and Jira. No issues has ever been caused by language barrier.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Blink22 has hired incredibly talented engineers that are extremely comfortable in an array of languages and platforms.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Responsiveness can lack at times, but this is a matter of a handful of times, as opposed to recurrent issues.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was head of engineering for mass transportation at Careem, the largest ride-hailing company in the Middle East; I left the company a couple of weeks ago as the company has been acquired.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?

We were launching a new product to address the mass transportation industry, but only had a small team of 3–4 engineers; we wanted to scale up our engineering team quickly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we kickstarted the mass transportation project, we had a small unit. We decided to outsource part of our team to Blink22 to increase our development capacities. Since they’re part of the engineering board, they haven’t worked on product or features. Blink22 continues to help build the platform.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with seven engineers who specialize in different domains including mobile, backend, and web developers.

How did you come to work with Blink22?

As head of engineering for a different company, several engineers I had hired left to join Blink22. When we were looking for a partner, they were my first option because I knew they had high standards regarding onboarding teammates.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $150,000 with Blink22.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began collaborating in December 2018, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After onboarding Blink22, we’ve rebuilt the velocity of development at Careem.

How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?

Blink22 has augmented our team. Rather than sending a partner black boxes to work on, the team has worked onsite. The relationship between companies and outsourced partners is usually strained but our collaboration with Blink22 has gone well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have been good partners. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, because we were the ones managing and executing the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a part in the contract that allows for full-time employment after the initial collaboration ends.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CTO and co-founder of Y Combinator-backed grocery delivery platform for North Africa and the Middle East.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?

We needed auxiliary engineers to help build some of the products we use. We were trying to scale very quickly, and we didn't have enough internal resources at the time to hire more people in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built two internal apps from scratch, and they supplemented one of our teams on a core application. That was a native Android app for grocers to receive orders. They also built a web dashboard for customer support. In-house, they built React Native components to fill in the gaps.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of about ten. There was a little bit of cycling, but I interacted directly with their three heads. Those executives were the project managers for each part of the project, with two or three other people per team.

How did you come to work with Blink22?

We didn't know them when we initially engaged them. I looked for people online and reached out to several dozen. Blink22 was within walking distance of our main offices, so meeting with them in person was very convenient. They made a good impression and could fill in all the gaps in our deployment schedule.

How much have you invested with them?

I'd say we spent $50,000-$60,000 during this collaboration.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement started around December 2018 and ended in July 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They helped bring our crash rates down. It's a cross-platform tool, so there were sometimes issues with the Android version. They did a lot of debugging, and they did a good job reducing the number of crash reports we deal with. They contributed significantly to our uptime and the app's reliability.

How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?

They were organized and provided everything we needed. We threw a lot at them, and they came up with a well-structured strategy. Direct feedback to our customer support team was good, and they would work with our users to fix bugs during the project. We created Slack channels and Jira boards and tightly integrated our teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to scale as needed is excellent. When we gave them extra projects, they added the people we needed to complete the tasks. They had the capability to take on any assignment.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything they could improve or do differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would highly recommend them, even if we weren't local to their area. Integrate them into your team and work with them as deeply as possible. In order to maximize their abilities, really share with them. They think at a higher macro-level than other outsourcing agencies. Tell them the scope of the problem, and they'll think with you to come up with the best approach.