Bull & Beard

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and chief business development officer of a higher learning software company. We develop educational products for professional students. We mostly specialize in health science, but also offer products for other fields like transportation and real estate. We also provide publishing companies the software and mobile platforms to host their educational content.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bull & Beard?

We wanted to revamp the corporate website, but our in-house development team was busy with other projects. As a result, we hired Bull & Beard to perform the rebuild.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bull & Beard built out our corporate website and made it responsive on mobile devices. They embedded some video content, but overall it’s a standard website that provides clients an overview of our company and what our products can offer. Once development was complete, our in-house team handled the subsequent support and maintenance efforts. Additionally, they helped us recruit a software engineer to enhance our iOS team.

What is the team composition?

Jason (Co-founder, Bull & Beard) and Robbie (Co-founder, Bull & Beard) were our primary points of contact.

How did you come to work with Bull & Beard?

I met with Robbie and Jason. We talked about the project and got along well. The relationship evolved from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent just under $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They worked on our site from April­–September 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new website is a lot smoother and more intuitive than its previous iteration. It’s difficult to assign other relevant metrics because our goal wasn’t to drive traffic to the site. Our products have individual sites that advertise to customers. Instead, we wanted Bull & Beard to create a corporate website that exudes professionalism and communicates our message to partners. The platform accomplishes that goal.

How did Bull & Beard perform from a project management standpoint?

I frequently checked in with them to ensure everything was going well and on schedule. Jason and Robbie were extremely responsive and always answered my daily calls. They never handed us off to someone else and proactively engaged my team to help in any way they could. They used Basecamp as a project management tool and that worked great. We never experienced communication issues. Everything went so smoothly that I didn’t have to be involved as much as usual. I felt comfortable implementing a hands-off management approach.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their transparency is notable characteristic. They’re able to take complex topics and break them down into laymen’s terms. Bull & Beard always made sure to communicate with my team about what they were doing and why. Not all contractors make the extra effort to do that. Furthermore, I appreciated how they concluded the engagement. Other companies walk away as soon as they aren’t being paid. Jason and Robbie did the exact opposite. They followed up with us to see if we had any questions or problems. They’re absolute pros.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly wish I had something to report, but my team had nothing negative to say about them. I’d ask if they needed me to approach Jason or Robbie about anything and they always said no. The project went great and they’re phenomenal to work with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have an initial plan and run it by them, so everyone's on the same page. Jason and Robbie are great, but I’ve seen relationships deteriorate when the hiring party starts a project without a proper scope. As with any outsourced project, making changes leads to spending more money.