Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
I think the value that they added to PaidEasy was not only transactional. Lucky has made introductions, including venture capital firms, to some of our venues that we work with. They add value way beyond the scope of the work that we have done together, which makes sense in terms of a product standpoint as well as for the future vision. Lucky is an extremely smart guy and knows the space that we are in. He definitely knows players in the space and venture capital firms, so it made sense to have them as a part of the company. It was not like “Develop the app and I will give you a board seat arrangement" since I still paid for all of the work. The value that they were able to bring to the table dictated that.
I cannot disclose our consumer usage for the iOS app, but I can tell you that venues love our app. We went from working with 15 venues to now having 500 restaurant partnerships across New York, Miami, and DC.
How did Cemtrex Labs perform from a project management standpoint?
We used Trello for project management. I am the type of person where I like immediate responses. There has never been a time, whether it is two in the morning or three in the afternoon, where I have not been able to speak with someone. They work with a lot of teams offshore, and they also have Lucky and Ash based in New York. They are overly communicative, meaning there is always someone you can speak with.
Expectations were set from the beginning in terms of how long will it take and when we will launch. Obviously, things come up in development when we are working on something that no one has done before, which is a lot of point-of-sale integrations, but they were always managing expectations and kept me up-to-date.
What did you find most impressive about Cemtrex Labs?
They do not operate as a typical development shop. For someone like myself who is not technical, but mainly sales and business oriented, it is a breath of fresh air from a development shop where you can call them, tell them an idea, and they build it. It is helpful for someone who is not technical to hear “that is not possible and this is why”, or “this is possible and this is what it will take”, not in technical terms but in a way that I understand what we are able to do.
Are there any areas Cemtrex Labs could improve?
Towards the end of our project, they were more upfront on how they do things in terms of hours. In the beginning, it was all project-based, but then we switched to an hourly base where you can see a breakdown of how many hours this task took. I wish we did that from the beginning. Not to say it was bad in the beginning, it was extremely helpful for me as I progress with the company knowing that X change will take X amount of hours instead of relating it to a direct cost.
Cemtrex Labs’ contributions have allowed the client to yield more inclusive and efficient development processes, and also helped save an estimated $250,000 per year. Their level of service, responsiveness, and intelligence are unparalleled.