ClearSummit

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We've seen dramatic jumps in return users and session lengths on the app. There are many fewer crashes. In terms of a more subjective assessment, whenever issues did come up, they addressed them so quickly, efficiently, and effectively that we went from having a technical headache every single day to having trust and confidence in a team that could put out fires when they needed to be put out. The session lengths improved. The entire experience went from being a buggy inconsistent app to being a very consistent platform.

What distinguishes ClearSummit from other providers?

As cofounders to a small and growing company, we can't sing ClearSummit's praises enough, but I think what stands out is their creativity and their willingness to be patient teachers to us. At this point, we've worked or met or interviewed so many different development teams both in and out of Los Angeles, and they are the most humble yet the most talented by far. They've been the most compassionate and, at the same time, they're not condescending in any capacity even though we're younger and we're new startup founders.

Is there anything ClearSummit could have improved or done differently?

No – they're perfect. They're amazing.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

It is a little tricky because we actually haven't had the thing and handed it to customers, but I can say that it was built in such a way that it's given us plenty of flexibility to explore many things on behalf of our clients. In fact, just this morning [December 2015], we met a guy from an agency who was representing some potential clients and had a brainstorm about some ideas for providing customer information in real time to salespeople on the floor at brick-and-mortar retailers. The effort for us to modify the app to get exactly what he was talking about would be very minimal, which I think is a testament to building in the smart architecture and going through the right process when you start out. Given all those challenges that we presented him, just with lack of continuity and changing requirements and changing priorities and all those things, I would say we've come out with a product that we feel is flexible and will allow us to deploy all sorts of functionality as we wish in a very nimble way.

What distinguishes ClearSummit from other providers?

I would reiterate much of what I said thus far, but maybe some new things, too. First of all, on time and on budget means a lot. ClearSummit is very professional throughout, in all cases more than pleasant to interact with interpersonally as well as professionally. It's just a Johnny-on-the-spot resource. Shane got everything done when we asked him to do it; in many cases, better than we had asked for and he brought great ideas to the table to help us move things along. We were supposed to present designs for everything and have ClearSummit build to those specs. In many cases, we thought of new features for which we didn't have designs, and rather than say, "Oh, well, you guys go get the designs, and I'll wait around until you present them to me, and then I'll build them," he was like, "You know what? I'll just rough something in, and we'll see how it goes." Sure enough, most every time he did that, it was good enough to keep. We just feel like we got a good result all throughout the project, not only in executing it, but also in the products we've gotten out of it.

Is there anything Clear Summit could have improved or done differently?

Not really. I wouldn't change a thing about the project. I would have wished we had been more concrete and knew what we were trying to deliver from the get-go, but that's on us, not Shane. Overall, I wouldn't change a thing. Our relationship with ClearSummit has been one of the best relationships we've had as a company in the two years we've been around, if not the most pleasant.