CodeLions

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a collaboration network platform with built-in project management tools. Our platform helps freelancers optimize their productivity and increase their earning potential.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CodeLions?

We didn’t have an internal development team when we started this company. Thus, I was looking for a development team to release the first version of our platform, and I wanted to find a reliable and timely partner for this project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CodeLions has become our external development team. Initially, they helped us perform a market analysis and define the project's scope. Since then, they’ve built the web version of our platform from scratch, from design to implementation. As for the design specifically, it was a low-fi design created on Figma so that we could understand the user flow.

Throughout the project, I’ve worked closely with CodeLions to describe my requirements and ensure that the project gets released based on our vision. Recently, we released the third version of the web platform, and we’re currently building the mobile version as well. Moreover, they provide maintenance to the web platform as needed.

Our platform offers an end-to-end collaboration network. Users can onboard the platform, connect with other freelancers, request projects, and offer their expertise. On its backend, we have different features for contract management, calendar management, and payment processing. As for its technology stack, our platform uses Java, Python, GitHub, Angular, and Google Cloud.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with around 10 people from CodeLions, including their CEO, who now acts as the CTO for my company. We’ve also worked with frontend developers, backend developers, DevOps engineers, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with CodeLions?

One of CodeLions’ representatives reached out to us through LinkedIn. I really liked the detailed documentation they sent us when we were scoping out the project, and our first conversations were very nice. Their team was very aware of our requirements, and their pricing was affordable, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with CodeLions for over a year now; we started working together in October 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to CodeLions, we were able to launch our MVP within four months, and we implemented an administration panel about a month and a half after that. Since then, they’ve helped us create a new version with key new features and functionalities.

How did CodeLions perform from a project management standpoint?

CodeLions has delivered ahead of time, stayed within budget, and been responsive to our needs. We use Slack for regular communication and Google Meet for our weekly calls to discuss key results and progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

CodeLions’ willingness and flexibility to work with us are outstanding. They’re based in Ukraine, and when our project started, the Russian Invasion also started. Still, they were so dedicated to delivering the product that they actually delivered it months ahead of the deadline. Their team has demonstrated dedication and willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty, which we really appreciate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m satisfied with them so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with them — I’ve already started recommending CodeLions to others.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Mindfield Biosystems Ltd, a small-to-medium medical engineering company in Western Germany. We’ve been in the market for almost 20 years, and our employees are engineers, therapists, and software developers. Our company has engineered a couple of products regarding physiological monitoring and biofeedback, which is a unique method.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CodeLions?

We cooperate with many freelancers and other companies, and CodeLions is one of them. We have a unique iOS and Android mobile app that we built a couple of years ago that we continuously develop further. The app was created using a hybrid programmatic framework called Ionic in combination with Angular, and working on it requires a specific talent for Ionic. 

Previously, we were working with another company that couldn’t provide us with software development anymore since one of the specialists left, so we brought CodeLions on board to help us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CodeLions provides us with a software developer who works full time for us. They are a specialist and can work with the Ionic framework, so they’re helping us develop our mobile app. We’re experimenting with many very new techniques they’re trying out on their end. 

The product is used in combination with a couple of hardware sensors that measure skin conductivity, skin temperature, and respiration through a respiration belt and a chest belt. The hardware can also measure muscle tension. The app and hardware are connected via Bluetooth and the microphone input of a smartphone or tablet. Thus, this solution requires several unique features, and CodeLions’ developer handles these hardware sensors. For example, we had a major update expected by many customers, and they added eSense to the app for the muscle tension functionality, which we will now be selling again.

Our customers are divided 50/50. We have professionals like medical therapists who use the app to treat depression, anxiety, tinnitus, migraines, and other disorders. We also have end-users who are private people using the app for stress reduction. The app has an internal ticket and messaging system implemented where users can ask questions.

Additionally, we have a web application that’s also unique since it uses web Bluetooth. We’ve provided in-house designers for this project, so there was a template for the UI, and CodeLions has helped build upon the existing app. The web app works by connecting the Bluetooth device directly to the web browser and running it in the Angular framework. This makes for a complete software suite with animation, charts, and other features requiring specific skills. CodeLions has incorporated UI add-ons and new screen designs.

What is the team composition?

We have a full-time developer and a project manager from CodeLions. I also work with the CEO. 

How did you come to work with CodeLions?

Our previous provider recommended CodeLions. We had an initial meeting with them, and I got to know all the people there.

How much have you invested in them?

So far, we’ve spent around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With CodeLions’ cooperation, our workflow is smoother, faster, and more reliable. We’ve gotten good feedback on the app and a good ranking in the app stores. The team has fixed many bugs and implemented many new features to the app. The market is quite tricky at the moment due to missing electronic parts worldwide. That isn’t CodeLions’s fault, though, and they’ve done a lot of preparation for our new sales. 

Due to our programming language and framework, plus the specific use-case of our product, we required a very talented resource. The developer from CodeLions we have is absolutely excellent — he’s doing a wonderful job. The team is quite talented with UI add-ons, and they have an eye for screen designs. In addition, although they’re located in Ukraine and currently facing the Russian Invasion, they’ve done an even better job through their difficult situation, which is incredible. I plan to keep working with CodeLions as long as the developer wants to, and we’ll continue to improve the app for at least another year.

How did CodeLions perform from a project management standpoint?

So far, they’ve met all the deadlines or even delivered early. Sometimes I have to create more tasks because they’ve already finished their work. As a result, we’re advancing the project in huge steps.

We’ve used Loom for project management, where we record desktop video, and it immediately updates it to CodeLions’ Loom page. The program provides a link we can share with the team, where we put the following main task. Additionally, we create a couple of subtasks in Trello. We register the subtasks, and the developer picks them up.

For daily communication, we use Skype video calls or chat; we discuss the tasks or specific requests there throughout the day. I also have a monthly call with CodeLions’ CEO to discuss outcomes and the plan for the following month. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with the high value for money CodeLions offers. They’re reliable, and the developer is like a friend to us; he’s highly skilled and is helping grow our project even more. Moreover, he’s really quick to adapt to new techniques. We get excellent communication and instant delivery from him. 

Additionally, the spirit within CodeLions’ team is really good, which is especially noticeable with the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. Under this difficult situation, they’ve kept up the quality and even increased it, which is impressive to see. Their motivation is also stronger than before. They’re doing an excellent job that many other companies don’t do even under normal circumstances. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have them improve at the moment. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In general, communication and really clear instructions are the most important things when working with an offshore company.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the Mei, CEO of Slata, a translation management platform. It streamlines the translation process by managing complexities (in managing content and user interface elements on websites) and providing an online platform for developers, business owners and translators to collaborate in real time.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed help with building and launching the translation management system.

SOLUTION

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

We came across CodeLions via the Upwork marketplace and chose them based on their experience, technical skills, and cost estimates.

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

We had meetings to discuss the objectives and goals. CodeLions built the entire foundation of the translation management system and created the plugin library. The admin panel is developed with Angular and Java, and the library is built on Angular too. As a result we received a working system that streamlines the online translation process of a website.

For example, website owners can upload images for translation providers to understand better the context of the translation, the platform also tracks translation process progress. Moreover, the customers can either directly insert the translation via Slata.io platform or download an excel file, add translations there and later upload it to the platform.

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

We had two front-end developers, two back-end developers and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our platform is live and the development process took 3 months. Notably the agreed spec was delivered in line with agreed and projected timelines. Codelions delivered a platform that allows our clients to translate their web pages without additionally involving the developer and rebuilding the whole website.

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

The team was easy to reach, made themselves available to discuss matters if required, and was solutions-based. We used Slack and had daily sprint meetings and whenever required via G-meet.

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

They were very professional and client-oriented. They did a great job from sprint to sprint and always came up with the ways to improve. They were willing to get the project where it needed to be and added a great value to its development. From the communications perspective, they were transparent and easy to work with.

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

There were no critical issues.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a co-founder and the president of the company called Transway Data LLC. My job is to work with clients and overcome their technology short comings and help them build the latest modern technology using a precise strategy and standards that are secure and efficient.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired CodeLions for a Angular based web application that services customers data and orders and holds all customer records. Angular being a new technology, requires a lot of ramp up time and we needed someone quick and efficient to solve the problems within the application so our users could have the best experience possible.

SOLUTION

How did you select CodeLions and what were the deciding factors?

Having worked with Codelions and team before they were codelions, i have had a good experience working with Volodymyr. They are concise, quick and efficient when it comes to planning and laying out a structure to make the most use of the resources.

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

The goal of the project was to make changes on an Angular 8 application and pass that code with test coverage. There were technologies within Angular like material design, data tables that needed some work and configuration, however primary work was related to Angular.

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

2 people - A developer and the Project Manager. I did not need any additional resources

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Deliverables were met Deadlines were met Code was reviewed/tested Tests were written against code to verify authenticity 4 most important things i was looking for were all done without mentioning anything to Code Lions. They are a professional company that knows how to deliver!

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

Between Transway & Code Lions we were using Jira, Skype, Asana. Plans and timelines were made before the project started as the application requires you to spend some time to get familiar with it. We were essentially using Agile methodology mixed with a bit of waterfall however, this was not the most important aspect of our communication so we were open and flexible to any technology standard

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

End to end testing and checking. Often times, developers or development companies work on a piece of code and leave things as is or do not check to make sure everything is functional as expected. Code Lions is the complete opposite of this, they tested code thoroughly and even wrote tests in angular to help our ci/cd infrastructure.

I also want to note that Code Lions will go above and beyond in a case of emergency or if you need immediate help. In my case, even though it was a holiday weekend CodeLions was able to get someone to help us first thing as their developer freed up.

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

Code lions is busy place so i would get your appointment sooner than later.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a software startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codelions?

We are building an application and trading strategy software. We hired them to assist with backend developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a project to build an Android application for a European cosmetic company. It’s an app that you can insert numbers into a form to analyze and you get the best product. We needed an algorithm to fit the product based on the technology. They came in to change the backend algorithm and did backend work in Angular and Java.

What is the team composition?

Volodymyr (CEO) was my main contact. I worked with other developers on the project too.

How did you come to work with Codelions?

I worked with Volodymyr previously. I just reconnected with him.

How much have you invested with them?

It was around $12,000, maybe a little less.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March to July 2019. The app launched, but it’s only for use in the cosmetic stores.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Because the app isn’t client-facing, I don’t have customer data. However, the manager of the cosmetics company that we developed that app for says it’s working properly.

How did Codelions perform from a project management standpoint?

We talked over Skype and used Monday.com for project management. Communication was really good — they were always available day and night.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication and understanding impressed. Also, their ability to adapt and change over the project and not be stuck on a prior spec was great.

BACKGROUND

Prod3 is a CRM for law firms. I am the founder of Kanzlei.io startup which is a branch of DIREKTKANZLEI.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CodeLions?

We hired CodeLions to help develop our CRM software.

What were your goals for this project?

Our primary goal was to develop all front and back end portions simultaneously to coordinate a successful program launch. The program contains a lot of business logic, and so CodeLions needed to work in close cooperation with our internal developers to understand business functions.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

CodeLions were introduced by a business contact.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

CodeLions provided us with a Backend Java Developer initially which was integrated into the development process very quickly and started delivering good results from the very beginning.

Communication in English was sufficient for discussing business requirements and we were able to come to an efficient workflow. Besides that CodeLions management offered help from their side to strengthen frontend development.

At the end of the day we got team extension and increased development speed. CodeLions guys were deeply committed during the whole development process and really willing to exceed our expectations.

What was the team composition?

We started with one developer. We added one more front-end developer in a few months after starting for some fast improvement on the client UI/UX side.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The partnership was excellent. They were methodically rigorous and code was only committed to our git repository if it passed all the tests. Our team was keen on working with them.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The team has excellent communication realized over messenger. CodeLions alerts us to any issue found and they address it immediately, even if it requires overnight work. We communicate weekly over Skype. They regularly go above and beyond to bring success to our project. They always answered questions and concerns immediately and effectively.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The commitment has been fantastic and our language barriers were overcome after a short period of time. CodeLions spent extra time trying to understand what my needs were and reached out to me for updates.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are currently very satisfied with the collaboration. There have been no critical issues.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Tropea.life is a marketplace and an aggregator designed for skydivers. Using the app, people can track every piece of skydiving equipment online. This helps skydivers to save time, money and consider better choices. As the Owner and Founder, I’m responsible for making it happen

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CodeLions?

My project needed small improvements of current functionality and additional advertisement feature for products in the marketplace I own. The work centers on developing new features as well as fixing existing bugs.

What were your goals for this project?

Serve the skydivers and set the first corner stone in making skydiving a popular activity.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I got an introduction with their lead developer via the Upwork marketplace and we started working very fast after the first introduction. I saw their willingness to provide me the best service, having noticed that they set up the right communication with me to meet all my expectations. The connection was very diligent and kind.

Describe the project in detail.

My lead developer was working on small improvements on the marketplace but besides that I wanted to have Google Ads similar functionality to start promote products people push inside the platform. Moreover CodeLions built internal JSON uploading & parsing functionality which helped me to add more products really easy. Right after that, we built promotion functionality using Google Ads similar approach. Guys were trying to get so much in details and even propose some better approaches to reach my goal.

What was the team composition?

They’ve assigned a remote backend engineer. We’re looking to have further improvement of the marketplace we have now in the future. We got already the best option how could we improve it using latest technologies approach. The Tropea’s current state was evaluated as a bit trend outdated but we got cool options to upgrade it in future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Although we haven’t gone live yet, Relevant Software is helping us gear up for our product launch by providing the necessary manpower to complete tasks. I review their code regularly and am confident in its quality. We are just launching that functionality and we really hope it will bring us investments which we are gonna spend on system upgrade with CodeLions team in the future. Overall JSON parsing functionality and product management page made my life easier to fill platform by new propositions.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We mostly handle the project management ourselves, but they’ve provided an analyst to support us. The entire team, including the remote developer, participates in regular stand-ups and sprint planning meetings. In terms of communication, we use Slack and our own project management tool to coordinate.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We like their performance, transparent processes, and regular communication. It’s easy to work with them, and their developer has integrated well with our internal team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There have been no critical issues. They have strong written English skills, so we’re able to communicate easily through Slack (which they created for us) and Skype. They were working by fixed scope delivery model which was the best approach for such kind of functionality. We had some conflicts in JSON python service was generating and the java web server was trying to scrap which was confusion part from time to time but CodeLions team was able to help with all needed changes until we got it final.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Birdiecoach [https://birdiecoach.com/] is an online platform for sports coaches and students. With the platform we offer online tools to help both the coaches and students to get better.

The students have access to tools to improve their game and coaches have tools to better server their students. Being the founder and CEO of the company I am responsible to bring the product to the market. I am the CIO responsible and I also have a co partner that is responsible for the marketing and sales.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CodeLions?

I found Codelions on Upwork where I also had my previous development supplier.

What were your goals for this project?

Initially, we wanted to fix & improve functionality inside the app, which would allow our clients to use the app easily and get more benefits of that. Now we got not just upgraded web application but also mobile app and our clients are able to use it more easily which leads to clients number growth and satisfaction increase.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I meet their lead developer on Upwork and we started doing product improvements. He was doing good progress in the app improvement after another vendor who was not that fast. It’s been already more than a year as I use CodeLions’ service and I see how the application was changed significantly.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

CodeLions started working with Birdiecoach app as one Full Stack developer (Java + Angular) and added Ionic support in a while. So the main service they provide is software development, risk management and planning.

We have been passed a lot of stages of project’s growth and I was impressed by their willingness to work within a fixed budget and scope to give me the ability to start marketing and bring more customers.

In general, I feel like I am one of the team members because communication is good and strong. We discuss all details very deep and guys are really interested to make one shot but right instead of many times trying. We started project November 2018 and still working which is great indicator of longterm attitude with these guys.

What was the team composition?

They’ve assigned a remote full stack developer. The team was extended from time to time based on our needs. Now we running with one developer which supports backend and frontend development and another one who is doing ionic improvements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I just have version appearance on Dec 2018 in my mind and the current result is significantly better. We went through all difficulties last year and CodeLions became a good partner for my product which I wanna extend even more with them. The team is really reliable in terms of any additionally needed expertise.

They found outside DevOps and made improvements to the project building system. The most impressive is their attitude to the client. I got asked them for some native mobile developers because of willing to lunch a mobile app on Android and IOS. But guys were doing risk management and proposed me a better way.

They just explained that adding native mobile development will cost me X3 for every new feature but having that already developed on Android typescript makes it possible to easily convert that to Ionic (hybrid mobile app development) which is gonna be built on different platforms (IOS and Android) - what I needed. But cost and speed using this approach were much better (around 50% over web development instead of an additional 200%).

And I like this attitude because this was really longterm cooperation mindset and I am sure we will reach big goals together.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The entire team, including the remote developer, participates in regular stand-ups and sprint planning meetings. In terms of communication, we use Slack & Skype. The CodeLions team proposed using a free project management tool to coordinate all tasks and make workflow better - using milestones.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were really impressed with the annunciator they created. It was created outside the normal scope of work, and it turned out to be an amazing product for us. Also, from a management perspective, they're very cooperative and understanding. More importantly, they’re responsive regardless of whatever the outcome may be.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Be very open with your project requirements and be upfront about your budget so they can accommodate you. If you aren’t sure they have the expertise to work with all the technologies you need, ask. Whenever they weren’t familiar with a particular coding language, for example, they were willing to learn and work with whatever third-party developer I hired.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CTO of Trendio Live Inc, an e-commerce company. We help brands win on TikTok Shop and YouTube Shopping with automated creator matching, performance-optimized content, and full campaign execution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CodeLions?

We were searching for a skilled Python backend developer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We asked CodeLions to help us source an expert that would work on a long-term project basis. They proposed several candidates and helped with the interviews. Once the developer started working with us, they tracked his performance every other week and were always available for questions.

Regarding the developer's tasks, he participated in all our company meetings. In the tech team, we work on a Scrum framework. The developer picked stories related to our backend, helped refine them, developed the code, and tested it. Additionally, he also made great suggestions to be more efficient at work as a team, integrating tools such as SonarCloud.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one single developer.

How did you come to work with CodeLions?

They reached us via email. We ran an interview prior to asking for their help. We chose them because they were young, very professional, sourced excellent candidates, and were from Eastern Europe, which for us was a synonym of good tech expertise.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent well over $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August 2023–October 2024.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measured the success of the project through the hours of development and story points.

How did CodeLions perform from a project management standpoint?

CodeLions' project management was excellent. They always delivered on time. We communicated via video calls and emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their promptness to solve issues was impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Everything was great.