The Codest

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of Helpling, an international household services marketplace. 

What challenge were you trying to address with THE CODEST?

We hired Helpling to provide resources to augment our development team. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

THE CODEST provides us with development resources for our web and mobile development projects — we have four internal teams working on various projects. Their team provides me with several CVs that fit the requirements I layout. We work in React and Ruby and need resources with those technical skills. We screen the candidates THE CODEST provides internally and have them run through technical interviews to determine if they’re appropriate for the position. We need resources that will participate in all aspects of a project and take the initiative to contribute their ideas for project improvement. All in all, the hiring process takes about 2–3 weeks. 

My team handles onboarding once the new resources join our team. We have clear lists of expectations and check in regularly to discuss performance. Our key requirements are that new candidates first understand our business and then our technology.  

What is the team composition?

I work with a project manager and Jakub (CTO and Co-Founder). 

How did you come to work with THE CODEST?

THE CODEST actually reached out to us to offer their services. They had the right resources for our project, so we met them in person to discuss and establish a partnership. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested €200,000–€500,000 (approximately $220,000–$550,000 USD) with THE CODEST. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with THE CODEST began in November 2018, and it’s ongoing. 

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

We measure our successes by whether or not we hit our weekly goals — typically, we hit all of our goals 80%–90% of the time with contributions from THE CODEST. 

How did THE CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

THE CODEST communicates well. However, once the developers are integrated into our team, I don’t have to talk to them as much. Our development teams follow sprint methodologies and we have weekly check-ins to discuss progress. We use Jira to manage our development projects and communicate with THE CODEST in Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been impressed that THE CODEST can deliver high-quality developers within a reasonable amount of time. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes THE CODEST changes developers in the middle of the project without telling us why, hindering our processes. I’d appreciate it if they communicated those changes before they occurred. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise any company looking for development resources to get in touch with THE CODEST. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work as the CTO of Passbase and oversee all software development efforts. Passbase offers software solutions to banks and financial services to verify the identity of their users.

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

The Codest helped us on multiple projects. On the one side they helped shape up and build a whole new service that makes our product process verifications faster. Additionally they helped us with staffing our internal API team to maintain and support our clients.

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

Our VP of Product has worked with The Codest in the past and had only positive experiences. Hence we felt comfortable to trust them with such a critical service and move forward.

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

The project was mostly manager by one of our product managers as well as sometimes interactions and support from our core team members. The Codest worked in close collaboration with us and delivered milestones in a given time. They used Ruby on Rails in the backend and built on top of AWS. Later also Heroku.

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

In total 4 team members were hired from The Codest. They all were backend engineers.

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

One of the projects is shortly before the launch, so that we can see measurable product impact soon. The other engineer is helping us internally currently in support functions for the existing team

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

We have been communicating both with the leadership team from the Codest. Besides that the individuals are managed directly from our team.

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

We appreciate their excellent communication and service when we need more help and firepower. Also the communication was always very kind and I enjoyed working with them

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

Not really.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of an IT services company based in Poland (with offices in Germany and Denmark) that develops mobile and web applications for worldwide clients.

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

As we needed to power up our in-house dev team, we were looking for a trustworthy tech company having experience in building marketplace products - especially in Java and JavaScript technologies. The goal of the project was to create a marketplace product from scratch, then implement it onto the market, and finally constant development.

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

We checked The Codest recommendation and saw that their team has desirable skills as their DNA was always Java and JavaScript.

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

We have started by describing project goals and step-by-step development stages to come to the MVP. Because the client handed over to us his wishlist, we needed to think over the way and overall development in general. We worked with The Codest on the Agile way having daily meetings and keeping Scrum method.

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

The Codest provided to us the 6-person team of Java and JavaScript Developers.

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

We delivered a ready MVP marketplace product within 4 months that was positively accepted by the client and met the settled business requirements. After that, we focused on further development.

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

As mentioned, we worked with an Agile approach and follow the Scrum methodology. Moreover, we used such tools as Slack to keep efficient communication.

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

We were impressed with their expertise, experience, and ability to deliver what they promised on time.

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

Our cooperation was flawless that’s why I can’t see such areas.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO of Funktional, a Strategic Branding & Digital Products agency. We build brands, products, and services by exploring the vast expanse of creativity.

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

The Codest team has been responsible for the development of digital products we design. As our mission is to transform our clients into a digital world, we needed a trustworthy team having skills in the field of building MVPs, delivering reliable solutions into the market as well as having experience in working with eCommerce, SaaS and Marketplace industries.

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

I had heard lots of good opinions about their services and after quick consultancy, we decided to start cooperation with them.

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

We delegated software development projects to The Codest team that has been building them from a simple idea to the MVPs, and then further developing products as needed.

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

The team consisted of software engineers - mainly Java developers, and PM who was in charge of keeping projects on the right track.

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

As we strive to keep constantly growing our business we are fully aware that delivering stable and reliable solutions for the clients is the most important metric.

Cooperating with The Codest, we have on our side a strong tech partner who proved their skills and expertise in building SaaS/Marketplace business what has a direct impact on the clients’ satisfaction.

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

The Codest is well-organized, and their workflow creates effective synergy between teams.

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

Tech knowledge, deep experience, and understanding of our business needs, individual approach for each project as well as partnership cooperation.

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

From my side, they are really good at what they do.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO, CSO, and co-founder of Mixfit Inc., a personalized nutrition technology company.

What challenge were you trying to address with THE CODEST?

We had lost our lead developer, so we were looking for senior backend developers with knowledge of Ruby on Rails.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a monthly retainer with THE CODEST for Ruby on Rails development services. They provided us with a lead developer who coordinated two other people that were working on the backend.

Every month, we had a meeting with them and the product owner to discuss the development process. We discussed task by task and gave them freedom when it came to the software architecture. The lead developer also took care of the DevOps side.

What is the team composition?

We had six developers working for us on our technical team: three people worked on the backend, two people on the frontend, and one person was in charge of connecting the website with the software.

How did you come to work with THE CODEST?

They contacted me through LinkedIn.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working around April 2020, but we paused our collaboration by the end of June 2021 because we’re going through a financing round, and I couldn’t keep everyone on board. However, I’m interested in getting them back because I had a very good experience.

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

Since the lead developer from THE CODEST joined our team, we saw qualitative improvements in our development process. This person was a very good developer. For example, he was proactive, fixing issues that were slowing our system down without asking us or being asked by us to do it.

How did THE CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

Their performance was excellent. We’ve worked with 5–6 different external companies over the last five years, and compared to them, THE CODEST was very professional without being intrusive. They always made sure that we were happy, but they weren’t following up on us constantly or in excess, which was very good. Additionally, they were available whenever we needed support.

We usually communicated with them through Slack, and for our internal project management, we used GitLab. We also communicated via email and had a couple of video conferences. For the development process, we used the Agile methodology, so we had standing meetings every morning, as well as a weekly meeting on Mondays to kick off the week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of THE CODEST’s developers was impressive; they managed to provide us with great talent. We spoke with two developers from their team, and both of them were very well qualified.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I was very happy with their services, and our experience was very positive. It would be great if they charged less, but their price was within the industry standards.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

THE CODEST offers a very standard approach; they provide you with external resources on a monthly retainer basis. That is the best way to use their services. They’re also a great option for long-term relationships, thanks to that business model.

I can only advise you to work with them — our experience was very positive. They do an excellent job, and they’re very well organized.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director and a partner of Min-Mave. We have a website that provides a forum and community for mothers, pregnant women, and families in general.

What challenge were you trying to address with THE CODEST?

We make revenue through advertising, so traffic is the key to our success. We brought THE CODEST on to create a new community page. Our old one was outdated and cumbersome; it was performing poorly and was built on a lot of different systems. Our objective was to have one fixed system in WordPress.  

We asked THE CODEST to replicate the old page. We wanted to keep the design because our users are familiar with it — they like the page — and we want to maintain trustworthiness. THE CODEST was tasked to create a new page from scratch, with the exception of the design.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our new website. It’s a big site, and we have many years’ worth of threads on the forum dating back to 2003. We had over a thousand pages that needed to be migrated from the old site. Their team migrated everything and developed the right code so it was compliant with Google SEO. We wanted to make sure the platform’s performance was still the same when we moved to the new site. They also changed all of our URLs for the pages; that was a big task.

What is the team composition?

I worked with 4­–5 team members including a project leader and two backend developers.

How did you come to work with THE CODEST?

I received a recommendation from a network contact. THE CODEST had done some work for them, so they knew THE CODEST would be a perfect fit for us. Initially, we wanted to choose a Danish development team but we ultimately selected them because of their professionalism and price. They were compatible with our budget.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested roughly €30,000 (approximately $36,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement was from July–November 2020.

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

The work they’ve done has been great. I’ve worked with other companies from around the world and what makes THE CODEST stick out is that they’re professional and make themselves available all the time. Overall, I’ve been very satisfied with what they’ve done and what they can do. They’ve shown there’s nothing they can’t do or solve.

How did THE CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily communicated through Slack and Google Meet. Communication could have been better, but that partially could have been on me. If I had been pushier about communication, I could’ve gotten more meetings, status updates, and demos from them; but I didn’t really push that. There could’ve been more structure on how to manage a sprint so we had fixed days for all the components.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They never said no to any request. THE CODEST was quick to find solutions based on the demands I had. We’re not a big company so our budget wasn’t big either. It was very nice that they found a solution that fit us in the best way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing apart from the communication and structure details I mentioned before.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the founders of Estimote, Inc., an IoT technology company operating for the last eight years. We specialize mostly in location and sensor technologies. Our company primarily operates in the US market but we also have customers in Europe as well as a team and office in Europe and the US.

What challenge were you trying to address with THE CODEST?

We’ve been growing pretty rapidly over the last few years especially around our software business. One of the challenges was to have a better understanding of the dynamics around growth and some peculiarities about customer acquisition and retention. We needed to build a BI tool. There was no standard tool in the market that we could use. Our team needed a vendor to build a custom BI solution for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We developed some mockups for the wireframes of the software we envisioned. THE CODEST helped us estimate how long it’d take to develop the different features. They also separated the front- and backend tasks and took full responsibility to implement these wireframes to make the product.

The project was executed in an iterative way. We had a number of sprints where we saw how this product had been created from simple prototypes up to a product deployment that’s helping us on the management level to analyze the business situation of the company. Most of the services we used were classical, agile development for both the front- and backend. A number of the technologies included Vue.js, Node.js, SQL, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc.

Currently, we’re working on some other projects and continue to use their services. We have expanded and have quadrupled the number of team members that we utilize from them.

What is the team composition?

They have a lot of different competencies inside their team. For this project, we used mostly the front- and backend developers. We’ve also utilized their project managers for other projects.

How did you come to work with THE CODEST?

I personally knew one of the founders through a previous engagement. When I learned that they started a new software house, I was excited because I knew they were experts in software development.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2018, and the work is ongoing.

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

THE CODEST has done a very good job. They have good practice in writing all the necessary tasks. All the implementation is done according to the design and wireframes we provided. Their team implements any fixes to bugs in a quick turnaround.

We’re never concerned about quality. The quality of the developers they have is really high. THE CODEST also has a very good process of when we decide which developer should join the specific projects that we request. They meet our expectations and deliver very good quality compared to other experiences we’ve had.

How did THE CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

Our teams have been collaborating partially remotely even before COVID-19. We’ve seen some of their team members in our office. It’s fortunate we’re in the same city. Most of the time, it is remote collaboration either on Slack or Zoom calls.

We used to have daily standups but whenever we provided them with a new sprint or scope, they transparently estimated the time needed and always followed accordingly. There have never been any issues where something was underestimated.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a very good company culture, which impacts the results of the work. THE CODEST is extremely professional. They’re good communicators with very good English skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In software development, we can always expect visibility of some issues. If there’s an issue blocking something, we quickly and proactively resolve it. It’s not a red flag but something every software team can improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Behind every project and software house, there are people who tend to be more engaged and motivated if they’re fully involved and feel the mission and objective behind the project. Instead of giving them wireframes and asking them to code, you can explain why your solution is important and what kind of outcome you want.

The more you involve THE CODEST, explain, and engage, the better their work will be. It’s all about the developers fully understanding why they’re working on something.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are the leading digital health and wellness company in the Nordics offering videos, playlists and programs online within yoga, meditation, relaxation, mobility practice, stress management and personal growth in collaboration with market leading experts. We provide individuals and organizations with tools, support and tailored programs within physical and mental health. Our digital service is a turnkey solution and available worldwide with content in English, Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian. I am the CEO and Founder.

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

Codest team has together with our team continued to develop our web application improving code quality and building new features. Together we improved the running of the service which has led to fewer bugs and a faster service which makes our business better.

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

We were looking for a trustworthy software development partner and I took a chance on a humble sales person representing a neat setup of developers.

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

We work on 2-week sprints. Our team follows and contributes to planning, executing and bringing home long term key deliverables while making time and being agile for commercial short term necessities. Together we are building the latest version of our platform and making sure we have a future proof offering and platform in an every changing and exciting market.

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

Codest team consists of three Ruby developers, who collaborate closely with our Tech lead. Two developers have full-stack capabilities while the third is a pure backend developer.

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

Together through our collaboration, we have made the platform very stable and reliable and increased the quality of our service/offering/features and thus increased conversion and retention rates.

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

We have daily morning meetings. Our entire team is remote so we rely on tools such as Slack and Clickup for good flow. Monthly detailed reports over hours worked are supplied to satisfaction and they adapt well to feedback. What is most appreciated by their style is that they care. Both management and our developers. They genuinely care for our product, service, offering and end-results.

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

They are honest, straight forward and solution oriented.

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

There are always nooks and crannies. The most important thing is that things are solved, silly mistakes avoided and responsibility taken when it is due. We are happy with the evolvement of our collaboration.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product owner at Yieldbird, a company that helps publishers increase revenue. We mostly focus on programmatic advertising.

What challenge were you trying to address with CODEST?

We work with hundreds of publishers and wanted to provide them with a tool to better track and analyze their revenue. We needed a partner to develop the product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

CODEST has been working on our project from conception, collaborating with our internal team to improve ideas and outline the product’s features. They conducted market research and helped build a proof of concept and minimum viable product (MVP). They’ve worked in a plethora of technologies, including Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, and BigQuery.

The product helps publishers dive deep into their revenue data and provides analytics that enables them to make smarter business decisions. It was built in the React framework and connects to the Google Ad Manager API, which many of our clients use. We’re currently doing live testing to receive feedback on the tool.

What is the team composition?

We work with a team of seven people. The scrum master is our main point of contact, but I also have direct access to the other team members.

How did you come to work with CODEST?

They were a recommendation.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered in June 2018, and the work is ongoing.

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

Because of them, our business is much more transparent and scalable now. We no longer need to do manual reporting—the tool makes nearly the entire process automated, which saves us time and money. The product is a more advanced way of analyzing data and provides better insights in a more visual way.

How did CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

We follow an agile methodology, but CODEST is flexible and willing to adapt to our needs. We can present new ideas, and they gladly implement them. Communication is easy and straightforward, and we mainly use Slack, video conferences, and in-person meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re well experienced and proactively provide suggestions to make the best product possible. They push back if they think something could be better, which we appreciate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone can improve, but I’m not sure what CODEST could do differently.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be open and share your ideas with them. They’ll work with you to improve them, so share as much as possible.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the engineering manager of an e-commerce company, operating online stores in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. We provide thousands of people with construction, household, electronics, interior, garden, and leisure goods to help them make their house into a home. Established in 2015, we were announced to be the best e-shop by the technology and innovation festival LOGIN in 2016.

What challenge were you trying to address with CODEST?

Thanks to our well-organized daily workflow and having an effective model of cooperation, we were able to build a new payment provider, data anonymization tool and multi-language functionality for our online stores.

What was the scope of their involvement?

CODEST’s developers are engaged in the development of our products using Ruby, Rails, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Docker technologies. We wanted a partner with the same technology stack that we’re using in our team.

In the first stage of our cooperation, they were responsible for creating a tool for data anonymization. Then, they integrated the Worldline payment provider into our platform.

In the next stage, CODEST worked at the multi-language functionality which allows our clients to surf the shop in the Russian language. Nowadays, CODEST’s developers are working on an integrated app/shop with Inbank payment provider.

What is the team composition?

We started with one developer to see how well we work together. Then another developer has joined the team to fulfill our growing needs. Currently, we work with three CODEST developers on a full-time basis.

How did you come to work with CODEST?

We lacked good candidates here in Lithuania and decided to search abroad. CODEST used the same technology stack as us and their hourly rates were good. We decided to give them a trial project, an MVP, which worked really well. On top of that, we organized some new features and improvements. In general, this project converted from a locked contract into a full-time position. We saw the quality within the first three weeks.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

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

I’m really happy with what they deliver on a daily basis. We are happy with the quality of their development efforts and their hourly rates. 

How did CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a project management tool where we have a backlog. It helps us to keep track of what’s going on. We also use Slack for quicker communication as well as daily standups.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They deliver what they promise and meet deadlines. They’re really good at estimations. There’s a balance between the quality and the rate. They give us good suggestions and feedback from their experience. It’s a good collaboration.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Can’t come up with something right now.