Mobile App Development for Tech Startup Company
- Mobile App Development
- $200,000 to $999,999
- Sep. 2023 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 4.5
- Cost
- 4.5
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
“The team meets all of our demands, even when they’re somewhat unrealistic.”
- Software
- Columbus, Ohio
- 11-50 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
A tech startup has hired CodigoDelSur to develop a fintech money-saving application. The team works remotely and uses React Native, Cloudflare, and Lambda for development.
The client is satisfied with CodigoDelSur’s work. The team is incredibly flexible and accommodating; they use two-week sprints to manage the project, meet targets, and implement changes without questions. Moreover, they communicate well through weekly Zoom calls, Slack, emails, and phone calls.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the COO of a tech startup. We’re building a fintech money-saving app. Our company is based in the US, but we have teams in the UK and Australia.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with CodigoDelSur?
We needed help with the majority of our app build. We’d done some of it with our internal team, but it was more than we could do in the timeframe we wanted. We were specifically looking for agencies experienced with React Native. We had a few other tech requirements; we wanted to use Cloudflare and LambdaTest.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
After we selected CodigoDelSur, two team members went to their headquarters and spent a week with them in person to scope out the requirements and kick off the project.
They’ve been able to do everything we want. They work remotely.
What is the team composition?
We’ve worked with 8–10 teammates. Their COO has been in contact with us throughout the entire project; we initially spoke to them. We’ve also had a project manager throughout the engagement and someone above them to touch base with when needed, like an account manager.
Additionally, we’ve worked with five different developers and currently have three. We’re shifting around now; some people will soon be coming on for QA and other things. When we remove someone from the team, it's purely because we’re done with that part of the project, not due to any problems.
How did you come to work with CodigoDelSur?
We initially came across Clutch through Google. We had other agency recommendations, but after initial conversations, we didn’t feel the right fit for the technologies we were trying to use.
When we came across Clutch, we looked at and contacted 5–6 agencies worldwide. CodigoDelSur jumped out to us as the best fit.
They quickly got back to us and set up those initial meetings. The whole process was smooth; we provided them with the initial documentation and what we tried to achieve. We had a quick turnaround from them; they presented other projects they’d work on, which made us feel comfortable about choosing them. Overall, they went above and beyond to deliver what we needed.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent around $200,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We’ve been communicating with them since July 2023, but we officially kicked off the project in September 2023. We’re currently a couple of months away from finishing the project, but we’ll likely continue the relationship in a support role to develop further features.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Specific metrics are probably tricky. Moreover, we measure if we’re satisfied, progressing, and developing things that will add value to the product. We don’t hold CodigoDelSur to delivering something on a specific day or how long it takes. We know it’s a complex product, so we try to keep it as flexible as possible on all sides.
In general, CodigoDelSur has been excellent. They implement any changes we ask for without questions; they’re just happy to accommodate anything we want. They’ve also worked with a few developers on our side and integrated with them as well.
Overall, we haven’t had any issues. If there’s ever any question on what we should do or which way we should go, there’s always an amicable agreement. They tell us they can do it if that’s how we want to do it, and then they move forward with the project.
How did CodigoDelSur perform from a project management standpoint?
Our project is a bit strange, so we’ve kept it quite flexible. We run the project in two-week sprints and do demos at the end of every two weeks, and CodigoDelSur has generally met those targets.
Sometimes, we’ve pushed back the targets a little, but it’s mainly due to the complexity of what we’re working on, so we need more time. We’ve also changed some parts of the project, which has caused some delays. However, it isn’t due to something CodigoDelSur has done. We usually ask them to take a slightly different approach after we’ve developed and tested something.
We’ve only spent more than our initial budget because we’ve expanded the project scope. We’ve grown the project into further areas, and they’ve requested to push back some demos a few days because they want them to be right before they show them. We've been flexible if they need an extra 1–2 days because we know we’re running for several months more anyway. A few days here and there don’t kill anything. Other than that, CodigoDelSur has generally hit all deadlines.
They haven’t spent time or money we didn’t ask them to spend. They’re accommodating when we want to scale back a little, and when we want to scale up, we add people back to the team.
We initially didn’t have a fixed budget because we knew it would be a long, complex project. We didn’t know where we’d end up until we started, so we went into it being quite realistic. We didn’t want to go in saying we could do it in four months for $100,000 because we knew it probably wouldn’t be the case. It would’ve been nice, but we’re coming up on 8–9 months since September. We now think we should be ready in under a year, and we’re still within our target dollar range. We’re probably past the low point but not over what we projected to be the high point, so we’re quite happy.
We have 3–4 Zoom calls a week. We also use Slack daily and communicate through emails and occasional phone calls, but we mainly use Zoom.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?
Lucía (Commercial Manager) is the most senior person we’ve dealt with, and she’s been fantastic throughout the project. She organizes everything we need when we need it — whether it’s our in-person visit or whether we need to add or remove someone from the team.
Also, Facundo (IT Project Manager) is our daily manager. Whenever we message him, he responds immediately. I have personal Zoom calls with him 3–4 times a week.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They’ve been outstanding in all areas. The team meets all of our demands, even when they’re somewhat unrealistic. We have extensive discussions to find a solution when we request changes partway through a certain development path because we realize that we need to move in a different direction, but they’re always incredibly flexible and accommodating, even with different time zones.
CodigoDelSur is in South America, so they accommodate all the different time zones, even if it’s not a particularly convenient time for them. Overall, they just go above and beyond.
Are there any areas they could improve?
We haven’t been disappointed with anything. Some parts could have gone quicker, but we know we’ve given them things that slow them down. It’s been a big learning curve, and CodigoDelSur has handled everything well. The communication has been outstanding, so we can’t complain about anything. Something always comes up when there’s a problem, so we can’t really blame anyone for technical issues. These things happen, but we work through everything together as a team.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
CodigoDelSur has said they like that we’re engaged in the project. I have Zoom calls with the project manager and developers 3–4 times a week, so I’m in direct communication with them and not just the project managers. The more directly involved you are, the more successful the relationship will be, and the better you’ll understand each other’s communication styles.
I’ve had a lot of experience working with people in many different countries, and you should always give credit to people who speak more than one language. CodigoDelSur’s first language is Spanish, and they all speak fantastic English. However, English isn’t their first language, so sometimes translation gets lost.
CodigoDelSur hasn’t told me specifically about other projects, but they’ve mentioned that some people send an email and walk away; they want the team to figure it out. This is not to say that CodigoDelSur needs to be micromanaged, but it’s up to you to keep the project on track and on time and get what you want out of it. If you talk to people daily, you can quickly catch any time there’s a tiny mistake because you’re involved.
In our case, it doesn’t take a considerable amount of our time. We probably communicate with them about an hour or less every day. Moreover, we think it has massively improved the project’s outcome because CodigoDelSur knows exactly what we want daily; they don’t have to guess what we want.
RATINGS
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Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
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Schedule
4.5On time / deadlines
"We’ve stepped into the unknown with some parts of the project, so it’s hard to project the timeline."
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Cost
4.5Value / within estimates
"They aren’t the most affordable, but I think the higher the price, the better the quality."
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Willing to Refer
5.0NPS