CSHARK

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of business development at Pastdue Credit Solutions. We’re a debt collection agency and fintech solutions provider. We offer debt collection and recovery solutions to market-leading companies in the UK, including government departments, telecommunications and energy companies, banks, and financial service providers. 

In my role, I’m responsible for new client onboarding and new supplier onboarding. I also oversee business development opportunities with our system, processes, and day-to-day supplier management. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CSHARK?

We hired CSHARK to developed a new fintech SaaS solution to allow us to focus our own resource on other projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CSHARK developed our product from scratch, overseeing everything from the design stage to the launch. We kicked off the project with a scoping process; during that time, we went over the project journey and the technology stack we’d use. We also laid out our requirements and what would be just nice to have. Then, CSHARK laid out the costs of the project. 

Once everything was finalized, we had a big kickoff meeting where we laid out the project timelines and introduced our teams. The web-based project was designed modularly since our customers often want varied solutions. In the end, there were several modules, which made it easier to change each module to fit our customers’s needs. The modules included everything from verification and identification to decision algorithms powered by APIs. CSHARK’s team also provided recommendations on user journeys.

The language CSHARK used was more modern than what we’d used in the past for our software solutions. The web-based development was done using React, and the platform was hosted on Microsoft Azure. In total, the project took about three months to complete.

What is the team composition?

At one point, about 20 teammates were working on our project, but we didn’t have contact with all of them. Our primary contact has been the project lead, although we have had contact with a few others who helped us scope the project. We’ve also been in contact with a business analyst. 

How did you come to work with CSHARK?

We were recommended to CSHARK’s services. When we spoke to CSHARK, they were very helpful, giving us an overview of what would be involved in creating a new product.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around £200,000 (approximately $225,000 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership officially started in May 2022, although we’d been in discussions with them since August 2021. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The SaaS product launched in August 2022, and we plan to continue working with CSHARK on product improvements and further projects. Although the product is brand new, we haven’t set any metric objectives. We’ve been focused on timely deliveries, which CSHARK has achieved.

Anecdotally, the quality of their work was very good. CSHARK’s team wrote code quickly while ensuring it was high-quality and aligned with our expected coding standards. The security and encryption were excellent. After penetration testing, we didn’t run into any concerning security risks. 

How did CSHARK perform from a project management standpoint?

CSHARK met all their deadlines, although they went over budget because of our change requests and bug fixes. However, we expected to go slightly over budget. We used Jira to manage the project, and their project manager was good at keeping in touch with us using Confluence and Slack. 

At the start of the project, we had daily meetings, but once the project got into a flow, we had fortnightly demonstrations. CSHARK also had fortnightly sprints that they reported on so we could monitor development. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with CSHARK’s capabilities from the get-go. They were clear about what was expected and responded well to our questions. In terms of their strengths, I’d say their ability to deliver resources quickly was great. 

Also, the technologies they used were outstanding, which supported the delivery of their services. In general, their software team was very skilled and delivered high-quality code.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had a slight issue where we went over budget, but it wasn’t communicated to us for a few days. However, CSHARK’s team improved communication around that issue and informed us when change requests would be outside our budget and timeline.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a good understanding of your requirements to speed up CSHARK’s processes and document them well. It’s also important for you to have a clear coding standard so CSHARK knows what to expect when writing code.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Nudge, an energy freelancer platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CSHARK?

We were successful getting access to an accelerator program in the UK and  obtained funding and support from a number of energy industry professionals, mentors, and industry experts through that process. Our engagement with CSHARK started before that, but we asked them to build the freelancer platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our MVP platform and created the connection service. They built both from scratch. We gave them a little guidance on ideas, but not much technical guidance. We were also successful in getting access to AWS after the credits to host our platform. That was the only request we made for the tech stack. What they used to build the platform was all up to them.

The platform is for three users: freelancers, companies, and us as the intermediary. The main feature for the freelancers was the ability to create profiles. The key feature for the companies was the ability to create contracts. We have an admin dashboard that connects us to the individuals with those contracts. In addition to that, we created a process that invites individuals to one-way interviews once a match is made. 

Also, they enabled all notifications, making sure information was sent to the relevant party at the appropriate point in time. Once the interview was taken, there was the ability for the companies to select their preferred candidate and provide 360-style feedback. Once a company found a preferred candidate, they’d onboard them. There was information exchanged and thereafter, individuals can create timesheets and use a digital wallet for payments. They developed the product and these features from start to finish.

It’s a web application using AWS for hosting. They used C# and React on the frontend. The project is complete. We still continue to work with them but it’s for add-ons.

What is the team composition? 

My main point of contact was Peter (Business Development Manager). We had a consistent team, including a frontend developer and a backend developer. There were also some DevOps and some UI/UX designers as required.

How did you come to work with CSHARK?

I was contacted by their sales agent through LinkedIn. We went with them because they were so engaging. They really spent time trying to understand what it was we were trying to achieve. We mapped out the work to do, and they spent a lot of time and effort trying to understand that. They were very clear and transparent.

Other companies we engaged with said they could build the product for us but that they’d decide what tech stack to use. CSHARK, on the other hand, was open to using AWS because that’s what we wanted. We wanted to support our project and contribute, and they were open to that. They also entertained our target price.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August 2020–January 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Not all the user stories were delivered, but additional stories were added over time. It was a bit of a moving target, but we still managed to deliver the project on budget. The reason it wasn’t delivered on time was more to do with third-party integrations that were above and beyond the control of CSHARK. The project was a great success. I’m delighted.

How did CSHARK perform from a project management standpoint?

There was complete transparency through a Jira board that we shared. We used Slack and Zoom to communicate otherwise. We did stand-ups once every few days. We had demonstrations every Monday. Everything was tracked on Jira. We also used AWS and GitHub to manage the development.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a desire to complete quality projects. There was complete transparency throughout the partnership. They brought good ideas to the table from the start. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s not much I’d suggest they could improve. Every project has corrections and improvements, but it’s difficult to pick one out in this instance.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’ve recommended some friends and fellow startups to CSHARK.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CRO and founder of Focis. Our product helps law firms share data with their clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CSHARK?

We need assistance to scale our product, make it more secure, and conduct user testing. We don’t have enough resources to deal with that ourselves, so we brought on CSHARK.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our product helps law firms to update their clients when they’re working on different files. The law firm can share documents and data with the client, while the platform notifies clients when the firm has hit key stages. They can also collaborate by sending messages to one another through our platform.  

So far, CSHARK has helped with project planning and has used .NET to develop a web-based product with various APIs.

They’ve also made recommendations as to how we can continue to improve the product, such as adding a security layer.

What is the team composition?

We had an account manager, project manager, and a .NET developer.

How did you come to work with CSHARK?

We initially got in touch with them through LinkedIn. We met with them and held an initial discovery session to go over what we were looking for and what they could provide. Then we had a detailed follow-up meeting with their technical team. After that, we had a one-month trial period to see how well they handled some of our tasks. That went well, so we’ve continued our engagement.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent £27,000 (approximately $37,000 USD).  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2020 and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve released the product to one of our clients, and they’ve provided really good feedback. CHSHARK has been exceptionally helpful during the architecting phase and has provided great ideas.

How did CSHARK perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is knowledgeable, friendly, transparent, and responsive. They communicate well; we have bi-weekly calls and use Slack regularly.

I am very impressed by their project management. They adopted an agile methodology and used Jira to manage in sprints. As a result, they delivered faster than anticipated, which really pleased our clients.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Most importantly, they’ve taken ownership of the project, are quick to address concerns, and have proactively addressed any issues. That’s why we’ve been so successful. They’ve structured the project so we stay on track to meet our goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We need to be better at specifying our requirements.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

New clients should be open to their methodology. If they are open to CSHARK’s recommendations, they will get more out of the partnership.