CSHARK

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Woodpecker. 

What challenge were you trying to address with CSHARK?

We hired CSHARK to develop a solution for a mobile application that supports part of our web app. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

CSHARK is developing a mobile app from scratch that corresponds to the web version and provides our users with additional feature options. We’re currently on the third iteration of the app. Most of the web app’s features are centered on automating cold email campaigns. CSHARK has extended those features in the mobile version to include cold call campaigns to improve our users’ outreach. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with two teammates from CSHARK, including an engineer and a project manager. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $10,000–$15,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in February 2021, and it’s ongoing. 

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

We’re very pleased with CSHARK’s performance so far. This is the first time my company is building a mobile app, and CSHARK has been very supportive throughout the project. Their team has guided us through the development of the solution and the app publication. 

How did CSHARK perform from a project management standpoint?

We typically communicate with CSHARK through Slack, although we do exchange emails. CSHARK always delivers projects on time. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

This has been our most successful partnership with a third-party vendor to date. We’re really happy with CSHARK. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing for CSHARK to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise customers to hire CSHARK if they want to have an entire project handled externally. CSHARK’s team is very independent. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder of a music licensing platform based in London, England

For what projects/services did your company hire CSHARK?

We started working with Cshark when they were running a covid-support program for startups. Estimating and mapping out the build of our MVP. Then once the project had begun, Cshark was thrilled with the idea and plan for The Unsigned Library so we joined forces and collaborated on the project and began the build of the MVP.

How did you select this vendor?

It was fate that we met someone from Cshark whilst seeking investment who then put us in touch with the development team.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Together we went through the process of identifying what features could be part of the MVP development and which could be pushed down the line for the 2nd stage investment. Cshark were critical to directing on the possibilities and our team in turn had to clearly define which features were key to MVP due to the USP of the business.

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

My team worked directly with the UI/UX developers and the project manager.

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

We have enjoyed working together with CSHARK and look forward to launching the MVP very soon and see the impact and feedback on what an excellent product we have to offer.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It has been a great partnership, deadlines have been flexible up to now as we have other jobs to fit the project around. But Cshark have always fed back to us how much they enjoy our project and we can see that in their work and faces!

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

We definitely have more than an average MVP to launch to our audience so you can see the passion for what they do, as it is above MVP expectations for UX.

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

I think branding was the only section I would have liked to have spent more time on, this is my baby and I feel this section was rushed slightly. Other than that no improvements.

I am a Software Project Manager in the R&D Department at Zortrax. The company is providing comprehensive 3D printing solutions — designing and manufacturing of 3D printers, delivering materials, and developing dedicated firmware and software solutions.  

We hired CSHARK for creating a visual project of an application intended for dental purposes. UI and UX designs were included. The main requirements were to give the existing software a more medical look.

How did you select this vendor?

We were searching online to hire the best specialist working in the technologies important to us. When the idea of a new application design came up, we decided to hire graphic designers from CSHARK.

Their previous experience in the medical applications and 3D printing industry convinced us to choose this vendor.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The challenge in this project was to give a fresh, new, medical-connected look to the existing application for 3D printing, taking into account current technical limitations and the total time of implementation by software developers. 

Stages of the design project:

Firstly, we had an online workshop with the CSHARK specialists to identify our needs considering the design of a new product. Then the vendor presented 3 mock-ups to choose a desired style and direction of the future projects.

We chose one design direction and reported comments back. Then the iterations of another projects followed to choose the final one. The design team advised us the best solutions, taking into consideration UX and current visual trends, even if their choices were not always the same as our suggestions.

At the end we received the iconography, designs of the specific application screens and the whole design system in a convenient for software developers form.

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

We worked directly with the product design manager (general communication during the whole project), the brand consultant (introductory workshop) and the graphic designer (during the phase of creating the design system)

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

We are currently during the phase of implementation the solutions delivered by graphic designers from CSHARK. There are no significant problems with the implementation. 

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There weren’t any problems in reaching the Project Manager. We attended a helpful interactive online workshop. We had scheduled online calls, always on time. Our suggestions sometimes were misunderstood, but at the end we reached common direction.

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

They really want to give the best possible solution for the client. They delivered solutions in a very professional and convenient form.

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

Reporting of working hours could be more transparent.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm CEO of company building MES/MOM system

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

Cshark is one of our seed investors who's main value added to company is software development team dedicated to build MVP of our solution. We build a system for factory shopfloor management that is compliant with lean manufacturing philosophy,

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

Before investment we have asked CSHARK to fully comercially lead product discovery workshop, build product backlog and estimation. This services were delivered on such a high level of proffesionalism that we have decided to ask CSHARK'S board to invest in our idea. As they have lead for us the workshop and understood well the idea and saw a full potential of the product, they have decided to trust us.

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

Project started with product discovery workshop and lo-fi UX mockups of the screens. That let us to build user stories and backlog of the rurther development, The rest is pure operational deliveries of the product. We use .NET core technology, the solution is hosted in MS azure in a small (so far) claster of three servers operating a micro cubernetes architecture of the solution.

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

From 5 up to 12 people on several positions: Project Manager, Business Analyst, DevOps, Senior and Mid frontend, backend and full stack developers, ux designers.

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

The project is still in progress, but all the deliverables from UX designs thriough user stories and the final produced features are delivered professionally, in great quality, on time and with great dose of agility.

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

Development team is lead by Project Manager who takes care of the pace and manages the communication with the rest of the team. They're always up to date. They add team members while making sure the team is not disrupted by uncoordinated communication. I like this approach very much and appreciate good information flow. We use a lot of slack, jira, teams for online collaboration. The software is developed in scrum sprints that last two weeks each.

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

Definitely engagement, thrust and professionalizm of every single person engaged in the project make really great impression.

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

All the fields I see are immediatelly addressed and improved by the team, so no, currently I don't experience any disturbances that require improvement.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a cybersecurity development company that is the product arm of a federal consultancy. We focus on software development and try to facilitate our customers’ journey through cloud-native infrastructure while being mindful of modern security practices.

What challenge were you trying to address with CSHARK?

I had been tasked with finding a set of developers to build out an open-source core engine.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Although CSHARK strength is .NET development, they put together a team of software developers that work with Golang and are familiar with Kubernetes, the cloud-native ecosystem that offers the Cloud-Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

Most of the work that we’re doing is built in Go, but they also make use of Kubernetes and perform integrations with various standard open-source platforms and tools. Essentially, I designed the core platform, and they’re now implementing it.

What is the team composition?

We’re currently working with four backend developers from CSHARK, and they act as a virtual extension of our team. They also provide us with a project manager who assists us with Scrum.

How did you come to work with CSHARK?

I did some research and found a list of various software houses around the world. In that list, I came across CSHARK and contacted them. I’m pretty happy with our journey so far.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $300,000–$350,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2020 with just one developer. The second developer joined in September 2020, and the other two joined in November 2020. We’re still working together.

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

CSHARK is very professional, and we’re very satisfied with their work. One of our milestones was a core open-source piece of software, and it is available now. They did a phenomenal job.

How did CSHARK perform from a project management standpoint?

CSHARK performs very well, and they have delivered on every milestone on time or even before the deadline. They have great availability and transparent communication. Additionally, they always look for ways to support their customers and ensure their satisfaction.

We work on standard Agile two-week sprints, and they provide us with reports whenever we need them. Everything works great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

CSHARK cares — they’re an impressive organization. Their developers care about building relationships with the customer, and they do a really good job. I’ve worked with various vendors in different consulting companies, and I’m impressed with what CSHARK is doing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be great if CSHARK could build up their bench strength or have a more streamlined way of bringing in new candidates. The only problem that we’ve come across is staffing shortages. Part of the challenge is that we’re looking for amazing Golang developers, but everyone is trying to hire them, and there aren’t many candidates out there.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Put in the necessary work on planning out what you need to get done; it will save you a lot of time and get you the desired results faster.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder and the CTO of Meta Bytes, a Swedish tech company. We become companies’ strategic partner for planning, development, and delivery. 

We’ve been around for about four-and-a-half years. We have many international clients, and we’re getting more traction in Sweden with smaller production companies. 

What challenge were you trying to address with CSHARK?

We’ve been using them to augment our development and architecture teams. In some cases, we’ve had to scale our team significantly and on short notice, so it was more convenient to partner with CSHARK and find the needed resources in a quick manner.

What was the scope of their involvement?

My company and our clients act as the product owners, and we work in an agile sprint-based manner with CSHARK’s development team.

We develop a lot of cloud-based microservices, so aside from the tech stack itself, there’s a lot of architecture work involved. Most microservices are on AWS, but it depends on the client’s needs. We develop various solutions in Golang, including relational and document databases.

We do CI/CD/CD (continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment) work in a DevOps fashion. We give the developers as much access as they need to deliver on the stories they’re working on. We use various technologies related to the DevOps lifecycle.

What is the team composition?

We have different account managers from CSHARK who help us find the correct resources. They’re brilliant at finding the right teammates for what we need, both in terms of tech stack and experience, but also in terms of fitting in with our team.

We work with their account managers to nail out the requirements for the team member we need, and they go do their thing. They’re usually quick in coming back with relevant candidates. We then have a short interview and onboard the new person.

How did you come to work with CSHARK?

We Googled around and found them. CSHARK had a very professional website. We sent them an email and had a call after that. We realized that they were very professional, so we onboarded a developer from them.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost so far is in the region of $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with CSHARK in October 2019, and it’s ongoing.

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

We’ve worked and are working with other partners, and CSHARK has been one of our most positive experiences. They’re very good at coming up with relevant people with the correct skills. Working with CSHARK has allowed us to scale up and deliver quicker in response to client demand.

All of our teammates are very pleased with working with CSHARK. They’re very professional and skilled. They offer a good mix of competency and professionalism with regard to how they deliver. They also balance doing everything in a gold-standard way and actually delivering. Many developers and architects can become set on doing things perfectly, but that’s not applicable in all scenarios. There has to be a middle ground in how we deliver while still delivering quality, and we’ve seen that with CSHARK.

How did CSHARK perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good with project management. Their developers manage expectations very well. The resources we have are very experienced. They come up with timelines and stick to them. Depending on the requirements, it can be hard to come up with timelines, but we’ve had a very good experience with this overall.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the team members is very high, and they find them in a rapid manner. CSHARK has found 3–5 very relevant candidates within just a couple of weeks. They’re usually very experienced and have worked on similar projects, so onboarding them is much easier than in other scenarios.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven’t found anything negative that I’d like them to be better at. CSHARK has become better-prepared to meet our demands. The challenge is that they have to bring in people who are ready to work with us. This didn’t need much improvement before, and it’s nice to see that they’re improving in all of the areas we’re giving them feedback in.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Having clear requirements can speed up the process. One of the errors I initially made was asking CSHARK if they had available resources, without providing specifics on the project and how long it would be. Had I better specified, I think the process would’ve been quicker. This goes for all projects.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Chief Technology Officer at Mindset Innovation, Inc. We develop a hardware/software platform that leverages brain date from a wearable to deliver productivity and mental health benefits.

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

We hired CShark to support in the development of our Desktop application and cloud infrastructure. Our goal was to complete the development of our first official version of the application on Windows and MacOS.

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

We were introduced by CShark through other clients.

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

After our initial meetings, we opened up two separate projects with them: - Bluetooth API with our wearable - CI/CD - Cloud infrastructure Afterwards, we integrated their team with ours to help support the infrastructure development and feature development.

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

A project manager was our point of contact for project related affairs. We also had two backend/dev-ops/cloud developers with whom we do weekly meetings. An additional two backend/cloud developers are involved as well, but do not directly interface with our company. Total of 5 people from CShark are involved at this time with our project.

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

The team has achieved work of great quality, with some robust Bluetooth functions, fully functional CI/CD and cloud infrastructure. The new bluetooth API has allowed us to greatly improve the user experience by ensuring our device data streaming works seamlessly on all platforms.

The implementation of CI/CD has saved our internal team countless hours of manually packaging the application, resulting in increased productivity on our side. The quality of the work is evidenced by the fact that we now continue working with them and scaling their efforts as needed.

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

Initially, we interfaced with their project manager more closely as we setup the project scope. Their manager will typically join the weekly meeting, but will not participate in the technical conversations.

We interface directly with their developers within our company's Microsoft Teams channels, and use Monday.com and Gitlab to collaborate on development. We normally set weekly goals together, and follow-up as necessary in the week to try and remove and obstacles for them.

Generally, unless for planning or brainstorm, we only ever meet once a week. They are very easy to manage and do not require a lot of effort on our side. They are all well disciplined and hard working.

While the level of communications is not as high as with an internal development team, it is appropriate for the type of relationship we are having at the moment. The team at CShark is very competent and typically do not require much input from our side to complete their project.

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

The company is able to meet the requirements without much input from our side, and require very little management. They are able to scale the # of hours very easily by adding more developers on their side, as necessary. We do not need to manage most of the resources on their side.

Their team is also providing solutions and suggestions outside of the scope of their work to help us improve the product beyond the requirements we provide them. This all happens organically without us asking.

Because of their multi-disciplinary expertise, they are able to pin-point possible areas of concerns we did not anticipate, and suggest corrective measures or improvements as necessary. Their level of interest and professionalism makes them the ideal candidate for long-term business relationship, and it is made obvious through their actions.

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

The biggest hurdle to offloading development efforts to contractors is about communication. At the beginning, the amount of communication was too low, and we had to learn how to properly manage their team to get the most out of them, while ensuring we meet our requirements.

This involved internal adjustments on our side and the use of different tools. In addition, it would be good to have better visibility into the hours spent. As far as I know, they do a great job at tracking their time, but it would be preferable to get more frequent updates -- as it would allow us to ensure we are spending all the resources allocated, and moving at the fastest pace possible.

Because we do not work as intimately together, it is not always clear whether the amount of work allocated is sufficient to meet our # of work hours/month target. In the cases where not enough work is dispatched, it will result in a month with much less hours billed, and therefore slower development.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The main activity of Petromex is wholesale and retail sale of fuels and heating diesel oils. We have been operating on the fuel market for nearly 30 years. We buy fuels on domestic markets only from reliable suppliers.

The offer is supplemented by the sale of fuel tanks and used oil tanks, tank service services, purchase of used oil.

As the co-owner of the company and the person responsible for the sales and marketing department, I am looking for solutions that will allow us to stand out from the competition.

For what projects/services did your company hire CSHARK?

Our cooperation included designing and implementing an application for notifying customers about the approximate delivery time and creating a B2B platform supporting the sales and customer service process.

What were your goals for this project?

The primary goal of the project was to modernize and automatize crucial parts of company-client communication and speed up processes which help clients keep track of their orders.

We were able to substantially limit the amount of direct communication with our clients and enable our administrative staff to concentrate on other tasks. Moreover, we gave our delivery personnel the tools to inform clients about the status of their shipment.

How did you select CSHARK?

Cshark has been recommended to us by an IT service company cooperating with us. The predictor to start cooperation with a new service provider is not only the knowledge and portfolio of a given company, but also the ability to build relationships and efficient communication.

The team with whom we had the pleasure to work showed a high level of professional and interpersonal competences. This is how trust is created, the most valuable value for us.

Describe the project in detail.

The Petromex app is a delivery tracking system for petrol station owners, which enables our clients to know, ahead of time, the precise time their order will appear at their doorstep. It serves two purposed.

On one hand it gives our clients the ability to conduct their business in a more organized way, on the other, from the administrative perspective, it helps substantially minimize the needed communication with both drivers and clients.

The delivery routes and delivery times are automatically generated while establishing orders in our ERP. The drivers receive a list of drop-off points and each client is informed about the time of delivery.

What was the team composition?

1 x Back End Developer - .NET CORE + MySQL 1 x Front End Developer with React JS, Redux, Styled components, react-hook-form, material-ui 1 x DevOps 1 x UX/UI designer

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

Currently, we are still testing and improving some functionalities. However, interest among customers can be noticed, which gives us the belief that further development of the customer panel will be beneficial for both parties.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication went smoothly. We managed to find a common language and understanding for the work of both parties, which in the course of creating the application certainly allowed us to avoid possible misunderstandings.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

A particularly important advantage of the project team is openness and a matter-of-fact approach to the subject.

The experience of team members allowed us to systematize individual elements of the project, set priorities, thanks to which we were able to quickly build the basis of the application and implement it in the company, and over time to introduce new solutions improving its functionality.

We also value commitment and individual approach.

Are there any areas for improvement?

When designing the application, together with the CSHARK team, we tried to think ahead, so that the implementation of new functionalities did not require extensive rebuilding, but adding new modules.

Over time, we will try to implement new solutions that will extend communication with customers, process automation and data exchange.