Droid Technologies

Please describe your company and your position there.

433 is the biggest football social media platform. I'm the hardware lead at 433.

For what projects/services did your company hire Droid Technologies?

Firmware development of our sensor.

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

Technical knowledge and experience with tech stack.

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

Our previous firmware developer stopped so we needed a fill-in quick. Droid Tech was able to provide that asap.

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

1 FTE firmware developer.

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

The firmware of the product is very stable and have zero bugs or issues.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Good we had daily meetings to discuss progress and implementation ideas.

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

Good experience with Western tech stacks.

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

No

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO of a consumer hardware startup. We build professional high-end Kitchen appliances with top-of-the-line performance and aesthetics globally.

For what projects/services did your company hire Droid Technologies?

We needed help with the design and prototyping of the motherboard, low-level firmware, and design of a complex BLDC motor controller to achieve high-end power in a small device with the constraint of space, heat dissipation control, EMC, and vibration - something that gets the best output globally and also satisfies UL, FCC and FDA standards.

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

We found them via UpWork. We started a small project with them first. We spoke with multiple engineers from different labs / countries but we found Droid gave us the sanest and most realistic advice. We found other engineers used to overestimate their ability to deliver in a short time whereas Droid seemed to have experience, expertise, and know-how of how to run complex projects and predict accurate timelines. Only people very senior in their career can accurately predict all nuances of running complex hardware and software projects accurately - and we realized this expertise during our engagement with Droid, which convinced us to work with them further.

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

We started working with them on a small project just to design a control board that includes an STM microcontroller, on-board memory, BLE, NFC, and I/O to connect with other boards we were working on by ourselves and our team in Hong Kong. But after working on the small project, we were thoroughly impressed with their quality of work, project management skills, their pace to get things done, and overall professionalism. We decided to fire our team in Hong Kong and decided to work with Droid full-time - to design and program all aspects of our hardware. We started working on firmware, embedded UI, design, and prototyping on the BLDC motor controller, EMC board, power board, etc.

To facilitate seamless development further, I personally moved to Kyiv to work with them and it was quite a delight to work with the Droid team. Their firmware engineers also worked on the project to implement all low-level drivers and complex UI / animations on MCU - which is a very difficult task due to memory and processing limitations. They were able to implement everything according to spec. We were able to successfully design and prototype multiple versions of our device - to get to the world-class performance, test, and iterate in just 10 months due to the brilliance of the Droid team. Also - their work ethic and commitment are really mind-blowing.

They’re from Ukraine and even during the Russian invasion, they were able to help us to move our prototype and equipment from their Kyiv office to the Poland border and then to Warsaw. We were actively in touch with them during the war and the sheer commitment to the project during stressful circumstances is truly commendable. They have completely exceeded our expectations in quality of work, delivering results, professionalism, and integrity. We are still working with them and will continue to work with them for the next projects.

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

We worked with a project manager, around ~4 firmware developers, and ~2 hardware engineers. We also got help from other team members from time to time to think of the box and solve problems creatively whenever needed.

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

• We were able to reduce our hardware development timeline by 30%, and still were able to get quality work and peak performance. The peak performance aspect was important for our project as we were working with the constraint of space, vibration, heating, and EMC altogether.
• We were able to reduce the total cost by ~20% due to the pace and creative solutions provided by the team.
• We were also able to reduce our BOM cost by ~20% by optimizations done with the MCU and control board, to run complex UI and animations. All other engineers came up with standard MPU + Linux-based solutions, but Droid really worked on optimization so we can offer a seamless UX with just MCU.
• We have a product with best-in-class performance in the global market verified by third-party laboratories at this stage.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We track progress with JIRA and smart sheet. Their project management skills were impeccable and we also have two scheduled calls per week. If there were any delays or changes in plans, they always communicated in advance.

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

• Work ethic, Integrity, and expertise. As someone who has more than a decade of experience working with the most brilliant engineers, programmers, and hackers
• It’s super rare to come across a brilliant team, with a deep understanding of hardware design, low-level firmware, and the best development practices. It’s also rare to come across a team that really really knows what they’re talking about, has high integrity, and gets things done according to your timeline.

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

We can't think of any. Droid is legit and their work ethic / commitment is impressive.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of PowerX. We provide sensors and AI measuring water, gas, and electricity in many countries worldwide.

What challenge were you trying to address with Droid Technologies?

We needed help with the complete design of our sensor suite.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Droid Technologies provides us with IoT development services. They’re helping us design our sensor suite using C, Embedded C, ATRIUM for hardware design, and 3D CAD for mechanical design.

What is the team composition?

We started working with one developer from Droid Technologies, and now we collaborate with 15 developers from their team. Additionally, we work with a project manager, though their involvement is limited because we use our own project managers.

How did you come to work with Droid Technologies?

We found them on Upwork, and we initially hired them for a small project.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent around $500,000. We pay them $28 per hour.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around January 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

I’m extremely satisfied with Droid Technologies. First of all, their work ethic is simply mindblowing; they’re from Ukraine, and even with the Russian Invasion, they only took 1–2 days off to relocate. The team saved our equipment from their lab and drove it to a different city, and by the next day, they were up and working. 

Secondly, they really know their stuff, and the quality of their work is outstanding. The team delivers code quality equal to or better than other consultants that charge us ten times their price. We work with another company, and when they reviewed Droid Technologies’ code, we had to let go of several consultants from the other company because their code quality wasn’t up to par. 

Moreover, the result works, and we now have a product that we can manufacture. We’ve made $10 million in revenue thanks to their work. Although there are some challenges to working with an offshore partner, such as the language barrier and shipping material to Ukraine, these are minor inconveniences. Besides, Droid Technologies tries to mirror our work hours despite the time difference between us. No matter how we measure success, their work is incredible. 

I have nothing but amazing things to say about Droid Technologies. They’re amazing beyond the standard, going beyond even business — they’re working at a risk to their lives. I doubled their rate for four weeks after the Russian Invasion started to show my appreciation for their fantastic work. They’ve thoroughly exceeded expectations in every dimension. 

How did Droid Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve faced challenges with English communication with their project manager. However, the team knows exactly what they need to do; they communicate well internally and pick up on what’s required. While the official route of their project management isn't ideal, we’ve had very few problems when it comes to getting things done.

We have standup meetings twice a week. GitHub and Notion are our project management tools with an Agile methodology, including sprints. As for communication, Google Meet, Zoom, Slack, and email are our primary tools. They communicate directly with one of our factories via email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with Droid Technologies’ work ethic combined with the quality they deliver. Even though they’re a contractor, they act like our employees. They're offshore and have the same quality as onshore engineers. Overall, their work ethic blows me off my feet, and so does the quality of their work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve their project management. Although the project manager is lovely, we struggle to understand his English at times. However, this issue is minor because we’ve had very few misses.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to make sure you communicate clearly and daily with Droid Technologies so it’s clear what they have to do. Other than that, count yourself lucky to work with them! I’ve worked with over 200 contractors in this company, and Droid Technologies is the best contracting agency I’ve worked with.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of production and quality at PayGo Energy. We’re involved in developing IoT devices to enable wider access to clean cooking through technology. I manage IoT, hardware, electronics, and firmware development. Our main focus at the moment is the development of a smart meter.

What challenge were you trying to address with Droid Technologies?

We hired them to help us develop our smart meter. The goal was to encourage customers to migrate away from dirty fuels like kerosene and charcoal to LPG, which is cheaper, healthier, and cleaner.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Droid Technologies is our hardware design provider; we developed our smart meter in conjunction with them. They helped us create the product from scratch, advising us on what components to use. From there, they built an architecture by designing the electronics. Then, they developed the firmware using C and C++. The team used Altium for hardware design.

The meter sits on top of a cooking cylinder and has pay-as-you-go services, enabling customers to buy very small amounts of LPG, even one gram. Our customers don’t have the capital to buy a complete cylinder, so our solution removes the need for large upfront costs, allowing payments as small as 10 cents. The device uses cellular connectivity that receives payment information and activates a valve. Once the credit has run out, the valve closes, and the customer has to top up again. 

Additionally, we sometimes engage Droid Technologies to help us optimize a reference design to make it more cost-effective. For example, they used one of our reference designs to develop next-generation hardware for us that was cheaper and quicker to produce so we could get to market faster.

What is the team composition?

I have direct contact with Sergii (CEO), a project manager, and the developers. 

How did you come to work with Droid Technologies?

I wasn’t involved in searching for a provider; one of the co-founders of our company found them. We had extensive relationships with Ukrainian companies because some of our original designs happened there, so Droid Technologies was introduced to our co-founder through a word-of-mouth referral.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent over $80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in Q1 2018, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

Thanks to Droid Technologies, our hardware development cycle has been reduced by 30%–40%, which is huge. This is mainly because of Droid Technologies’ quick design services. However, they also have the capability to do rapid prototypes in-house, allowing them to find issues and iterate on their designs very quickly, which enables us to approach the market faster. Additionally, the cost of our electronic hardware has been reduced by 20%–25% with their help.

Overall, Droid Technologies’ documentation, code quality, hardware development, and communication have all been fantastic.

How did Droid Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They always deliver on time and within budget. We’ve never had a situation where there have been substantial delays. Moreover, delays have often been caused by our company moving slowly, and a 1–2 day delay is not a big deal to me. They use Jira, Trello, and Bitbucket for project management. We also use Google Drive to share documentation.

Droid Technologies is extremely responsive; we use email for basic communication, and I’ve talked to them over Skype. We also have their developers in our Slack workspace, where we have instant messaging with them. Since we communicate with the developers directly, we can directly give them our technical requirements, which is great. The project manager only jumps in if there’s a scheduling conflict. That’s very rare, though; they serve our requests in excellent and timely manners most of the time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of Droid Technologies’ work and the knowledge of their engineers are impressive. The rate that they charge us is also fantastic. I’ve worked with similar design houses in North America, and Droid Technologies’ level of service is on par with them and, in some cases, even better.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t hesitate to contact them! Droid Technologies is legit; they provide quality work, and I’m sure they’ll help any organization that decides to work with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Bioforcetech Corporation. We design and build industrial systems to transform waste into valuable products. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Droid Technologies?

We’re developing a modern automation system for industrial machines, and we’ve asked Droid to design the electronics for it, along with the firmware for the electronics. Our goal is to build stable modules to control industrial machines. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Droid is developing the automation system using the  C programming language. The firmware development has also been done using the same language. In terms of functionality, this product utilizes and manages analog and digital sensors. 

The team has also designed and tested our printed circuit boards (PCB). The electronics boards are made in China and are shipped to Droid for testing — that’s the kind of maintenance they provide. 

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with a total of six people from Droid. We work directly with the CEO and the project manager. Our team also collaborates with four engineers; two on the hardware side and two on the software side. 

How did you come to work with Droid Technologies?

We searched for vendors online. Our team interviewed 5–6 firms for the job, and the Droid team seemed to be the most qualified one. They were serious in the way they presented themselves and their past projects that were similar to ours. They also had a team that seemed diverse enough in every aspect. As a result, we started engaging them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $20,000–$25,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since July 2020, and the engagement is ongoing. 

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

I measure the project’s success based on the deliverables and the timeliness of Droid’s delivery. So far, the team has been great in both things. They deliver on time and follow every estimate they give. Moreover, their resources reply within 24 hours if we have any problems. The product itself has also been successful. 

How did Droid Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Droid’s project management is perfect. To communicate, we mainly used phone calls, emails, and video conferences. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have plenty of experience. Droid also has a diverse team that knows many different aspects of development. When developing a hardware product, a team needs to have strong knowledge of firmware and hardware of different kinds — the Droid team covers everything. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re in the same field as our company, go with Droid. Their knowledge diversity, timeliness, and responsiveness are great. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a manager at an IT provider for smart work zones.

What challenge were you trying to address with Droid Technologies?

We needed help with custom software development and motherboard design.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Droid Technologies assisted us in creating our flagship product. They helped the owner of the company design a custom motherboard that allows 4–5 very miniaturized implements to be used on it, which hadn’t been seen in our industry before. 

The team gave us suggestions for the motherboard’s component layout. The motherboard combines a Doppler radar, a 4G modem, and an LCD into one unit that allows us to deploy our product as a single, standalone, small unit that doesn’t require a trailer anymore. The product also uses 900 MHz radio technology.

Once the motherboard was designed, Droid Technologies assisted with providing firmware for it, which they continue to do on an ongoing basis. They’ve provided suggestions for the firmware’s capabilities, and they continuously update and revamp it to better address emerging issues within the technology. 

The team programs in Python. We provided them with a computer where they installed all the necessary programming implements. They networked into that, so they have a local device on the American cell network despite being offshore.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with three programmers from Droid Technologies, and the owner of our company has worked with at least two more programmers and one person on the hardware design.

How did you come to work with Droid Technologies?

Although my company has been working with them since before I joined, I believe the owner found Droid Technologies through research. They’ve been working with the company for 5–6 years.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent around $220,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together midway through 2016, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the motherboard’s implementation, our workload doubled every year due to the innovative nature of our product. The best measure of Droid Technologies’ success is that they’ve completely changed the game for us regarding workload.

Moreover, their programming is amazing, and they found an innovative approach to working with our local equipment while being an offshore company. As a company, Droid Technologies isn’t worried about who does what, only that it gets done well. They’re still working despite the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, which boggles the mind. Overall, we’re 100% satisfied with their work; they’ve exceeded our expectations. 

How did Droid Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re amazing at project management. Any time we’ve told them we needed something by a specific time, they’ve come through and done it. As for communication, we use Slack, email, and occasionally DevOps tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Droid Technologies’ greatest strength is their ability to respond to requests rapidly. If we ask them to do something, it doesn’t take them six months of meetings to decide if they can; they either tell us it’s impossible or do it within a day or so. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only area where they have improvement opportunities is on the coordination side. However, they’re already addressing that issue; we didn’t use to have a project manager, and Droid Technologies has recently added one. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Any company asking for software or hardware should clearly define what they want.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a Silicon Valley startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with Droid Technologies?

We needed someone to write a custom firmware.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Droid Technologies is helping us build a home IoT product that’s intended to mitigate damage from water leaks. This product involves a piece of hardware that clamps onto the water shutoff valve, and it senses whether water is flowing and actuating the valve.

We’ve designed the hardware and the sensing algorithm, and are outsourcing the development of the firmware to Droid Technologies.

Moreover, the hardware is based around an expressive ESP32 chip for Wi-Fi connectivity, and the core algorithms are running on an STM32 processor. We’re also utilizing Amazon AWS for cloud services.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with a firmware engineer and a program manager.

How did you come to work with Droid Technologies?

Our VP of engineering found Droid Technologies, so I’m not quite sure how our relationship got started.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent somewhere between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in March 2021.

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

The most qualitative feedback we can give is how efficient they are in developing the product. We divided the project into two phases and they presented us with estimates of the number of man-hours required to complete each phase — the actual results wound up being within 20% of the estimates.

How did Droid Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform well from a project management perspective and they communicate fluently, despite the language barrier.

We typically interact through Slack and utilize GitHub for the repository.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed by the quality of their software and considering the complexity of the product, we’ve had very few bugs that were quickly identified and resolved.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve on because our experience with them has been excellent so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To prevent misunderstandings, we set up weekly conference calls so I advise you to communicate with them on a regular basis to make sure your project is always on track.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a technical manager of an audio technology company in the US. We build proprietary hardware and software.

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

We needed a development partner for firmware and electronics development for a new consumer product. Our goals were to outsource a large amount of the development to leverage external expertise and to prevent stretching our internal resources. We also had design and architecture goals to ensure cohesion with our existing codebase and development strategy.

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

We reviewed a number of other vendors and ultimately selected Droid Technologies based on their availability, cost, positive reviews, and an informative conversation with their CEO.

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

The firmware work required the integration of a variety of components and technologies, including communication with mobile and desktop apps, for a large number of use-cases. Some key steps were bring-up, audio i/o, data communication, API development, firmware update, use-case logic and testing. Technologies used included a multi-core DSP architecture, and numerous audio/data protocols. Deliverables were staged in terms of hardware availability, e.g. dev board bring up of specific functionality, EVT, certification, etc. The team is flexible in dealing with unfortunate hardware shortages and component and software library changes.

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

We worked with up to four members of the vendor's team as full-time firmware developers, with one acting as lead developer. They have been very flexible to changing the size of the team according to our needs. We also worked with two of the vendor’s electronic engineers for assistance on PCB design and layout.

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

We have reached the stage of having functional prototypes in testing, with good results.

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

After issues with project management due to the complex and evolving nature of the project, we integrated the vendor's development team into our own project management structure - holding daily meetings, preparing tasks and organizing documentation, and communicating by Slack and Zoom. The vendor's team were able to adapt to our workflow and despite the time zone differences are very responsive. Their lead developer has been extremely helpful acting as Scrum master to facilitate organization and communication, including communication with other vendors.

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

The flexibility to adapt to our workflow and the requirements of this project, and the responsiveness and dedication of the development team.

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

Possibly due to a language barrier or the specific technical challenges of the project, there have been challenges with some developers in reading/writing documentation. This has placed an overhead on project management to research and define tasks to a higher level of detail in advance.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a programme manager at a company developing and manufacturing industrial inkjet printers and associated IOT application.

For what projects/services did your company hire Droid Technologies?

We hired support from Droid Technologies to assist in the re-creation and re-launch of a core IOT application product - allowing market leading monitoring, control and management of industrial production line related equipment.

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

Droid Technologies came recommended. They offered the right skills and availabilities to suit the needs of the project.

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

The IOT application provides various dashboards, data and services allowing a complete overview of the status of production line printing equipment. Furthermore, control mechanisms allow for remote commands and updates, minimising manual intervention and production line downtime.

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

A single software developer joined our team.

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

The project is still in progress, with important input from the Droid Technologies resource.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. The Droid Technologies resource has interacted directly with the core team.

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

They are excellent to deal with, quick to respond, and flexible. Plus, they have reasonable pricing for the resources.

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

All early niggles with paperwork were quickly resolved.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a company from the Netherlands focused on consumer / hobby electronics. I am one of the directors and mainly focused on new product development and our mobile application (iOS / Android)

For what projects/services did your company hire Creative Mules?

Droid Technologies is our hardware and software development partner. We started with a single project to rebuild one of our legacy products and during the project decided to make it smart and controllable through a mobile application. As this project was a huge success, we decided to move all of our hardware and software development to Droid Technologies. We are currently working on multiple projects with a team of 8 hardware and software developers. 

How did you select Creative Mules?

After talking to a few vendors and having multiple calls with the management team from Droid Technologies, we decided to start with a single project and see if we would have a good business connection and the results we were looking for. The reason why we choose Droid Technologies was mainly because we spoke the same (business / technology) language and the contract we made was good for both parties. It's a young company and very flexible which is very important for us. 

Currently, Droid Technologies is doing our hardware development, software development (C# and Xamarin) and they set up our azure web servers used for our mobile application. Together with us, we develop new products from scratch to a working prototype that we can order through our hardware supplier. 

What was the team composition?

We have worked closely with one of the owners of Droid Technologies, project managers, hardware developers, software developers and the UX team that supported us for the design of the mobile application.

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

We have successfully launched our first product and new mobile app, and it has been a great success. Customers are very happy and multiple  firmware and mobile app updates are already done after the initial launch.

We are currently working on 3 new products that will also be connected through the new mobile app. 

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Droid Technologies is very flexible, and it's easy to change or add people to the teams. Requirements are discussed in the teams, and they give a lot of input on how we can do it best or if needed differently. We use Trello for our day-to-day work on task level, and internally they use Jira. Communication is done through Skype. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Small improvements happen all the time, and they are open to feedback. We had a situation where we needed some improvement in overall project management and better streamlined communication. This was easily solved by a team member stepping up as and becoming a senior and be responsible for coordination and alignment with the overall project manager