The Evenstar

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Owner of a serial founders startup.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We're serial startup founders who focus on the tech sector. Our company launches tech startups in both the SaaS and consumer spaces.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire The Evenstar to accomplish?

• Create a SaaS platform from the ground up
• Engineer the platform for data security
• Achieve this goal in under 9 months

SOLUTION

How did you find The Evenstar?

Upwork

Why did you select The Evenstar over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from The Evenstar were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Evenstar was hired to help build the entire software infrastructure of our SaaS project. They handled the entire tech stack from the front to the back end and worked closely with our stakeholders to meet timelines and budgets. 

The goal was to create a responsive platform with complex engineering aspects such as a multi-layered permission system, scheduling, approvals, internal databases, custom invite flows, a complex and custom tag system, time-based features, and a management dashboard (integrated Stripe billing, rewards, settings, org-wide settings and more).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Over the past few years, we spent well into the 7-figures on engineering talent (mostly international contractors from all over the world - South America, Europe, and Asia) and worked with half a dozen engineering teams. Evenstar was, without a doubt, one of the top teams we've engaged. The devs were skilled coders and pleasant people, which always makes a big difference when we talk about months of work together. 

They consistently hit their timelines and targets and even suggested continuous improvements to the project. The project manager was involved but not over-involved. We could speak directly to the devs multiple times per week, which made the process much more efficient (no middlemen). Ultimately, we'd highly recommend Evenstar to anyone with a solid budget looking for a serious engineering team.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

One of the most important aspects of project managers is ensuring they are involved but not overinvolved. We vowed a long time ago never to work with agencies that shield their talent behind a project manager who can never truly understand every little nuance of the work being done. With Evenstar, that wasn't the case. 

The project manager was there when we needed her (for occasional touchpoints, billing, or feedback) but never tried to fit herself between us and the devs. With the ability to speak with the devs weekly and the project manager's feedback requests every month or so, we could move fast and make adjustments to the dev's performance. It was handled well.

What was your primary form of communication with The Evenstar?

Virtual Meeting

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

Skilled coders, the pleasant and professional vibe of the entire team, the ability to speak directly to the devs multiple times per week, a project manager who wasn't overinvolved and helped with adjustments when we needed.

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

No contractor, or client for that matter, is perfect, but there wasn't anything that stood out so much as to point it out. We did our homework when vetting the team before hiring them, and with our experience dealing with teams in the past, we chose Evenstar precisely because there weren't any major red flags.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm one of the owners of a medium size construction company providing masonry supply and installation services. In Toronto, Canada.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our team realized early on in business that the construction industry has a lot of outdated methods of searching, finding, and ordering construction materials. Our goal is to change this and build an ecosystem for contractors homeowners, suppliers, and manufacturers to work in a systematic way that keeps everyone working in a real-time environment.

SOLUTION

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

I found The Evenstar online and decided to first test working with them to see if they were a good fit. We tried working with other services and developers remotely many times and the quality of work was not to our satisfaction. The Evenstar was our last try before hiring locally. Obviously, the test went well as we are still working with them today!

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

We've worked on 3 separate projects that all connect back to each other, including a supplier portal for suppliers to manage their online business, a marketplace for buyers to connect with suppliers and find stocked building materials, and a take-off application for the construction industry to quantify materials from the marketplace and get accurate pricing for projects.

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

Ive worked with two front-end developers. Julia has been with us for 1 year and leads the frontend development. Julia has worked on all 3 applications. Anastasia is the other front-end developer and has been with us for about 6 months now. Anastasia works on the take-off application.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have almost completed the entire system in the last year working together, and the developers have a great understanding of the product.

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

I have actually taken the time to do most of the project management for this work, but if I need any help from The Evenstar there and been there to support us!

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

The developers are fast and smart, they will ask all the needed questions before trying to dive into the project so they have a full understanding before execution

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

No, not really anything to say here.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Managing Director of Hotovo UK, a subsidiary of Hotovo s.r.o. Hotovo is full of passionate and highly skilled teams of software developers, providing custom software development and long-term team augmentation, outsourcing and agile team partnerships.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Evenstar?

We required some extra resources for one of our USA client projects. The goal was to have some high level of skill alongside great transparency and trust.

SOLUTION

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

We tried speaking with many partners in a similar location to Evenstar, they were quite simply the fastest to respond and most thorough in their tenacity to work alongside and support us.

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

Evenstar provided 1 senior Javascript developer to augment our existing development team. While we handled the front-end development, this developer from Evenstar was responsible for adding new features for upcoming releases

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

We first discussed the project with our contact at Evenstar, going over the key skills that were required for such a prestigious client as well as any additional requirements. Based upon this information, they shortlisted several candidates for us to review and interview. We put each of them through our interview process and hired 1 excellent developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With Evenstar's support, we have managed to crucially scale our team at a time of high demand, hitting the release dates required for this client. Thus ensuring of a decent backlog and continuity of service!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Even though we were running multiple remote teams for this project, it quickly felt like Evenstars developer became part of our team. They adapted quickly to our agile 2-week sprints and we had daily stand-ups using zoom. Any issues were tracked using Jira and/or Slack.

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

They proved to be one of the most reliable, flexible, and transparent companies we ever worked with from this region. Also very good from a technical perspective as well.

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

It would be great to cooperate further, on similar projects or perhaps in a bilateral model, for us to be asked for their support also.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of an organization that designs and develops software solutions for the interior design industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Evenstar?

We needed help in developing a user-friendly web app that would make it easier for interior designers to create and design 3D spaces.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired The Evenstar to help us develop a web-based application and its features using Three.js. The web app, which is specifically designed for the kitchen cabinet design industry, not only allows users to design and decorate 3D spaces but also provides manufacturers the necessary data to estimate the materials and time needed to build something.

The Evenstar helped us build the app from scratch and implement custom features that allow manufacturers to extract manufacturing data out of designs. Additionally, they provided consulting services to help us determine which technologies and architecture to use for the app’s development.

The app was soft-launched last year, and we’ve since started working with our customers to further improve the app and make sure that they’re satisfied with it.

What is the team composition?

We work with two developers and a project manager from The Evenstar.

How did you come to work with The Evenstar?

I found The Evenstar through a freelancing platform.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $500,000 in total so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a co-founder and UX designer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our project was to take an existing React codebase and continue to build on it. We needed someone who could pick up and work with our existing app and continue the development of frontend features.

SOLUTION

How did you select The Evenstar and what were the deciding factors?

We vetted and then interviewed approximately 50 developers for this position on various hiring platforms. We hired Evenstar and another partner to work together on our application as their scores were the highest and the cost was reasonable.

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

We worked over Slack, Asana, video calls, and otherwise, Evenstar worked autonomously. We worked in roughly one or two-week sprints with daily check-ins.

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

Just one. React frontend developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We grew our userbase significantly with the assistance of Evenstar's developer.

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

We had our own project manager who worked with Evenstar and managed timelines and tasks.

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

We found that Evenstar's developer seamlessly melded into our team without feeling like there was an agency barrier between us.

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

As we're in the USA and Evenstar's developer was in Ukraine scheduling meetings was sometimes challenging. They accommodated us and we found our work was still effective.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the director of business development at Helios Technologies. We specialize in cloud orchestration and custom development services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Evenstar?

We were in dire need of a React development lead.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to create a framework for a React library component responsible for our cryptocurrency exchange’s frontend.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We worked through a third-party recruitment agency.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The Evenstar supports exchange development services on the RubyKube crypto-exchange stack. After onboarding and analyzing our platform, they recommended ways to improve its structure. They’ve also helped us resolve GitHub functionality issues, improve our code’s stability, and check all incoming code.

What was the team composition?

Due to our agile work style, our team structure is constantly changing, but we mostly work with senior React developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

They take on some of our most difficult tasks and offer multiple solutions.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Evenstar manages its own employees. They're always punctual and sociable, ready to help us and train our less experienced team members. They even make themselves available to jump on internal calls or calls with customers.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Even though they aren't in my physical office, they’re professional team members. Additionally, they aren’t afraid to rework things on the day of release. I highly recommend them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, not that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-founder of Spoonity. We are a loyalty gift card platform that offers white-label mobile applications and mobile payment options mostly to restaurants.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Evenstar?

The Evenstar built two complementary applications for us that are not necessarily core to our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Evenstar built a web-based loyalty and gift card processing application for use in store, and a dashboard for clients to manage their loyalty card program. They built both applications using AngularJS and standard coding languages such as HTML and CSS.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one primary developer and one secondary developer that handled a smaller component of the project.

How did you come to work with The Evenstar?

Another company in Ottawa referred them to us. We decided to hire them based on their professionalism and their ability to work without much oversight.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost between $25,000–$30,000 CAD (approximately $19,000–$23,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with them since February 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Evenstar was able to build us two projects that were launched to client locations and are being successfully implemented by our customers. We are generally satisfied with the quality of their work and their ability to met our technical requirements.

How did The Evenstar perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Jira to communicate with them, assign tasks, and track progress. We have found them to be reliable and trustworthy, and the hours they work match up with ours very well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their key strength is probably their communication abilities. Even though they are located overseas, they always understand our technical requirements and translate them into a viable product without any language barrier. They also have a very impressive ability to generate frontend design that matches their initial proposal, something that doesn’t happen in this industry very often.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although we have never asked them to do this, they could try to estimate work and time estimates ahead of time as opposed to working on a task-by-task basis.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder and our company builds chatbots for the education field

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Evenstar?

For React Frontend Development

What were your goals for this project?

Build a platform

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Up-Work

Describe the project in detail.

Its a platform for consulting

What was the team composition?

5 developers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was great working with Sasha

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very good

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They offered low rates for high-quality development. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

Sometimes english communication was hard.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Olsson & Gerthel sells furniture and interior design products online and in physical stores. In my roles, I work as a web project manager as well as a chairman of the board.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Evenstar?

We wanted to develop a brand new online service/platform to sell interior design services.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to create the platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I found them via Upwork and interviewed one of their developers.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

We provided them with the product specifications and design, and they produced the structure and codebase.

What was the team composition?

They assigned a developer to work directly with me.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We just launched, so it's too soon to tell.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was very effective and worked well. When a hindrance occurred, The Evenstar’s managers were quick to fix any issues.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I valued their swift communication and eagerness to please customers.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

The developer assigned to the project was initially a little under-experienced. However, The Evenstar provided excellent assistance in assuring the quality of the end product.