Ezetech

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company monitors and tracks online propaganda. I'm the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ezetech?

We needed a developer to help us build a frontend for our dashboard.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our dashboard displays how propaganda spreads across the networks online. Ezetech used node.js and PostgreSQL to build the system and integrated Jira into the backend. They used a repository on our GitHub for their code.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager and 2–3 developers.

How did you come to work with Ezetech?

We were referred to them by another start-up. First, we chose a cheaper option, but that vendor developed a completely unusable product for us. So we went back to Ezetech and immediately saw a very different level of professionalism than we had experienced with our old team.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about $60,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2018 and we launched the product in September 2018. We release new updates every week, so the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our client base tends to be discreet about their work, so we didn't use any analytics that most platforms would have. We're waiting to find out whether or not we'll get a contract, so that will be our metric.

How did Ezetech perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very transparent and collaborative. They're also proactive, so we meet about 3–4 times a week and they keep us up-to-date with the progress. We've integrated them into our Slack and they post daily or weekly reports there. Also, we've integrated them into our Jira, so they've become an extension of our team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're all-around professionals. They understand how technology works and how to communicate to non-technical people. They're able to translate what they're doing on the frontend to our backend team in a way that is easy to understand, which is very important to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It took us longer than we had expected to finish the project. But going over the deadline is very common in the field, and we're guilty of that ourselves, so it wasn’t a huge issue.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of CritiqueMatch, an online platform that helps writers find critique partners tailored to their needs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ezetech?

I needed a partner to build an MVP of our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I explained to Ezetech what I wanted the platform to be and its intricacies. Users can find partners based specific characteristics. Once users are connected, they can exchange feedback. The feedback also gets rated in terms of quality.

I relied on them in terms of what technology was most appropriate for the project. They decided to develop the platform in React, and to use Node.js for the backend. They also suggested we use AWS for database and storage. They created the whole plan and then built the MVP from scratch.

What is the team composition?

My initial contact was their head of operations. During the project, I worked with Anton (project manager, Ezetech) and Dimitri (developer, Ezetech).

How did you come to work with Ezetech?

I interviewed several companies to understand their knowledge on the subject. Ezetech stood out as the best company in terms of the skills they could provide to tackle the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

Development took place between May–September 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were actually able to deliver what they promised in the beginning. The platform will launch in the next few days. I’m very impressed with the product. Not only were they able to deliver what I was looking for, but they also made good recommendations.

How did Ezetech perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was one of their strengths as a partner. Anton was in regular communication with us. We had a weekly check-in, but he was in touch more frequently if there were any technical issues to address. He did a great job of explaining any sort of challenge he was facing, as well as forecasting the time it would take to address it. So he was not only technically knowledgeable but was a skilled project manager. The communication was fantastic, and everything was clear.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Dimitri was a fantastic developer. He wasn't scared to tackle anything, and he delivered difficult tasks with ease. When there was some difficulty in the implementation phase, he was good about explaining why it would take longer to be developed. In fact, sometimes they suggested things to me that they were not easy for them to develop. They suggested them anyway if they thought they were good for my business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only real improvement would be to have a designer on staff. If they added a designer, they could be a true full-service agency.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and founder of ArtCube Nation, a professional social platform for entertainment professionals, freelancers, and businesses in film, television, events, and theater.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ezetech?

Our network was available on a Google group for about 10 years, so I wanted to come up with a better, out-of-the-box solution for it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I spoke with Ezetech's CEO about what I was hoping to achieve. From there, they started designing and developing the web platform, using custom code, shareware, and Mandrill. They basically used available resources that would help keep costs down.

What is the team composition?

I mostly work directly with a project manager as well as a few developers.

How did you come to work with Ezetech?

I searched online for the top developers in New York City and came across about 12 vendors that I decided to reach out to. Ezetech stood out because they were able to explain their work in layman's terms and their rates were very reasonable. It was important to me that I find a vendor that could grow with our company over time and develop a strong relationship with us, and I felt they were a good fit for that type of relationship.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent in the range of $50,000–$60,000 in total thus far. Initial work came out to about $35,000 and we've been spending $1,750 per month since the beta launched.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2016 and the relationship is long term.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ezetech streamlined our onboarding process, significantly improving overall user experience. As a result of establishing a frictionless onboarding path for our subscribers, users, and trialing members, trials and the number of people signing up for our service has nearly doubled.

How did Ezetech perform from a project management standpoint?

I'm in touch with the developers almost daily and they're very responsive. There have been times when I've had to tell them to go to bed, because they'll respond to my requests late into the night. They're also honest when it comes to timeline estimates and in letting us know if timelines need to be adjusted for any reason.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very friendly and easy to talk to. I never feel like I'm being talked down to when they're explaining technical details or when I have questions. I feel like we're part of a family and we're all in this together.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Any problems they have are good problems to have. I think they'll need more developers as they grow, since they're so diligent and hardworking in everything they take on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I lead the product and technical development for a home care marketplace. We connect the elderly with a qualified caregiver that provides services such as cooking, cleaning, and companionship.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ezetech?

We needed help in revamping some existing code on our website. The primary goal of the project was to take an existing static landing page and convert it into a React (JavaScript) landing page. The "Find A Caregiver" section of our site functions as a lead generator, so we didn’t want to have our existing conversion rate drop.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I’d built some initial versions of the React pages, but didn’t really know what I was doing. They were able to go through and update that code. They worked specifically on the flow that asks the user for their zip code, basic contact details, and then care requirements such as hours per day and days per week.

They helped us with some architectural challenges. They conducted an architectural review, and then provided recommendations of changes to make.

What is the team composition?

On a day to day basis, I worked with one primary developer. I sometimes worked with their site architecture specialist. Stanislav Synko [CEO, Ezetech] supported the project launch, drafted contracts, and did routine check-ins.

How did you come to work with Ezetech?

They were actually recommended to me by a friend.

How much have you invested with them?

Their hourly rate was $75 an hour. Between the React project and the architectural changes, we spent $15,000-$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work began around December 2016 and continued through January 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The lead generating form they worked on is a core part of our business. There was no drop in our conversion rates, so that was a success.

How did Ezetech perform from a project management standpoint?

It's hard for me to judge their project management skills because it's not really something I used. Because I work in tech, I was able to talk directly with the developer. He was essentially a part of my team, to the point where I did daily stand-up meetings with him. That worked really great for me, but I'm not sure how it works for other clients.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Not only did Ezetech do the work that we asked for, but they went above and beyond in providing more than I asked for. They took the initiative to conduct the architecture review. They weren’t just trying to sell me additional hours or projects; the review provided really valuable recommendations.

They're very responsive. There's always a learning curve but they quickly got acquainted with all of our systems and existing code. I was impressed they had someone on their team whose only job was to focus on the architecture, unlike smaller consulting firms.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The main reason I'm unsure if I'll continue working with them is that the developer I worked with left the company. He was great, and I'm not sure what the other developers would be like.

On the flip side, the high-quality work produced by the developer often came at the expense of things not being delivered on time. That's why we ended up not completing the architecture project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a Blockchain ticketing software, which we build and then sell to larger ticketing companies to power both the primary and resales of digital tickets.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ezetech.

We wanted to build a way to take traditional tickets, usually in the form of a PDF or native to a digital app, and find a way to make an encrypted Blockchain version of a ticket that could be transferred between any device and computer, and have all sales being tracked in a singular dashboard.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were in a competition and needed a technical partner to help us build a demo, some sort of a visualization of what a Blockchain ticketing system would look like. Stan [President, Ezetech] acted as our CTO. He provided a lot of services outside of software development and actually came to many of our customer pitch meetings with executives at some of the largest ticketing companies in the world.

They also managed the system architecture and then his development team built out a Blockchain ticketing API that would take order data from Eventbrite and translate that over into Hyperledger Fabric. They provided a very holistic technical partner role for our firm.

What is the team dynamic?

I was mostly in contact with Stan, our project manager. There was also a couple of developers as well.

How did you come to work with Ezetech?

I initially found them through Upwork and was looking for someone to make a demo of the software for the competition. Following the success of that, we had a larger discussion about how we could ramp up development from that point.

How much have you invested with them?

Around $45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2017. It’s been an ongoing project, with the development phase concluding around the end of October.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We won the competition, which was what we wanted from the initial small-scale partnership to see tangible results. We’re still in the thick of the business portion right now, so the results will be forthcoming. But the school competition was a demonstrated success.

How did Ezetech perform from a project management standpoint?

I appreciated their communication style, and became very close with Stan. They were always on-call, with a couple people in the U.S. and the majority of the development team in Ukraine. It was nice that around the clock, you could ping anyone. There was a good cycle of setting up calls and action items for the development team. Overall, it was a positive experience.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their Blockchain expertise is pretty hard to find right now. To me, that was what made me choose them over other technical partners when we were evaluating them. They also provided very competitive rates which we appreciated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a few unresolved bugs in the software that didn't threaten the major system, but I would say there could have been more attention to detail and precision.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Moisa Consulting is a tech consulting agency offering development and design work for medium-to-large companies and startups. We build scalable web platforms, widgets which plug into existing sites, and ML algorithms for data analysis. I am the owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ezetech?

They’re the development arm for any projects we work on.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handle development from start to finish on any application or platform we create. We’ve recently worked on a cloud aggregation platform called Agora. Users are able to log in through Dropbox, Box, or Google Drive accounts and manage all their services in one place.

We’ve also built a cloud security platform with them, which helps to prevent employee negligence in the workplace. It also uses any internet connected storage technologies like FTP, NAS, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box, etc.

Recently, we’ve built a bidding module for a Scorebig.com, a secondary marketplace for events and concerts. Users can bid in real-time against brokers in order to name their own price for tickets.

The web projects have primarily favored JavaScript-based languages, using Node.js on the backend, and a combination of ReactJS, Redux, React Native, Ionic, AngularJS, and others.

What is the team dynamic? 

There is usually a project manager who works with me directly, and, depending on the size of the project, there will be two or three developers with whom I also communicate directly.

My primary point of contact has been Anton Kumechko, the general project manager for various products at Ezetech who is just fantastic in every way. 

How did you come to work with Ezetech?

A long time ago, their original owner cold-called me from across the world. We hit it off. I started to learn more about the technology and development they provided, and the most impressive thing for me was their obsession with deadlines. Their code quality is also superb; they don’t cut any corners, and yet they still hit deadlines.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Ezetech around 2014 and have an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In terms of code benchmarking, their work has always been top-notch. For security benchmarking, two of our clients found one hole, which was mostly their fault for not telling us about their own exposed server on which the app was deployed. The best thing I can say about Ezetech is that they’re fast and don’t cut corners. Clients have always been satisfied.

They’ve always done a good job, worked quickly, and remained transparent about their tasks, their blockers, and what knowledge they may be missing. In the long-term, when clients continued to build on top of our original platforms, they never had problems scaling. Our code is typically documented at a high level, but in depth documentation can be performed upon request.

How did Ezetech perform from a project management standpoint?

They handled more of the project management earlier on in our relationship. Now, I act as the project manager for my own clients. When working with medium-to-large companies, there are security measures to consider, but I haven’t had to even communicate this to them. It was simply understood, given the experience of the developers. 

When I’m working with a startup and want to keep costs low, I will use one or more of their junior developers, but, at the same time, maintain the scalability, so that the client won't have to rewrite the code from scratch as they grow. Even when we’ve worked on a budget and with short timelines, the code quality was still superb.

I’ve worked with different outsourced companies from different geographical locations and found them to be the first and maybe only one who could truly understand a product from start to finish. This always saved a lot of time and money down the road.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In my experience, I've worked with many a shop, and I always try to explain a project as best I can. They say yes to everything, but it becomes clear along the way that they didn’t really understand very much at all — half the features are missing, or are built sideways, costing me a lot of time, disappointment and money to fix. I’ve never had this experience with Ezetech.

I like their ability to be direct and to-the-point. When we’re talking about a product, there’s no gameplay and few niceties but it's not unpleasant either. It's more about making sure they understand exactly what they need to do so that I and the client can be as happy as possible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re in New York and Ezetech is in Ukraine, so the time difference can be challenging. We’ve been able to make it work in order to sync with my schedule. I get up early, and they come to the office at around 12 pm their time, or 5 am my time. I actually feel like I have the whole day with them, but it was challenging in the beginning.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re building analytical tools for investors. Think about us as a souped-up version of Yahoo Finance or a light version of Bloomberg. We provide software tools that investors can use to investigate the market and follow stocks. I’m the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ezetech?

I don’t have a tech background. I was an investor for my entire career, so when I was starting my company I was looking for a partner to help me on the technology side in terms of deciding on the architecture and implementing some of the tools I had in mind.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We are using JavaScript stack across the board because we’re a web-based product. Everything we do is with JavaScript on the frontend and the backend. On the frontend, we’re using ReactJS, and on the backend we’re using node. We are Cloud-based so we’re using Amazon as our Cloud provider.

What is the team dynamic?

I work with my core development team as well as Stan [CEO, Ezetech] who is the CEO.

How did you come to work with Ezetech?

We were introduced through a mutual acquaintance. I did work with one other firm briefly. With that firm, and with others I’ve worked with in the past, they were a lot larger and I felt that they were treating my project as if it was one of many. I liked the fact that Ezetech was much smaller and I got a lot more personal attention from them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Ezetech around February 2016. The work is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ezetech has done most of the development work and the real success story is simply the launch of our product. We have received some positive user feedback so far and we’ve already seen user growth. Those are the metrics I am measuring at the moment.

How did Ezetech perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a dedicated project manager who is based locally in Ukraine. He’s done a good job of learning some of the industry-specific concepts that we’re dealing with in finance. He’s been able to bridge that gap.

We have a call every day. It’s usually a Skype or video conference call and then we use Jira, Asana, and Slack for our project management communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The fact that they’re a small company is definitely a benefit to getting tasks done efficiently and quickly. They are able to customize their team for that, which is probably the biggest thing I appreciate about working with Ezetech. I’ve been impressed with the quality of the work and the quality of the scalability of the project as we continue to grow.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not that I can think of. Ideally, they would be located in New York, but that would obviously impact their cost structure. Sometimes it is a bit more challenging dealing with a distributed team. In general, there is nothing major I would point out.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an online business that sells promotional products to companies. I am the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ezetech?

Our previous tech partner got us into a very big bind. He built 90% of the product and he couldn’t figure out how to do the last 10% which was the very complicated dynamic pricing component of the website. We contacted Ezetech to help finalize the creation of our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ezetech built my current website and I'm still working with them. I hired three of their developers to work full-time for us.

With Ezetech's help, companies can now go onto our website, find products that they like, and upload their own logo to the products. The website allows them to see what the logo looks like in real time and set the number of products they'd like to order. It also has a very intricate and dynamic price model. A lot of other developers we approached couldn’t deliver what we wanted because every time you upload logos on a t-shirt, the model has to include the base price of the product. Our pricing model takes into account the number of locations that are printed and how many colors are included in the design.  All 120 different products on our site come from different manufacturers and have different pricing mechanisms. Ezetech was able to build a solution that converts an uploaded EPS or AI file into a JPEG so that users can see their logo on the product while they're using the site. They also built a mechanism that can analyze how many colors are in a logo as opposed to having a customer submit the number of colors on their own. They're very technically savvy and think big picture.

How did you come to work with Ezetech?

I had a friend who worked with them in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested close to $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them September 2016 and have been working together since.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve been doing really well. We’ve had over $800,000 of sales in the first year of launching our new website. Major companies are coming to our site and buying from us such as Google, Facebook, WeWork, BravoTV, Jolly Rancher, and more. They are doing a great job.

How did Ezetech perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything was excellent. I create the “to-do” list and then Ezetech will submit the tasks to JIRA, prioritize them, and divide and conquer. They’re very fast. Anton [Project Manager, Ezetech] is our project manager. I have three full-time developers who work below him. He manages the project so I primarily deal with him, but I also go directly to each tech person depending on what they’re working on. They built our entire platform from scratch. They started with one developer and as we needed more developers, they added more. When we wanted to hold back on adding some technology and just focus on other things, they were able to remove the developers. They’re very easy to deal with and they grow with the team. If they don’t have developers on staff, they are constantly interviewing and bringing more guys on. I’ve worked with a lot of developers in the past and Ezetech is amazing. They’re priced really well, too.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very passionate about the idea. It’s not just a job to them. They feel like a part of the team. They will randomly check in with us about how we're doing without being prompted. They’re very excited about the growth and success of our company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They don’t speak fluent English so communication can be a bit more time consuming, but definitely worth it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Spoiled Media, a creative marketing agency that owns a food and culture guide called Spoiled NYC. We write about things going on in New York and experiences such as new bars and music festivals for an audience of a million millennials. About 60% of them are in New York City. On the creative marketing agency side, we work with brands to get them in front of that audience through interesting campaigns that involve content, videos, events, giveaways, and influencers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ezetech?

We had a large Facebook audience, but we needed to show them content and build out a website. We also needed an easier and more efficient method of creating content based on our existing processes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ezetech started off with just building out a website for us, and then they built out several core products for our business. To begin with, they developed the web architecture of the Spoiled NYC site on WordPress. That was our initial partnership with them.

After that, they built a custom CMS [content management system] on the backend, which allowed us to better create and manage the content. We took a lot of inspiration from other mediums and platforms.

Right now, Ezetech is working on migrating our sites to a new architecture to reduce the server load speeds and page load speeds. That’s due to end this month. Last summer, we did tests with them to see how the system works. It worked very well.

We just had an issue with some of our programmatic advertisers, which caused a drop in RPM [revenue per mile]. Now that we’ve moved away from programmatic ads, we’re going back to that super-fast site that Ezetech built out. It will be launching sometime next month.

They also built a completely new project from scratch called sweepsmaker.com. That started off as an internal project for us to be able to run giveaways. We showed it to a few partners, and they loved it. We wound up doing a public launch for sweepsmaker.com. It’s now part of the repertoire of the business tools we offer.

Ezetech continues to maintain the sweepsmakeer.com platform. They’re interfacing with users to make sure all the bugs are getting fixed. They take all the discussions and handle that process from beginning to end. We’ve also talked about using that platform to help with the influencer management that we have as well.

For the next project, we’re going to do a complete overhaul of the frontend functionality — the look and feel of the website. We have them locked in for another one or two months. In total, we’ve worked with Ezetech on four different projects. The team size varied. Right now, we have two developers devoting 80 hours a week for our projects.

How did you come to work with Ezetech?

We found Ezetech through a personal connection — I knew one of the co-founders at Ezetech. We were reintroduced about six or seven months prior to us launching Spoiled. He offered to do the website launch for us. We’ve worked with other developers in the past, but Ezetech was the first one that we worked with for Spoiled Media.

How much have you invested with Ezetech?

Over the last 2 ½ years, we’ve spent at least $100,000–$150,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them January 2015. At this point, our relationship with them is ongoing since we have new projects coming up.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Having a website and sweepsmaker.com are definite measures of success. With the migration, Ezetech reduced our server load and our page load speed by 85%–90%.

How did Ezetech perform from a project management standpoint?

They help us do better project management, and they keep us in the loop on everything. Ezetech’s lead developer has been handling the project management from the beginning. That’s one of the reasons we keep working with them. We are not tech people, so it would have been difficult for us to effectively manage the project. Ezetech implemented a sprint system and showed us how to use Trello, a project management tool.

What did you find most impressive about Ezetech?

There were language barriers and communication issues in most of the dealings that I had with offshore developers. None of that existed with Ezetech. They listened to our grand strategy and vision, and they were able to translate it exactly into language that allowed us to understand what the next steps were. They managed applications well and managed the timelines. It didn’t feel like extra work.

Right now, we have an issue with our email provider. I don’t know what’s going on, but we just let Ezetech’s lead developer know, and he will take care of the whole thing. They may not be working for us in a full-time capacity, but we get the full benefit of their expertise.

Are there any areas Ezetech could improve?

Since a lot of their developers are in Ukraine, they would be off during national holidays. I remember we had issues with communicating that too far in advance. We just told them, “Hey, this should be the proper protocol,” and they followed it. Since then, there hasn’t been an issue. I can’t think of anything that they can do better right now.