Fintory

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a payment processing company that builds platforms.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fintory?

We needed an engineering team to help us build products.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We outsourced the entire product development to them. Internally, our product team documents the detailed functional requirements and passes the, onto Fintory. Fintory has a project manager who would act as an interface between our product team and their engineers. They’d quantify the requirements and make sure they understand it. They also design all the interfaces for us, and we give them feedback on whatever needs to be changed at the design stage. 

Once that’s done, their frontend engineers go into full development. The backend engineers work on the backend code as well. On the frontend side, they used React.js. On the design side, they also occasionally help to handle the documentation.

What is the team composition?

There are five people.

How did you come to work with Fintory?

I knew of a partner firm that had engaged them. They flew to Nigeria to meet with us and we were impressed with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July 2018–July 2019. We reengaged them again this year in April 2020 for another year.

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

We agreed on specific milestones and they delivered. There are minimal bugs, and the iterations were quick. They deliver on time. The first demo we had for the product was for one of the largest banks in East Africa, the bank approved it on the call when they saw it. There was no back and forth or additional questions. They liked it and it met all their needs. That was a good indicator that we’re doing the right thing.

How did Fintory perform from a project management standpoint?

They deliver as promised. Their ability to accurately predict the delivery time and stick to it has been phenomenal. They actively ask questions. If I come up with an idea, they have the ability to understand and even ask further questions that would open my mind to new possibilities.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attention to detail and designs are second to none. They take the time to understand you and the things you like. They go very deep during the product development session and suggest things.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could develop additional specific skills. They’ve been very good in terms of building the product based on user requirements. It’d be good if they added additional developers that have expertise in blockchain, debit and credit, processing Mastercard, etc.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear on exactly what it is you want to achieve. They will deliver.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Haystack, a modern intranet that’s meant to connect your contacts, apps, and communication to a single online source.  

What challenge were you trying to address with Fintory?

We recently raised a growth round from institutional investors. That allowed us to pursue a sophisticated firm to revamp our UI/UX throughout the entirety of our product. We partnered with Fintory for a complete product redesign.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fintory was responsible for redesigning every single screen of our product. They also reassessed every feature that we currently offer to customers.

I’ve spun up multiple projects with them since then.

What is the team composition?

For the first project, I engaged primarily with Kevin (Product Designer) and Chris (COO).

How did you come to work with Fintory?

We reached out to a number of different firms and ended up taking Fintory because of their extensive enterprise experience.

How much have you invested with them?

I believe the entirety of the project cost somewhere between $20,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed the contract with them in June and kicked off the project in July of 2020. It’s an ongoing project.

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

I don’t have any stats or metrics yet since we’re launching alongside them. We have a number of experienced engineers and designers on our internal team, so we held Fintory to a high standard. They’ve since demonstrated their expertise and competence, so we’ve been able to entrust our entire product design to them.

Passing off basic products and specs to them, we can trust their product judgment enough for them to make decisions on our behalf.

We have a shared channel with them that connects to some of our feedback portals. That way, they can interpret some of our client and user feedback.

Kevin, in particular, is excellent. I couldn’t recommend him highly enough. Fintory does an incredible job of keeping all parties satisfied. They’ve crushed it so far.

How did Fintory perform from a project management standpoint?

Chris, who serves as our project manager, has been more than capable of overseeing our project management. While we usually have a high level of planning from our side, we hadn’t extensively planned for our landing page project, and yet they performed exceptionally well.

They’re extraordinarily responsive. The time difference between ourselves and them, in Germany, works out perfectly. I can give them feedback at the end of my day, and they’ll have implemented the necessary changes by the next morning for us to review. We’ve had an incredibly productive workflow.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge of working with enterprise clients truly tipped the scale. Their background allowed them to do an incredible job of designing our experience and products. I couldn’t recommend Fintory enough to my friends who are also starting enterprise companies. Enterprise product development is really their bread and butter.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, no. If that were the case, our engagement wouldn’t have expanded in the way that it did. I have literally nothing bad to say about them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

A shared Slack channel is extremely helpful. I’d also encourage clients to have some familiarity with Figma, and particularly its comments functionality. Finally, I’d have clearly defined specs going in. If you have a clear idea of what you need, your inspirations, and your dos and don’ts, you’re going to get much more out of your experience with them.