Foxbox Digital

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of innovation for The X Company. We own, operate, and build multifamily apartment buildings.

What challenge were you trying to address with Foxbox Digital?

We hired them to develop a mobile application for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The app is built in React Native with an Elixir background; everything was completely native. There are two access control systems built into the app. It allows residents to get in and out of their building using their mobile phones.

Residents just have to wave their hand in front of the reader; they don’t even have to take their phone out of their pocket. As long as their phone is somewhere on their body, the reader will wake up and recognize the device then unlock the door without the resident needing to hold their phone to the reader.

There’s a natively integrated intercom as well as a live chat feature. The app also enables residents to send guest credentials to visitors. For example, if their mom or friend is visiting for the weekend, a resident could send them a 48-hour key that lives on the visitor’s phone. Additionally, residents can remotely unlock the door and grant elevator access in real-time.

Foxbox Digital also integrated Nexudus, which is a CRM system for co-working spaces and social clubs. They utilize Auth0 for single sign-on, Sentry for debugging and errors, and Openpath for the access control systems.

What is the team composition?

I work with 7–8 of their team members including Rob (CEO & Founder), Minh Quan (VP of Engineering), and Tiffany (Senior Product Manager).

How did you come to work with Foxbox Digital?

I have a big background in networking in the software space and Foxbox Digital came highly recommended.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $315,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in September 2019.

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

We just launched the first version of the app and will take on v2 during the next year. Foxbox Digital is the best agency I’ve ever worked with. They put in a lot of due diligence and research. The amount of homework they did before the project even kicked off was substantial. I’ve never had to do such little handholding. It’s a breath of fresh air to work with them because they’re extremely competent and need very little from me. They far exceeded my expectations.

We had a big hurdle at the beginning because we going through a rebranding. We were only halfway through but Foxbox Digital was able to take all of the work that was completed at that point and do a great job of interpreting the direction our brand was going in. Even from a design and branding standpoint, they did an incredible job. They’re not a full-service agency so that was pleasantly shocking.

How did Foxbox Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We have biweekly meetings where they show us the most recent improvements, updates, and additions. We give them high-level feedback and then they take it and understand it. Our teams primarily communicate through Slack. However, I could call them whenever I needed to. We never had to wait more than 30 minutes for a response. They were great with meeting timelines and were consistently ahead of schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their great communication and diligence stand out. There wasn’t a single point in the project where I was concerned. Obviously, it’s a pretty ambitious project from a tech standpoint because we’re dealing with hardware and software. However, I was never concerned because Foxbox Digital treated the project as if it were their own. If there was a potential hurdle, they were just as concerned as I was.

Additionally, they looked out for our best interests. They could’ve easily been lazy but they never were. They found workarounds for things that’d cost us more money. They helped us save $20,000 and that’s a substantial amount of money saved just from their dedication to get creative and find a workaround.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do it. They made my life incredibly easy.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of AI engineering for a healthcare company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Foxbox Digital?

We brought Foxbox on board as a specialist in React Native to help us build our mobile application for consumers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Foxbox helped us build a mobile app from scratch. As we have our own UI/UX team, their team only provided guidance on the UI/UX design. They're primarily responsible for implementation and technical details. Their team built one of the app's primary components, which was a React Native bridge that tied into native SDKs (software development kits).

What is the team composition?

We work with a total of nine folks from Foxbox. I directly engaged with Rob (CEO) but then transitioned to Minh (VP of Engineering) who still supports our project. Our project manager’s Matt (Agile Coach).

How did you come to work with Foxbox Digital?

One of our other development partners referred us to Foxbox. That’s how we initially found them. They brought key React Native expertise and the ability to handle the implementation of key components to the table.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $1 million on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the partnership in July 2019 and expanded our engagement until the end of 2020.  

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

Foxbox brings our team forward and develops specific sets of deliverables for this project. During each iteration, they need to deliver on specific pieces. In general, their team hits its goals. They provide technical expertise and solid project management skills to execute on our goals.

How did Foxbox Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We engage them as a scrum team and assign them specific capabilities in the mobile development space. Essentially, we brought them in as contracted time and resources. They commit to targets every two weeks. Throughout the scope of the project, their team has met those targets.

In general, the response from my team’s been positive. The folks who work with them day to day have no complaints about Foxbox.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re most impressed by their level of technical expertise as a small development shop. We’ve been able to engage with strong technical and scrum leads who manage their team’s deliverables and goals for each iteration.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At my level, I’ve been happy with Foxbox. Since I’m not involved in the day to day operations, I don’t have specific areas of feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you engage the same team as us, you don’t need pro tips. Rob’s able to source talent. He’s brought a lot of folks on board over the past year to accommodate our needs. As long as Rob’s involved in the selection of the team, you should feel comfortable working with Foxbox.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a donation platform for golf tournaments.

What challenge were you trying to address with Foxbox Digital?

We didn’t have the tech-savviness to build the platform ourselves.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Foxbox helped us to brainstorm and set a design strategy. Their team then designed the prototype of our mobile app, which enables participants and fans to donate to a charity based on a player’s birdies or eagles. It’s an interactive way for fans to follow players and give back. We’re planning to release the app for iOS, Android, and desktop.

What is the team composition?

We worked with roughly four individuals from Foxbox. I communicated with Rebecca (Operations Manager) who managed the project. Two other teammates worked on the designs and UI/UX strategy.

How did you come to work with Foxbox Digital?

A friend worked with one of their owners and spoke highly of the Foxbox team. We talked to a few different firms that wanted bigger projects. Foxbox was totally interested in our idea and willing to work with our budget.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $28,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in March 2020, and the partnership’s ongoing.

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

We’re able to present the prototype to clients. Their work’s great, and I’m extremely happy with Foxbox.

In the end, their team gave us two renditions in case we needed to fix anything. We did, and they made those changes in a timely fashion.

How did Foxbox Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a Slack channel, so they constantly updated us. In the SOW, we set deadlines for when we wanted to complete certain parts of the project. For the most part, they hit them. Their team was punctual and patient with us. They took the time to explain technical concepts.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were great designers. Their team was extremely creative, helping us to think outside of the box. They were also huge on communication and kept us posted throughout the process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re overall really happy. In the beginning, there was a miscommunication. We intended for the product to be used on iOS and Android. In the end, it could only be used for iOS. We also wanted a detailed number of what it would cost to build a live, functional app. It took Foxbox a little while to give us an estimate.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be absolutely clear about the deliverables and have them written down. Make sure that everyone’s on the same page.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a company in the financial planning and analysis industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with Foxbox Digital?

We needed staff augmentation. We were trying to hire people but needed some extra resources during that process, so we brought in someone from Foxbox Digital’s team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided an engineer. We assigned him tickets through our project management software, and he went through those. We essentially just bought chunks of hours from them.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one engineer.

How did you come to work with Foxbox Digital?

I’ve been friends with Rob (Founder & CEO) for years.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent $10,000–$15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together three months ago. We have hired people internally, but I may need their services again in a few months.

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

We just needed some extra hands on deck to get through our backlog, and they got the work that we gave them done without a lot of overhead. 

How did Foxbox Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

The engineer was great. We gave him some specifics and high-level direction, and he was good about raising flags if things came up. If he had questions, he contacted us via Slack. Otherwise, he just chugged away and did the work. We treated him as a member of the team. He was on our daily standups. Outside of that, he worked directly with some other team members who he talked with more frequently.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve never worked with offshore contractors before, so it was cool to see that they had some good quality people that didn’t require a lot of overhead.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a trucking technology company, and I’m the VP and general manager of strategic initiatives.

What challenge were you trying to address with Foxbox Digital?

We had an outdated mobile app. It’s an app that truck drivers use as part of their daily workflow in picking up and delivering freight. We wanted to improve its UX/UI, and we also wanted to move to a technology stack that’d allow for deployment on multiple operating systems.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Foxbox Digital created a new app for both iOS and Android. They worked off of the previous app to mirror its basic features while incorporating improvements. They utilized React Native.

What is the team composition?

We had daily contact with two people. Throughout the entire lifecycle of the project, we engaged with 4­–5 people.

How did you come to work with Foxbox Digital?

We were specifically looking for someone with React Native expertise. I believe we found them through a Google search.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement began in September 2019 and they wrapped up in March 2020.

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

We don’t have quantifiable metrics yet, since we’re only rolling out our beta launch next month. I can say that they set us up with a great platform. We found a few places where we’ve had to go back and rework, but overall, they did very good work.

While we experienced a few personnel changes in the middle of the project, and they were great in terms of pivoting.

How did Foxbox Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication was excellent, and the project manager, in particular, was exceptional. They brought a variety of PM tools to the project, which we’ve now incorporated into our own workflow. Their collaborative skill was really top-notch.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their project management was superb.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think there were some areas where we expected them, as React Native experts, to provide more guidance. We would’ve liked to see them exercise their expertise in a stronger way.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you have everything set up on your side to enable Foxbox Digital’s success. That’ll help them show up with their A-game. Even if you’re not prepared to work at their level, they’ll certainly accommodate you. Just be prepared to be as engaged as they are, and you’ll get really great results.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of operations at an organization that does youth programming.

What challenge were you trying to address with Foxbox Digital?

We wanted to create an app where our students could see their daily schedules, update records, and view their profiles. The app would be for both iOS and Android.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We gave Foxbox Digital a set of instructions for designing and developing the app, and they created it together with our development team. The students see a different version of the app than our staff.

I put a screen-by-screen wireframe together using Adobe XD so they could click through a vision for what we wanted. We’ve stuck close to those wireframes. 

We have an existing website, CRM, and database, and we didn’t want to redesign the website for the app. The app is connected by an API to our scheduling databases. They helped us come up with PDF versions of our schedules so they’ll display on the app and print versions. Technologies used include React Native.

What is the team composition?

I’ve been working between the two development teams to make sure we aren’t doing double work.  I work with Rob (Founder, Foxbox Digital). He puts the pieces together, talks about the big picture, and troubleshoots structural issues. 

They also have an account manager named Jasmine (Senior Project Manager, Foxbox Digital) who is amazing. She deals with us during all hours of the day. She’s even been great about having 9 p.m. meetings with me. 

How did you come to work with Foxbox Digital?

We met with many groups (5-6 teams) of all different sizes and price ranges. We purposefully went with Foxbox Digital (even though they don’t have 10 years of history). We chose them based on how well they communicated. We decided we would want to work with them on a day-to-day basis, and that’s proven true.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $50,000 to $199,999 with Foxbox Digital.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in December 2018, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

The product works, and I have no complaints about the quality of the work at all. The students love it, and they even liked the first version of the app. They said, “This is so cool.” 

The staff, who used a different version, loved it, too. Foxbox Digital has implemented feedback from users such as the staff with each version. They also want to hear the students’ feedback, and they’ll probably fine-tune things more using those evaluations.

Also, my counterpart in this project and I agree that they meet you where you’re at. They offer suggestions, and they’ll take your suggestions, too. If you say it’s not a priority, they won’t push it. They’re really good at judging people, working with them, and being flexible with their communication. 

How did Foxbox Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They push me to stay on top of project management. Their strength is flexibility and communication. They’ve been flexible with our needs, and we come with new ones each day as the project grows.

They went in with their eyes open knowing they would need to be responsive. They’re adaptable and open whenever we want to change things. They’ve been flexible whenever I wanted to push more things out or taper back. 

The team has been excellent at following our instructions when it comes to new requirements. For example, they’ll say, “We got it. We just want to talk about what this will mean budgeting and engineering-wise. Do you still want to do it?” 

They couldn’t have foreseen a lot of the hiccups that have come up. As they learn our business, they’re becoming better at predicting what may cause issues. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very genuine. They weren’t too polished or too big-business, which is what we wanted. We weren’t looking for someone who would simply take a concept, make the whole thing, and hand it over. Since we were developing something on a one-on-one basis with someone all day long, we wanted somebody who would be a part of our team versus someone who would just provide us a final product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They are growing. They couldn’t improve anything about who they are, how they work, or their structure. They have a really nice structure and they should stick with it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Potential customers should know what they want in a development team. If you want someone that’s going to be creative and collaborative and willing to stay in constant communication, they are the best fit. If you want to actively be a part of the process, they are the team to have on your side.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of a consumer internet startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with Foxbox Digital?

We were looking for a vendor to build a mobile app for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided Foxbox Digital with full mockups and they executed them, developing a cross-platform app for us and integrating it with SOAP APIs. We use the app as a marketplace in a fitness space and it's available for both iOS and Android. Foxbox Digital used Elixir on the backend and React Native on the frontend. They guided the entire process, providing recommendations and helping us find gaps. They were our partner every step of the way.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with Rob (Founder and CEO, Foxbox Digital), Jasmine (Senior Project Manager, Foxbox Digital), a frontend developer, and a backend developer.

How did you come to work with Foxbox Digital?

I found out about Foxbox Digital from a mutual friend.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2018 and the relationship is ongoing.

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

It was a very solid experience and they gave us an MVP of our app that we can show to our investors.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

Their development team is based off-shore, but their leadership is based in the United States. We mostly use Slack to communicate and they've been very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They've worked with larger companies, but they also understand the startup world. They really have our best interests at heart. They gave us valuable suggestions on how to do things in a more manual process to cut the development costs. We appreciate their proactive approach.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do as much research as possible upfront in order to minimize the time they'll need to spend on that.

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the revenue manager of a short term rental property management company. We place apartments, houses, and vacation rentals on short term rental websites as well as managing the properties. My primary duties include the booking calendar and tracking the performance of our listings.

What challenge were you trying to address with Foxbox Digital? 

We're trying to scale our company. We started in Breckenridge and we're up to 70 units there. We have 50 units in Chicago and another 10 units in Denver. That’s a lot of properties that need to be taken care of, watched, and priced.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Foxbox Digital is working on three projects for us. We developed our own pricing tool because we felt current market tools are lacking in certain aspects. We want something that's tailored to our own theories. Foxbox Digital helped us develop a dynamic algorithm for pricing throughout the year. It updates all of our properties for us without us having to go into each rental website and manually set the price. We also want to tackle the issue of availability. For example, the farther out the date is, we want to force longer bookings to fill up the calendar. The tool they created will drop those restrictions and allow people to book shorter stays as the date gets closer. The third project addresses when we have a gap between two bookings. The tool will open the calendar and allow one-day minimum booking. The tools that Foxbox Digital are developing automate all these tasks without us having to do much besides set the correct variables.

In addition, they’re helping us with our financial tracking. Each property has an owner that needs to be paid. We first need to take out the taxes, commission fees for each website, and our management fee. The tool tracks reservations for each individual listing and pulls the appropriate numbers to determine the payout for the owner. Next, they connected it to Stripe so now we have the ability to actually pay the owners from the same tool. This is all web-based right now on the Heroku cloud platform. They also use Python, Django, Docker, and Kubernetes. 

What is the team composition?

Rob (Founder, Foxbox Digital) did a lot of the early work on the tool and looked everything over. Jasmine (Senior Project Manager, Foxbox Digital) is my main point of communication and she has a team of two developers.

How did you come to work with Foxbox Digital? 

I can't answer that because they were hired before my time. Jasmine actually used to be part of our team so I think she was our connection to Foxbox Digital. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $40,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 

This project started in September 2018 and work is ongoing.

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

This new tool results in big time savings for us. Going from manually editing all these calendars to having them automatically update is critical. It allows us time to do a lot of other things and be more productive. Revenue has increased due to our pricing algorithm being better than the other options on the market. 

How did Foxbox Digital perform from a project management standpoint? 

Their team is super responsive. Jasmine and I talk almost every day and I can also reach her on Slack. She's always on top of everything. They’ll develop a feature and she lets us know when it’s live. Then we go in and test it out and report any bugs back to her. They fix bugs quickly along with any other issues come up or anything.  

What did you find most impressive about them? 

This is my first time taking the project manager role. Foxbox Digital’s ability to get things done and never miss a deadline has been really important. They're always on the ball, and always there if we need them. They've do great work for us. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

Nothing that I can think of, but I don't have anything to compare them to. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Make sure to communicate and get your part of the work done. You need to put in the effort so you're not slowing them down. I don't think you'll have any issues if you maintain open lines of communication with your project manager.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO at Home Chef, a meal kit subscription service. We send prepackaged, pre-portioned ingredients to your door.

What challenge were you trying to address with Foxbox?

We needed to upgrade our mobile application and our mobile presence. Our next generation designs were complete, but we needed assistance implementing the technological elements we created into our app. Additionally, we asked Foxbox to train our in-house team in managing the application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We asked Foxbox to be the technical architect of the mobile app. We wanted the code to be set up in a way that is sustainable and maintainable. Following that, our in-house team would implement our designs, conduct testing, and introduce the app back into the App Store. Along the way, we relied on Foxbox to teach our team the language and the framework that we’re using to build our app.

The app is available for Android and iOS using React Native. Users are able to traverse their accounts, view weekly meal options, and select the meals they’d like delivered. We also included a framework that allows us to do A/B testing within the mobile app so that we can measure the results of certain interactions.

What is the team composition?

I am unsure of the entire team size, but I only worked with their founder.

How did you come to work with Foxbox?

They came as a network referral to our VP of engineering.

How much have you invested with them?

We anticipate spending between $50,000-$60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in July 2018 and is ongoing.

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

Our work remains ongoing, but we are ahead of schedule in our development. We’re moving at a strong pace, and our team is learning a lot.

How did Foxbox perform from a project management standpoint?

We use GitHub internally and with Foxbox. From a communication perspective, they’ve been great about providing updates through email and noting specific milestones.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge is extremely deep in a fairly new technology. They have worked well with people, which we valued because of the mentoring aspect. We didn't want an agency that would only come in and code for us. We wanted an agency who would work with our team, and they've done that well. They're a boutique agency, so we get a personalized experience, which has helped us develop a deep partnership.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be very specific about your needs and be transparent about them. That way they can get a strong understanding of if they can help you.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of Detective.io (formerly Charlie App). Our company briefs users on people and companies before meeting with them.

For what projects/services did your company hire Foxbox?

Foxbox's leadership led the development phase and delivered our application to the App Store.

What were your goals for this project?

Our objective for this engagement was to build a mobile app that could brief users on their meeting attendees 10 minutes before any calendar appointment listed on their phone.

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed many leading development firms as we considered who to work with. Robert (Founder, Foxbox) proved to be an excellent choice for our needs.

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

The founder of Foxbox led the team throughout the project. He helped us formulate the scope and technical requirements and facilitated the entire app’s development.

What was the team composition?

Robert (Founder, Foxbox) was the team member with whom we interfaced.

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

Thanks to the deliverable Foxbox produced, we raised millions of dollars in funding for our company.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We managed every aspect of the project via Trello and Github.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Foxbox has an incredibly talented founder.