GeekyAnts

Please describe your company and your position there.

This is Ranjan and I am co-founder of TestUnity. TestUnity is A unique SaaS platform where testers are not bound to any geographical location, diversity at its best in terms of real devices and OS.

No limit on the number of testers engaged for a particular application. Test cycles start and end in a few hours, covering all the modules and reporting all the bugs hence very efficient. We are committed to delivering world-class testing services to make Mobile Apps/Websites the best in terms of quality and at low cost.

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

We hired GeekyAnts for Web Development Services. We worked with another vendor first, but it didn’t meet our expectations. So we asked MentorMate to help us make the website what we needed it to be.

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

We selected this vendor because it was highly recommended by one of our friends and we decided to continue with GeekyAnts because they had great reviews regarding their quality work and fixed timelines.

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

We came to them with ready-made requirements, and we discussed them with GeekyAnts. After consulting with them, we made some modifications and went through the solutions suggested in the requirements in an agile and scrum-like development process.

Their team did the backend development on Node.js provided by Docker containers and frontend development using JavaScript and the React framework. They also used AWS.

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

We had up to three web developers from junior to senior levels. We also had a project manager on the GeekyAnts side.

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

The final product is in production, and we’re absolutely content with it. It’s also making a profit for us. Their team said it would take half a year, and it was more or less done in that time. I’ve never seen such a precise estimate; it was really on point. The budget projections were always very correct, and I was very impressed with how precise their estimates were.

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

We typically communicate through SkyPe, which both of our companies were familiar with. We also have Zoom meetings and use Jira for project management and tickets. Their team is very responsive. We always get an immediate response, and they have always been available to us.

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

We’re a QA company. They gave us access to their tech people right from the start. The communication from the beginning was between the tech people on our side and the tech people on their side. It was easy, and they were approachable. There was no shield between their technical staff and ours, which has been nice

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

Not really. The way we work together has been fine from both sides.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Co-founder and CTO of my company based in Bangalore, India. We are building the next-generation robo-advisory platform based on AI/ML technologies to deliver highly personalized goal investments to the masses.

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

We wanted to build our mobile app to deliver our AI/ML-driven wealth management services. We hired GeekyAnts to develop our mobile app that would leverage our API platform. Our goals are to launch our services with a mobile app delivering seamless, transparent, and simplified investments in the market for our diverse set of consumers.

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

Our mobile app features a high degree of personalization with recommendations for understanding users' goals and needs. The mobile app's objective is to deliver a simplified, transparent, and highly customized investment management experience to our customers. We wanted a mobile app development partner with solid technical expertise and a passion for building user-centric mobile apps. GeekyAnts met our checklist of requirements for having strong expertise in Mobile App development. We also like that they have been so actively contributing to the Flutter community through frameworks and toolsets.

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

GeekyAnts scope is to develop, test, and release our cross-platform (iOS and Android) mobile app that leverages our API platform to deliver our services. The mobile app includes the core recommendation experiences, enabling goal-based investment and goal/portfolio management/trackers.

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

We have a relationship manager, a tech lead, and two mobile app developers working on the project

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

GeekyAnts have been delivering high-quality outputs, whether it is about mobile app technical design or development. They have shown a strong sense of ownership and are very active in providing suggestions and ideas to improve the app. We are looking to soon launch our mobile app in beta mode to our initial customer base thanks to their dedicated efforts in a short time of 3 months.

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

The tech leads and relationship manager are actively involved in day-to-day planning, resolving team issues, and ensuring the project is on track. They use the latest tools and is open to adopting new processes/technology to improve the development and delivery process.

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

We have been very impressed with GeekyAnt's commitment to delivering a high-quality mobile app. They show deep interest in understanding our business objective and working in close collaboration to achieve our goals. They have gone above and beyond to ensure that we get to the beta stage soon. We are happy to have them as our partners.

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

Not that we can think of as of now.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the engineering manager at Jupiter, a banking services company. We provide banking solutions.

What challenge were you trying to address with GeekyAnts?

We were trying to hire our own developers but weren’t able to fill all the open positions. We needed to outsource developers to build a mobile app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

GeekyAnts developed our mobile app for iOS and Android. We initially decided on the architecture of the app. We had a few developers of our own, but they coded specific modules.

Their team was involved in the rewards section and the investment product part. They also helped with the help center and customer support features. Later on, we started developing it on our own.

The bulk of the work was completed in May 2021. However, there are small features that we’re still developing and maintenance work, like bug fixes. We’re also planning additional feature development with them.

The app allows for payment and debit cards. We provide rewards, and there are sections for debt, net worth, and help. There are various settings and screens to manage and configure all these features, including a home screen that lists all your transactions and provides links to other areas.

What is the team composition?

Initially, there were two developers and one part-time manager. Later, we cut it down to just the two developers.

How did you come to work with GeekyAnts?

A couple of our developers had worked with them, so we were familiar with their work. They were pretty popular with open-source contributions. We felt they could deliver.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2020, and the relationship is ongoing.

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

More than 100,000 people have downloaded the app, and the iOS version will launch very soon. We’re expecting quite a few downloads there as well.

How did GeekyAnts perform from a project management standpoint?

We only use them for development, so we’ve provided them with the architecture, roadmap, and code review. We’ve added them to our Slack and given them our email addresses.

We communicate with them as if they’re part of our team, and we’re in contact on a daily basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of work is great. They’ve done a great job implementing the features. As an organization, they do open source and community management work, which I really like. Even though it’s not directly related to the work they do with us, it’s something that I admire about them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could reduce the costs a bit. Also, one of the initial developers wasn’t great. We had to switch, but since then,  it’s been great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend working with them. They’re a good choice.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a cryptocurrency payment app. We primarily deal with Bitcoin cash cryptocurrency and enable payments to merchants.

What challenge were you trying to address with GeekyAnts?

The app was only for Android, and we needed to extend the support to iOS and web. We were having certain issues with getting our app on the App Store and trying to get cross-platform support for the web.

What was the scope of their involvement?

GeekyAnts provided cross-platform support. They didn’t code, but they enabled the functionalities to work on iOS and web.

What is the team composition?

We worked with five people, but two were there briefly.

How did you come to work with GeekyAnts?

We were looking for Flutter developers. When I did a quick Google search, they were one of the ones that showed up, and they were the most cost-effective option.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–May 2021.

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

They delivered what they agreed to, but the work speed was a little slow. Initially, I expected both the iOS and web development to be completed within four weeks. It took 5-6 weeks, but that was partly due to Apple. Other than that, they were great.

How did GeekyAnts perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication was good. All the details were presented and the invoices were sent to me on time. The communication between the developers and me was set up in a proper manner. We used Slack and had meetings 2–3 times a week through Google Meets to discuss the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There aren’t a lot of Flutter or Dart developers available in the market. It was impressive that they catered to the smallest niche right now. They had enough experienced developers to build a Flutter app on multiple platforms.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could get the work done a bit quicker.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set out proper deadlines.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of a small company that focuses on SAT and ACT test prep camps around the world for students aiming to attend college in the United States. 

What challenge were you trying to address with GeekyAnts?

Because of the pandemic, we needed to find a new way to facilitate our classes. We wanted to develop a remote learning app with them.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The intent was to use their services for both the design and development of the mobile app. However, we ended up using their services for UX design only. We didn’t have teammates with design backgrounds, so they took the lead in fleshing out our core idea to create a full scope of UX designs for the final product. 

What is the team composition?

We were working with about four people, including two designers and two project managers.  

How did you come to work with GeekyAnts?

We found them on Clutch and selected them because they seemed like a reliable, mid-sized company. Our team was confident they had the resources we needed but weren’t too large on a corporate level. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $9,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from August–September 2020.

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

We were very happy with the full suite of designs they created for our web and mobile apps. They captured our idea well and expanded on it in useful ways. Our initial idea for the product would’ve been pretty simple, but they gave us recommendations for making a more useful, professional product.  

How did GeekyAnts perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated mostly via Slack, and I found them to be extraordinarily responsive. Our time zones are more than nine hours apart, but they responded to me on my time. That made them extremely easy to work with. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were flexible, easy to work with, and able to bring new ideas to the table.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have no criticisms of their work. It may have been helpful to start with a proposed schedule because the stages of the project weren’t super clear in our first weeks.   

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend them to request a schedule upfront and ask about how tasks will impact the timeline and budget. Minor changes ended up compounding and costing us much more than we planned.

Please describe your company and your position there.

millimetrika offers reliable IT solutions and end-to-end project management to help our clients grow their business, implement new ideas and manage processes more efficiently. As project manager and application architect for the concerned project, I ensure the delivery of solutions in time and with high quality.

Furthermore, I guarantee the long-term maintainability and stability of the application by maintaining high code quality.

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

We hired GeekyAnts to support our internal developers to realize custom web developments in React and Laravel based on specific customer requirements. Technically our goal was to have additional resources and expertise available.

Organizationally our goal was to utilize the concept of working in different timezones and ensure continuous development.

How did you select GeekyAnts and what were the deciding factors?

We searched online for companies that provided the required services. After interviewing several companies, we decided on GeekyAnts due to their responsiveness, competitive prices, and willingness to commit to a long-term collaboration.

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

Services include implementing specific functionalities in the applications that were developed together with GeekyAnts from the ground up. The GeekyAnts team performs specific development tasks, provide their technical input and expertise, perform general testing tasks and deliver the implemented code for review.

Design, application architecture and rollout are handled directly by our company. This might be different from other customers who ask for a complete solution without doing development themselves.

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

We have one full-time developer assigned during the implementation sprints and one project manager who takes care of overall planning if required. Additionally, we are constantly in contact with Business Support for invoicing and resource planning.

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

The final product is very well accepted by the users and provides the intended process optimization.

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

We have daily update calls for the ongoing development sprints. Trello is used for defining new tasks and keep track of everything. Slack is used for chat communications. Calls are handled via Skype. All code is managed via Github.

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

The GeekyAnts team is very responsive and delivers in time under given circumstances. Their punctuality in attending the daily standup meetings is outstanding and exceeded all our expectations in communicating across the globe, in different timezones and outsourcing development work.

We appreciate that they always adjust their availability according to other time zones for the calls.

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

When we first started the project, we needed some time to get used to each other's working style and understand where each other's strengths lie. In the beginning, we outsourced everything to GeekyAnts but then learned that it's better for our specific needs to keep some reviewers and planning work on our side.

Due to personnel changes on their side, we also had to adjust some things and train new developers on the same application again. However, they always ensured that the process went as smoothly as possible.

As we do code review and rollouts on our side, we've learned that it is crucial to be clear on development style expectations since the beginning of the project.

There has been a noticeable improvement in the quality of code over time, which in our opinion also shows how GeekyAnts improved their internal training and selection of resources over the years.

We feel that the quality of the delivered React and Laravel code in general is very high. In our opinion, code that affects the application's visual appearance (Bootstrap, CSS, SCSS and Laravel views) could still improve in terms of clean code and reusability.

However, this might also depend on the developers assigned to specific projects or the resources one requests. In general, we feel that the GeekyAnts team is always open to suggestions and reacts very well to any ideas which could improve the cooperation.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Core Sports Technology, a startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with GeekyAnts?

We wanted to develop a game.

What was the scope of their involvement?

GeekyAnts created an entire game platform that involved integrating Raspberry Pi tablets, Wi-Fi connections, and Bluetooth connections. They created a soccer training game that I’ll be using for my startup.

What is the team composition?

I worked with about nine teammates in total.

How did you come to work with GeekyAnts?

I came across them on the internet. I was looking for something very unique, and it was tough to get that for less than $100 per hour for a developer in the US. GeekyAnts had good value, seemed to have their stuff together, and followed through. They had also worked with Google, which was reassuring.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent under $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in February 2020 and the project lasted 4–5 months.

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

Because of COVID-19, I haven’t been able to take it to the public. However, it’s a new product so people are excited about it. Once the pandemic hopefully ends, I do think we will have a viable business. 

What I asked of them was a little bit out of scope for a lot of companies, so the fact that they pulled it off, even if it took a little bit longer, was good.

How did GeekyAnts perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re a big company, and they’re getting bigger, so we dealt with a wide variety of people including experts and some teammates for whom this is their first job. They have different experience levels, so sometimes it takes people longer than it should’ve. 

It didn’t cost me financially when it went overtime because of inexperience, so it was okay. It was also a bit of a challenge for them to not be able to work in-person with their teammates due to COVID-19. We had a few trials because of this, but they got everything done at the end of the day. They had some good experts.

What did you find most impressive about them?

GeekyAnts’ salespeople were great, and their follow up was good. We got a call from the VP every couple of weeks to see how everything was going. When we had issues, they always addressed them.

You’re always going to have bumps in projects like this, but they always addressed our issues and made sure that we felt good. Their customer service and interaction were great on all levels, but especially on the higher levels. 

When they messed up, they owned up and fixed it. I was blown away by their ability to take care of the problems that we put in front of them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You have to have a plan as far as how you’re going to get them to understand exactly what you need out of the project. My position was unique because what I was doing was out of the box.

If you can communicate your vision and make sure they understand it, that will put them on a better path from a project management standpoint. That’s where we sometimes got off base. GeekyAnts recognized that and tried to put better tools in place to make sure that everyone was on the same page.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Sprive, a mobile fintech application that we’re looking to launch in the UK to help homeowners pay off their mortgages.

What challenge were you trying to address with GeekyAnts?

We needed someone to develop the MVP of our mobile app in React Native and a mobile backend in Node.js.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We partnered with them from a development perspective. We engage a different company to do our branding and another company to design our wireframes. We came to GeekyAnts with a bunch of wireframes. GeekyAnts took those and designed the backend and frontend interactions. They built the app based on those wireframes.

What is the team composition?

There’s an engineering manager/architect, a React Native frontend developer, and a Node.js backend developer.

How did you come to work with GeekyAnts?

We knew we wanted to develop a full JavaScript tech stack of React Native and Node.js. We were looking for an agency to help build this. Our COO is in India, so part of our strategy was looking for someone in that time zone if not in India directly. We also looked at a couple of agencies in Ukraine. 

After weighing the initial proposals, we settled on GeekyAnts because they looked as if they were thought leaders in this space, especially around React Native. They have a bunch of open-source contributions in this space. They seemed to have a very good public profile, and they fit into our budget. It also helped that they were in the same city as our COO.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2019, and it’s ongoing.

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

The quality of the product has been excellent. Since we’re new to the fintech space in the UK, quality is of the utmost importance to us. We were essentially looking to launch alongside some very high-profile apps that are getting a lot of publicity. It was critical that the quality of the build felt really good. We’ve gotten some feedback from early testers saying that it feels like a quality application. I’m very pleased with the quality of their work.

How did GeekyAnts perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, project management has been excellent. We defined a fixed scope of work, and my team put together a bunch of user stories alongside some wireframes that we did in Adobe XD. The engineering manager took those and broke down the requirements into more technical specifications. 

We collaborated using Google Drive, Draw.io, and architecture diagrams. We had daily standups using Google Meet, and we worked in 2–3-week sprints. They’d get us a build each week. We adopted the principle of the demo as frequently as possible.

Communication was excellent, and even the junior developers were forthcoming with their communication. Most of our communication was over Slack. Everyone felt comfortable sending messages in the channel directly to my colleagues or me. I’m very pleased with the way the project was managed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team went the extra mile to make sure that they really understood the problem we’re trying to solve. They got up to speed really quickly with the industry. They understood what we were trying to achieve from the ground up, which is helping users pay off their mortgages and become mortgage-free. They took our vision and showed a lot of enthusiasm. They went very far to ensure that they delivered on time. If there were any bugs, they fixed them. They understood the requirements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The way that we worked evolved over time. It was really important to us that the communication was always flowing; that was always a high standard from day one. I wouldn’t say there’s much to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try and get as much detail down on paper as you can about your requirement. Have a good idea of what you’re asking them to build. This ultimately helps them to estimate out, and it will help you ensure that what they’re building is to spec. 

They’re trying to become thought leaders in the whole mobile engineering space; they’ve been at the forefront of React Native development, but they’re also starting to look at Flutter, an emerging technology. They’ve got some really enthusiastic and bright individuals at their company. Any company approaching them should go there with an open mind and be willing to hear their ideas. They have lots of experience and projects under their belt. Don’t shy away from having really deep technical discussions; I’ve enjoyed doing that with them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a helicopter company with operations across Canada. My role in this initiative is project director and I am entirely responsible for the development and implementation of the project.

For what projects/services did your company hire GeekyAnts?

With over 60 aircraft, we were using purely paper-based operations systems to manage the entire company. With $10s of millions in annual sales, it was expensive, labour-intensive, riddled with errors, and couldn't scale.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was a complete digital transformation whereby every employee would use AirOps on a daily basis, regardless of location, for most business operations.

How did you select this vendor?

We were specifically looking for a vendor that had significant experience in Flutter and React (or VueJS). In particular, what was attractive about this vendor was their community involvement in Flutter, their deep experience, and their history of contributing to the Flutter project.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We build an iOS and Android app using Flutter, A web app using React, a backend system using Aqueduct (Dart) and Postgres, and a BI/Reporting system using JSReport.

What was the team composition?

Although we initially started with 1, and then 2 mobile developers, we eventually scaled up to a stable team of 6 people. That team consisted of 1 technical lead, 2 mobile Flutter developers, 1 backend (Aqueduct, Dart, Postgres) developer, 1 Web React developer and 1 BI/Reporting developer.

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

The entire platform (all 4 systems) was completed in 4 short months. The result is a beautiful and highly effective digital solution that is used by every employee. The company is now able to run their entire operations through a single digital solution, greatly reducing errors, significantly reducing costs and labour, and allowing the company to grow more efficiently. This solution has completely transformed their operations.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Working with Slack, Trello, GitHub and other tools, the project flowed very well. Ongoing communication was clear, concise and constructive and the team worked very well together. We used Agile processes including a daily standup and weekly sprints. Sprints were completed on time and every epic and feature was delivered exactly to spec (or so close that only minor changes were needed). Additionally, features were delivered bug-free and error-free.

The team maintained a high standard and consistently delivered quality results. As project director, this was the most complex project I have managed, yet it has been the best and most trouble-free project I have been involved in. This is due to the quality of the team, the quality of their work, and the personal ownership that they took in the project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team is intelligent and responsive. They anticipated potential problems and recommended solutions. This a rare skill. Furthermore, aviation is a complicated domain, but the team took little time in understanding it and becoming proficient in this domain. Also impressive was their personal commitment to the project's quality and success.

Additionally, and in a more general sense, GeekyAnts provided support outside of the project itself with such things are scaling the team and resource flexibility, legal documents and engagement commitments and other similar things. They made my life easier and I was well taken care of; GeekAnts cared and wanted to make sure I was happy and the project would be a success.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No areas to improve. I want to work with GeekyAnts forever, on all sorts of projects!

Please describe your company and your position there.

Twirl was an idea I conceived of and I funded its development for 2020.

For what projects/services did your company hire GeekyAnts?

Twirl is a mobile, social app. A small group of us began development on Flutter in the last half of 2019, but we were not as productive as we would have liked. After a thorough search for vendors, I found Geeky Ants, a Flutter specialist. We hired GA to essentially re-build and finish Twirl.

What were your goals for this project?

We had hoped to build the entire app for deployment in both iOS and Android stores.

How did you select this vendor?

Our primary focus was to find Flutter developers. There, GA seemed to have good credentials. Next, we spoke with key team leaders to understand how their team works and what communication we could expect. We also gauged their ability to understand high level concepts and key build choices in Twirl. We found their understanding and communication to be excellent.

Describe the project in detail.

Decline to describe the project aside from a social, mobile application.

What was the team composition?

The team composition at GeekyAnts included a primary developer and a primary client manager. On occasion, GA added specialized resources for design or back-end architecture.

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

The project is 95% complete and GeekyAnts also did a good job through Q&A and communication with Trello.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was good. we leveraged Slack and Trello well.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team really did not fail to understand or deliver a feature.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Q&A really improved during the back half of our relationship.