Genium

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a company at the intersection of media and security.

What challenge were you trying to address with Genium?

We were building a MVP Android application to be able to test with initial users.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us scope out exactly what we needed, feature by feature, and then we worked with them to make sure everything would fit our users' needs. From there, we moved into development. Everything was built using native Android technologies.

There were three deliverables: the Android application, the backend, which allowed us to monitor everything happening in the app in real-time, and an API to connect the two pieces.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, an engineering manager, an Android developer, a backend developer, a UX designer, and a full-stack resource.

How did you come to work with Genium?

My technical advisor, who’d worked with them in the past, recommended them. He’d used them on larger scale projects, so this project was a bit more custom than Genium was used to.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $100,000–$150,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from March–September 2020.

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

The system is able to handle a number of users without crashing or manifesting bugs. This was a very challenging project in terms of its required level of involvement. The app has a live-streaming aspect to it, which is never easy to develop, but Genium worked well within our timeframe and budget. As a result, I’m quite pleased.

When you’re building a MVP, you want to make sure that it works, and that your users find it seamless to use. For us, that means users must be able to easily input information into the application, and we must be able to monitor what’s happening in real-time.

How did Genium perform from a project management standpoint?

They worked as an agile team. We had some end-goals set, and I’d say that we accomplished all of them. There are always changes that happen in the middle of the project, and Genium handled them without issue. We have a product we’re pleased with.

Slack and Figma helped us communicate, and there was a third feature-tracking tool that helped us monitor development.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the work stands out. Our platform has been put under some pressure, but it’s been essentially bug-free since our testing period, which is pretty rare.

Everyone who worked on our project was very experienced, from the project manager to the engineering manager. The developers themselves had 10 or more years of experience. They were professional throughout.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Communication can always be better, but there weren’t any negatives to their communication that I experienced. Overall, they were very transparent. I don’t have a whole lot of negative feedback to share.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them a try. They produce good-quality work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Genium?

My partner and I started our business early in 2020. We felt that e-commerce was a growing industry, but we needed a website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Genium created our e-commerce website. The first month and a half of the project were dedicated to analysis where I would let Leo (Product Owner & Delivery Manager) know all the features of the project which included inspirational quotes and different pages for the products that we offer. Another page was created for our sustainability program.

After the analysis period, we had a development period. We would have demo meetings where I would be able to see the project update and tell them what I wanted to alter or fix. It was a unique process with a lot of analysis and development time. There was a structure on how Genium built things so everything can get done.
 
What is the team composition?

We worked with two more people from Genium’s team, Jose (Shopify Developer) and the other one is Pablo (Head of Operations in BA) who works on the products.

How did you come to work with Genium?

We got a referral from the CEO of the first smartphone. I asked him who the best software development team that could really grow a great project was and he suggested Genium. We had a few calls with our lawyers along with Genium’s team and we decided that it was a match.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Genium from July–December 2020. We’re still in the warranty period for potential bugs that need to be fixed.

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

We haven’t been able to get many sales yet and I haven’t done much marketing as I’m buying and creating other companies. This isn’t a huge project for me but I’ve been working on it for a while. We like to market a dollar per eyeball where every eyeball that we get, we’re trying to find out how much we’re spending in marketing or giving away products to influencers in order to get as many people as possible to our site.

How did Genium perform from a project management standpoint?

We worked a lot with email chains and keeping things in one chain really helped us. We had once-weekly meetings and demo meetings every other week.

Every single week, Leo was the one that was pushing me to get all the information. We’re a very flexible company so it was hard for me to get every product that I said was going to be there, but Leo was able to make sure that the project finished a week early. That way we could allocate time to other potential integrations with other websites.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Leo’s number one trait is communications and he was the best that I’ve ever worked with. He was really skilled and very kind. What sets Genium apart from other software development companies was that their analysis and flexible planning were so incredible. Writing these inspirational quotes were really fun for me and Leo to collaborate on.

He’s a great person when it comes to getting things done. He's also able to easily communicate complex ideas especially with people that aren’t necessarily in the technology field. I really enjoyed the experience. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing that I would want them to do differently is if they noticed and realized what we’re saying and what’s going to actually happen might not line up, it would be best if they clarify that and let us know. Other than that, I thought they were incredible. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to research your products beforehand. Make sure to talk to the suppliers to understand which of the products are going to be allowed to drop ship if that’s the preferred way of selling the product.

You also need to have one or two people available to work on your project as it’s a difficult process. Make sure that you’re ready for it because if you’re not, you’ll be left behind and perhaps your project won’t come out as good as you expected it to be.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and co-founder of a company that does 3D body scanning for the wellness and apparel industries.

What challenge were you trying to address with Genium?

We’ve captured close to 1 million 3D body scans and needed to ensure that our data was still being cleaned and managed properly. We wanted to optimize our scans more, so we began looking for a firm that could provide that service.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Genium works on both the 3D and 2D side of our services. For 3D, they clean up the scans to make sure they don’t have any foreign artifacts in them. We want to make sure the final deliverable is nice and professional, so Genium’s 3D computer visual engineer manages that task. 

On the 2D side, they enhance the validation algorithms to ensure the measurements are correct. For example, if someone does a 3D scan with a big shirt, we have to make sure the person’s actual waist and not the outline of the shirt is measured. Genium uses TensorFlow and ImageNet to improve the machine learning on results and image data from the scans.

What is the team composition? 

We work with a manager and two computer vision engineers.

How did you come to work with Genium?

We didn’t necessarily want to hire someone in-house or find a solo freelancer online, so we began looking at firms that could provide the resources we needed. Genium fit our skill and budget requirements, so we hired them. It was an easy way to flexibly expand our team for a long-term engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered in August 2018, and the work is ongoing. 

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

Their work is being deployed to production and translated into value, which is the most important metric.

How did Genium perform from a project management standpoint?

They consistently ask for feedback and check for consistency across their performance. We use Slack and Jira to communicate and hold weekly status reports.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team can speak about technical concepts in an easy-to-understand way, which maximizes their value. They have excellent technical and communication skills, and the whole team is honest and proactive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it took some time to get into an effective communication routine, but it works now.