Goji Labs

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Kitchen Table, which is a social dining experience platform that meaningfully brings people together to connect over a shared homemade meal.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Goji Labs?

I was looking for someone to develop the platform. I had the concept of bringing people together around a table to meet neighbors, make new friends, and make in-person connections, and Goji Labs helped to build the technology that enables that concept.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The app acts like an Instagram feed of gatherings. It’s geography-based, and it allows users to search for gatherings based on theme, purpose, date, host, cuisine, dietary restriction, and price. The app allows the user to see who else is going, learn more about the host and what else they have hosted, request a seat, invite a friend, or apply a promo code. Once the user requests a seat, if the host approves it, there is a booking confirmation. At that point, the address is released and uncovered, directions are available, and it can be shared on social media. The user can reach out to the host and ask questions and introduce themselves. They can also keep a profile of all the meals they have attended. The app gives the option to apply to be a host, contact the Kitchen Table team, read our privacy and terms, share the app with a friend and more.

At our first meeting, I shared screenshots from other apps that I liked for their look and feel, functionality, or features. We then brainstormed the app together on a whiteboard to map out the user flow. Next, they created the wireframes in Mockingbird. We edited those and the UX a bit, and ultimately those wireframes served as a blueprint for the final design. We chose to build an app for iOS.

What is the team composition?

I work mainly with the CEO. Initially, I hired a design team outside of Goji Labs. At the time, there were eight developers working on the project. About a year later, we added several new features, and they hired a designer that they work closely with, and she had a team of two or three that worked specifically on our app.

How did you come to work with Goji Labs?

My business partner met their CEO, David, socially through David’s father, and they liked each other. When we decided to build this app, we interviewed multiple developers including Goji Labs and determined that they were the best fit both personally and technically.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent between $100,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in October 2016, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The last time I checked, we had 71 five-star ratings in the App Store. Feedback has been exceedingly positive. Everyone loves it. It’s clean and is designed beautifully. When the user opens the app, they feel welcomed into someone’s home. The hosts’ pictures look inviting, the pictures of the gatherings look great, and using the app is a friendly experience.

Goji Labs excels at risk mitigation. They helped us take this huge idea of making the world a kinder place through having these special dinners and distilled it down to what we could do in the coming months instead of having a massive investment right away.

How did Goji Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s been excellent. David is great. He is now a personal friend as well as a colleague. He is a terrific communicator. We have a case management file that we constantly update. We communicate through Slack, which works well for us. It was important to me to have a local team since this is my first app and first big venture. It was nice to communicate in-person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing is the overall level of care. They are extremely thoughtful and mindful. David and I worked through risk management a lot. I have big ideas and want many features and functionalities in the app. 

Instead of building the iOS and Android app at the same time, we built the iOS version and put it out in the market. Now, when we’re ready to build the Android version, we can apply the lessons we’ve learned, which I think is the right way to do it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They are expensive, but I’m funding this with my savings. If I had an investor or funding from another source, I may feel differently. It’s expensive, but I’m also happy with the way it’s working and the way it looks. I feel confident about the growth. I know it will pay off eventually, but it’s a big expense in the beginning.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t rush into it. Work with Goji Labs on due diligence. Market research will help manage your costs as well. For example, some of the features that we built are not used as much as we thought they would be. They were expensive to design and build, and they aren’t our customer’s favorite features. We could have done better user testing first before we built those. Lean into what Goji Labs is good at, which is risk mitigation, and use that to your advantage.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and managing director of a design strategy consultancy. We serve businesses, nonprofits, and the public sector.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Goji Labs?

Goji Labs is our go-to development partner for website design and software advisory. Recently, we engaged them for a third-party project.

What were your goals for this project?

Goji Labs needed to develop and launch a website for our client, an energy association.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

The team’s user-centered development work has always attracted us. We keep re-engaging them because the team values good design and UX.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The build for this site was representative of other development projects Goji Labs has done for us. On any project, the team is responsible for backend development, API integrations, debugging, and the launch. For the energy association, Goji Labs included third-party plugins.

What was the team composition?

David (CEO, Goji Labs) is our main point of contact and Adam (Software Engineer, Goji Labs) leads the projects’ technical aspects. There’s a team behind the scenes that does coding and testing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve never had issues with Goji Labs. They launch solutions on time.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We have a full-time project manager in-house, which expedites communication between teams. We’ve worked with more than 20 vendors and no one is as detail-oriented as Goji Labs.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Goji Labs routinely enhances the UX and products’ overall value proposition. The team brings energy and passion to their work. They’re passionate about achieving success for clients.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the founder of CommonMarker, which is a production management platform for organizing information on Hollywood film sets.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Goji Labs? 

My background is in design. As a young startup, I was looking for a firm with tech experience to be my development partner. I also needed help on the project management side to get me through the initial development to my beta release.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Goji Labs has extensive involvement with my product. David (CEO, Goji Labs) sat down with me to look at my designs. He thought the product could do a lot more so he suggested we go back to the drawing board. We started some new wireframes based on their guidance. We went through many rounds of revision and design feedback in order to create the initial MVP for my product. 

The product digitizes a predominately paper-based workflow. We have two documents that Goji Labs is helping to digitize. As a project management tool, there’s a lot of information involved. They honed in on the complex data modeling that has to be done. They handled the backend work in Ruby and programmed the database. They also did all the frontend work in React.js. They’re creating the functionality on the frontend, such as drag and drop features and project archiving. 

What is the team composition? 

I work with 1–2 frontend developers, one backend developer, a QA engineer, and David. 

How did you come to work with Goji Labs? 

They were a recommendation through the startup community here in Los Angeles. What really attracted me to them was they build real products not prototypes. Also, they were willing to work with a beginner founder. I had some bad luck with other development shops not delivering what they promised. I was grateful that Goji Labs followed through. 

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working together in October 2017 on the revised wireframe designs. The first line of code was created in May 2018. It's an ongoing project. The MVP is very close to being complete and we’re now looking to add additional features.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While it's not ready for release yet, it's been an amazing process to have something I designed actually become a real product. Goji Labs had a major role in getting my product to the final stages. I've presented a first look to several people and the response has been that it's unique, which is really wonderful to hear. It's a good feeling to go on these demos and blow everybody away.

How did Goji Labs perform from a project management standpoint? 

Their team is quite good. They write really solid code that is modular. That ensures that I could hand it off to another developer if I was to hire an in-house team. They leave lots of comments to help anybody who's coming in behind them. If there's ever an issue, David and I address it and then the team knocks it out. We have a weekly standup to check on progress. I can also call, text, or email David and he'll get back to me within a day. 

Development has taken a bit longer than we anticipated. On my end, I need to secure funding. On their end, the data modeling was a more difficult than they’d initially expected. That's completely understandable considering the amount of information the platform needs to handle. So it's been a really good experience even if we had to make changes to the road map along the way. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Their transparency stands out. They really want to understand the products that you're trying to build. I could have made a functional prototype for a lot less money. However, I still would need to hire a tech team to make the product. Goji Labs suggested we skip the prototype and go directly for the product. Making something that I can use in a demo—and to get some revenue—was really huge for me. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

I haven't used their design services so I can't speak to that. From what I did use, no, I don't have anything that needs to change. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Goji Labs is willing to work with you at almost any stage. It's okay if you only have an idea that you would like to make, or if you already have a design.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-founder and the CEO of Core Innovate. We are an education software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Goji Labs?

According to new national standards, all teachers regardless of discipline must teach literacy and writing skills, but we’ve learned through our research that most teachers don’t have the training to do that effectively. We worked with Goji Labs to create a resource that would make the teaching process easier for teachers and the learning process easier for children.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We developed and tested an MVP with a different development firm. Instead of using that same company, we relied on Goji Labs to produce the market-ready version of our SaaS product. Our MVP needed a lot of technological enhancements and bug fixes. Goji Labs’ most significant endeavor involved building a Ruby-based admin panel for us to have a greater understanding of user activity and user errors.

What is the team composition?

Initially, I worked with Adam (CTO, Goji Labs) and David (CEO, Gojo Labs), who both served as engineers. As the project progressed, David became our main point of contact as the project manager.

How did you come to work with Goji Labs?

We interviewed several firms that our neighbors in our co-working facility in Los Angeles recommended to us. One company recommended Goji Labs, which also happened to be working out of the same shared workspace. We interviewed them and gave them a few small projects to test their competency. They performed well, so we moved forward with our larger tasks.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $100,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from 2015–2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We sell our product to school districts and schools, and our users are quite taken with the product. It’s been efficient and easy to use, and it helps improve instruction in K–12 education. We already see improved writing skills and test results from the collected data.

How did Goji Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We held weekly stand-ups and communicated through Slack whenever necessary. They were always very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m no technical expert, but they always made me feel comfortable when discussing those aspects of our product. They have an innate ability to listen to my ideas and articulate them in a way that furthered our development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing specific comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Goji Labs does very well with face-to-face collaboration, so I would schedule in-person meetings as regularly as possible.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder and publisher of Umami Girl, a lifestyle brand for women centered on a popular website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Goji Labs?

After 10 years of producing content mainly focused on food blogging, Umami Girl spent early 2018 undergoing a rebranding exercise. We hired Goji Labs at the end of that process to create a new website and help transition the old site to the new one.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to protect the SEO assets from the legacy site while creating a bigger, more elegant, better-performing online home for the brand going forward.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended to us by CookIt Media, the company we worked with on the rebranding.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Goji took us through wireframing, site design, and development of a new website. Starting with a site structure document provided by the branding team, we created a wireframe outline together. They then developed a series of wireframes. Goji Labs developed a custom site including a number of flexible Visual Composer templates for pages, posts, sidebars, and a recipe filtration system. They brought in an external team to design the site.

What was the team composition?

David (CEO, Goji Labs) was our main contact. A number of developers also contributed to the project, but we always worked directly with David.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new site went live 45 days ago. The increased site speed, optimized plugins, and good design have already contributed to a substantial increase in SEO traffic and ranking keywords. We’re also seeing increased interest from brands and partners now that the site looks so great.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They scheduled meetings though Google, and usually conducted meetings via Hangout so we could share our screens.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Goji Labs is comprised of smart people who learned and incorporated feedback as the project progressed. They also worked hard to stay within budget, which we really appreciated.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of RemitRight, Inc., a comparison tool for international money transfers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Goji Labs?

We hired them to build our MVP, and they later became our lead developers.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to launch a web and mobile comparison tool that could extract real-time data from remittances companies, process and store that data, and then display it through an online portal for consumers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed and worked with several different development consultants in the early stages of our product. We initially hired Goji for one of these small projects and were immensely impressed with their knowledge, intelligence, and problem-solving. They’re also terrific people and great communicators, which made it an easy choice to move onto larger-scale projects.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They built the comparison engine from scratch and managed its functionality. It went through many iterations and concepts during the process. It was long and painstaking, but Goji consistently produced superb results.

What was the team composition?

We worked with closely Adam (CTO, Goji Labs) and David (Co-Founder & Product Manager, Goji Labs).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re our lead developer and our product wouldn’t exist without them. They contributed more ideas and solutions than I can list here and were an essential, driving force behind the project.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Over more than two years, we had hundreds of hours of project management with them. We were always on the same page about the status of the project and our agreed upon milestones. They’re excellent communicators, which can be difficult to find with developers. They were consistently professional, prepared, and extremely effective as project managers.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have the whole package: doing terrific work at a high technical level with professionalism and class. They’re also great people and are fun to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No. I would recommend them to anyone and have done so on many occasions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of Kangarootime, a software platform for early education schools and childcare centers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Goji Labs?

We engaged with Goji Labs to establish our position in the e-learning market, we needed to build a sizable platform. We hired Goji Labs to support us since we didn’t have the resources to complete the project in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Goji Labs helped us develop an automated classroom system that allows teachers to track attendance and other point-of-care responsibilities. After sending them a few wireframes, they initiated the project’s exhaustive scoping exercise.

The team’s specific role was to build the entire framework for our digital rooms, which our engineers would use as a foundation. They used an eclectic mix of programming tools, including Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Redis, Lua, and COMA. The platform’s scalable infrastructure was also a product of their labor.

What is the team composition?

The preliminary work only required one designer, but they assigned two developers to assist us during the height of the project.

How did you come to work with Goji Labs?

We were referred to them by a contact who had success working with them in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

Our expenses were close to $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working on this project in July 2016 and concluded it in February 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The virtual classroom is the driving force of our platform, and we would not have been able to accomplish it without the help of Goji Labs. Their exceptionally clean and organized code served as a solid foundation for us to build on. Additionally, there were many vital functions that we didn’t consider until their remarkable team made a suggestion.

How did Goji Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They were phenomenal at guiding us through the implementation process. It always seemed as if they were ahead of schedule. Their team integrated with all of our systems, which made communication fast and simple. Slack was our main channel of communication, but we also had frequent phone calls and in-office meetings. We never had an issue getting in contact with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Goji Labs is one of the best development houses in the nation, if not the world. Beyond contributing extraordinary code, their team offers a genuine partnership that is hard to find.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When working with development agencies in the past, there was always a discrepancy with the structure of the agreement after the initial scope was completed. Fortunately, we did not have this issue with Goji Labs.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Every company in need of an outsourced developer should contact Goji Labs immediately.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder and managing director of a multinational media firm called Scotch & Ramen Media, Inc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Goji Labs?

We were looking to create custom software apps to enhance our client workflow processes. We wanted an all-in-one hub for aggregate reporting and analytics, media collaboration, and client onboarding and processing across functional departments.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking for a partner who could help ideate the solution rather than just handle the development. Our objective was to have a client-facing app that was simple and intuitive for the end user. It needed to have real-time data aggregation and be dynamic enough to adapt to client specifics.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Without a doubt, Goji Labs conveyed a level of expertise right from the start, presenting the most well-planned and prepared proposal. The team worked towards a collaborative understanding of our desired product and presented a roadmap that was easy to understand yet highly descriptive in terms of end results and deliverables.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Goji Labs built a set of client-facing apps to streamline analytics reporting and media collaboration. They worked with us through the entire ideation process, helping to clearly define the end product in its entirety as a concept. They then moved through wireframes, prototyping and design, UX, workable mock-ups, and multiple levels of testing before completing the final development and release.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a team lead and relationship manager through the entire process. As the project progressed, they brought in members from different departments, including design, UX, and development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were looking to offer something that hadn’t been done before, and the end product has really taken our client services to a new level that isn’t experienced elsewhere in our industry.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Right from the initial engagement, Goji put a lot of emphasis on the management processes. We were incredibly pleased with how they moved us through each aspect of the project while keeping us involved through an intentional and efficient feedback process.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The level of expertise and consultation that they brought to the development process was incredible.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, not at all. We would use Goji and the team again in a heartbeat.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company developed a mobile app for photography. I was the president and CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Goji Labs?

Goji Labs served as our IT department for this project.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to build a mobile photography app that combined ease of use with location-based features that incentivized users to meet offline. 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We selected Goji Labs because of a recommendation from an associate.

Describe the project in detail.

We hired Goji Labs to develop the mobile app. Their work included discovery, wireframing, UI design, and backend coding.

What was the team composition?

We worked with the two principals at Goji Labs, who interfaced with engineers and developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With the help of Goji Labs, we built a functional, stable product. It's a relatively complex app that uses unique algorithms to find user locations and trigger actions.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They were always reachable, easy to communicate with, and available for in-person meetings as needed. They responded to voice calls and text messages instantly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Goji Labs became a member of our team by contributing creatively, not just technically, to our project. Their thoughtful input changed our product for the better. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

Due to the distributed nature of their engineering team, some deliveries took longer than we preferred. That's typical, but it's the only area I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of DayPoint, a mobile application that helps people become more aware of how they spend their time and help them use it more consciously.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Goji Labs?

Our early-stage, self-funded company needed help to code and build our custom mobile app with sensitivity to our early-stage budget.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I initially reached out to them with simple, hand-sketched wireframes, which we used to develop the app’s architecture. They used Proto.io for wireframing.

I hired a separate designer that helped create the designs and digital format. Goji Labs helped bring those designs to life. The designer and I worked with them to refine the UX/UI. They did the full frontend and backend. The backend is hosted on Heroku.

The app passively captures how you spend your days at a macro level: at home, commuting, at the office, at the gym, etc. It automatically translates the data points into interactive visuals to show the proportion of time spent at these places or in these activities.

They used Swift to build the app for iOS. They helped me figure out the App Store compliance. Google Maps is API integrated into the app, and it connects with centers in the iOS for location services. It interfaces with the contacts feature to invite and message other people.

They help me maintain the product. We’re currently considering making some updates to it.

What is the team composition?

I work with David (Co-founder/Product Manager/Software Engineer, Goji Labs) and he plays a quarterback roll. I’ve interacted with 5–6 other people indirectly.

How did you come to work with Goji Labs?

I interviewed 7–8 dev shops, but I was frustrated that I couldn’t find anyone who would help me prioritize things. By chance, I met David at a tech event. I shared my frustration in finding a mobile developer with him. He asked for an opportunity to bid on it. It turned out to be an amazing coincidence. He immediately understood the situation and took a strong consultative approach in helping me pare down and prioritize the product features that I wanted. He helped me make the scope manageable.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2016 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application is live and 95% of reviewers gave it five stars in the App Store.

They went above and beyond in a lot of ways. The designer built the visual design of the screens, but there were formatting issues. Goji Labs went above and beyond and rectified those issues. They also went beyond the scope by adding animation to it, which enhances the app experience exponentially. It looks phenomenal. I am particularly impressed with how they made it work across several display sizes. I tried it on multiple iPhone sizes, and it looks great on all of them.

When I initially came up with the idea, I figured it would be simple since the iPhone knows where you are, and I thought we could just tap into that data. As we dug into it, we realized that the data that comes from iOS requires a lot of cleaning and standardizing, so we had to write algorithms to determine the person’s behaviors. It captures complicated outputs to differentiate between driving, stationary, biking, and walking, depending on speed. That was an extensive, complex endeavor, and they totally nailed it. I’m in awe of how accurate it is. I’m especially grateful for the amount of time and effort that they spent. The Goji Labs team is exceptionally creative and proactive in troubleshooting, which made all the difference. They’re my go-to group for mobile development efforts.

How did Goji Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is excellent. They met the timing requirements and did an excellent job with communication. David responds quickly and communicates clearly. He takes the time to explain technical things and my options well. We used Slack, email, and Pivotal Tracker.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their consultative approach is most impressive. They have a partnership mentality and helped me make decisions. The product experience, the timing, and the price were impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend engaging them earlier in the process versus later. By talking to them before all the screens were created by the designer, we were able to make changes and save a lot of time and headache.