Hashtaag™

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of DOE Cards India pvt ltd

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

We were in hunt for the world class company to deliver a unique solution for Indian market. We hired Hashtaag to design and develop NFC based card payment solutions. Today its a mammoth project which caters major transportation industry like Metro, Toll, Parking, Bus and Access, loyalty services. Some of our iOT based things are world class and have accreditions worldwide.

How did you select Hashtaag™ and what were the deciding factors?

We got contact details of HashtaagTM from Internet. We sent the proposal to few companies initially and since it was an iOT based project. We wanted someone with more experience, quality and skillset to build this unique product. We liked overall Hashtaag way of presentation, skillsets & understanding level towards our project.

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

Hashtaag has built an end-end and customised product for DOE Cards from scratch. Starting from ideation, research, prototype, designing, development, and testing. The Doe Card is a reusable contactless stored value smart card for making electronic payments in online or offline systems in India.

Launching in 2021, to collect fares for the territory's mass transit system, the Doe card system is the first contactless smart card system in India, and would grow into a widely used payment system for all public transport in India. SInce its a iOT based product, there has been interaction with lot of hardware along with software technologies.

Angular.js, react.js, iOS, Andorid, Feather.js and some of other customised applications along multiple other technologies.

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

Around 50-100 people have been working on the project. We have been interacting mainly with CEO, CTO and Project manager. However, every sprint they send me a build to review the work and comment if any changes are needed. Next sprint the bugs would've been fixed and taken care in much better way then expected

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

Our target was to finalise on the research for the product we intended to do. we were able to conclude on the Research earlier then expected. There team led forward by a high skilled CTO who is not only industry-renowned but also well equipped in technology and business. With there successful and knowledge led intervention, we have been able to close a successful round of investments.

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

There project management and communication was very good. They had created basecamp and jira accounts for me. Every sprint was previously notified and had a proper follow up on the bucket list items.

They followed agile methodology very aptly and there project manager was very prompt and timely in notifying things. We used multiple communication channels - Skype, Watsapp, Jira, Basecamp, Slack etc

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

Designs and process of design -led engineering helped us finalise most of the parts in project. They always allowed us to interact directly with the team, which reduced the timeline of our project.

During research there project manager helped us with multiple use case scenarios for the requirement, which included business angle. This helped us to do the business decision faster than normal. Most of the companies allow to discuss with only project managers and there has always been a data loss in the communication.

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

They have been very great at quality but there should've been a faster pace of development.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have a new business which is marketing processed and into the Dubai market online. I am the founder.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hashtaag?

They’re designing our website and hosting our domain and they will probably look after our digital promotion, SEM [search engine marketing], and other activities on social media.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We are still in the workflow stage; the website is not ready. I’m quite happy with the quality of people that I’ve interacted with. I’ve been to their offices a couple of times. The people involved both on the technical and marketing side are fairly knowledgeable. It’s a fairly young team and they’re very enthusiastic. That’s one reason why we selected them because they are a new startup and we don’t have tons of money to spend, so we wanted somebody that would be able to look after us because they’re eager for business. Everything is a work in progress. I’m satisfied with the design as well as the logical flow of things.

How did you come to work with Hashtaag?

I used to run a very large advertising agency for about 20 years. I sold that and started a new business. I was not excited about going to a traditional digital agency, so I went on a search on the internet without anything and made cold calls and met a couple of agencies, and eventually ended up with Hashtaag. I was impressed with Kim, the head of operations, and Jay who looks after the technical stuff.

How much have you invested with Hashtaag?

I don’t know what we’re going to end up doing because it’s more from my side. I’m new in the business; I’m living and learning. My budget’s not very high.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement is ongoing.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

At this point, my satisfaction is fairly high because our interactions are pretty regular. I really appreciate their transparency and honesty, but I’m too early along in my work to give you any specific input. Overall, I would say my experience is positive. This is my third month of working with them and I feel pretty comfortable.

How did Hashtaag perform from a project management standpoint?

I would say fair. I’m at the point that I haven’t had any project delivered to me yet. We have regular weekly meetings for project updates. They’ve set up something called Basecamp, which my team is slowly getting on. At this point in time, I’m fairly happy with what they’ve started and what we’ve gone through.

What did you find most impressive about Hashtaag?

I’m not in a position to qualify that because I have not done work with many digital companies.

Are there any areas Hashtaag could improve?

Not at this point in time. I’m giving you my feelings as to what my experience interacting with them has been.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

[Balformance] is a healthcare and data analysis company. We analyze a large number of vital signs and then give interpretations and medical insights. Our services encourage people to understand their individual health better. This information aims to motivate people to maintain their health. Our services have 2 aspects. The first involves corporate wellness and targets healthier people. The other aspect is more clinical oriented, such as analyzing ECG scripts and correlating them with blood pressure or heart rate data. Our target clients are patients who have been diagnosed with acute heart failure or congestive heart failure. They may also have pacemakers. With our remote monitoring and interpretation solutions, patients are still kept in the loop even after they've been discharged from the hospital.  

I'm running product management and business development. I also look for talent for [03:35].

What challenge were you trying to address with Hashtaag?

Our main challenge was that the vitals were breaking. People were generating a lot of readings of their vital signs. For example, someone who has one of those health trackers may get a lot of data but won't really understand what the data meant. There were a lot of sensors available and we needed to interpret the data generated by the sensors. We want to interpret that data and provide valuable information to our users, as well as adding value to this new corporate industry.

Because we are primarily an analytic company, we outsource the hardware side and help our partners use the sensors. People wear the sensors and they have a gateway, maybe a smart phone, something like that. Data will be transferred from the phone to any kind of  device to their phones or smart phone, where the data will then be stored. Users can access the data at their convenience via Wi-Fi, 3G, or 4G. The data will be transferred from the phone or the smart gateway to our cloud, where we will run the interpretation algorithms. Finally, our system will generate and sends the reports back to the users’ phones. That's the workflow. In addition, we also have the wireframe for the hospital or solutions. We also provide services, which allow the doctors to have a look at our medical information.

As a solution, we need [brand end] apps, like what I described in the workflow. The design aspect is very important so that users will like using the app. That's where Hashtaag came in.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hashtaag is our [banner], so we used data analysis. Their work allowed our data to be collected from the sensor, interpreted, and displayed. Hashtaag played several roles in this project. First, they helped develop the app on both iOS and Android for us. Second, we have our own call IPs, the engines. These engines serve as the API and they were specific to this kind of communication. They assigned front-end engineers and UI/UX designers for our project. Their backend engineers set up the servers, exported data goals, and provided the QA engineers for testing.

How did you come to work with Hashtaag?

Actually, the founder of Hashtaag found us through LinkedIn. They knew that we were doing great work and asked if there were any possibilities for collaboration. At that time, we were looking for banners for the front end. We asked vendors to give their proposals and Hashtaag was one of them. They submitted their proposals a little late, but the quotations were attractive so they made it to our shortlist. We followed up, sat down with them, and listened to how they were going to do our project. Finally, after several rounds of comparison, we decided to give them the project.

How much have you invested with Hashtaag?

We’ve spent $50,000 to $100,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We just started working with them about 2 to 3 weeks ago.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We didn't get a lot of involvement during the development phase with Hashtaag. However, the feedback was quite intensive. We're not a software development company, but we also had their front-end guys here. They made the changes accordingly and tried to solve all the problems that we raised. For that part, we're happy with that.

How did Hashtaag perform from a project management standpoint?

We used several tools for project management. One is Basecamp where we update information. It's like an email system but instead of email, everything can be stored in a single place. You can see all the codes and stuff there. Meanwhile, all the tracking records and the project milestones are maintained in the Basecamp. Lastly, all the demos and streams are placed in Gira [Jira].

What did you find most impressive about Hashtaag?

I was impressed that they followed Agile methodology a little, depending on what model you chose. For example, if you chose the [express] model, they allowed you to make certain changes without increasing the total number of hours they're working. Basically, someone follows workflow methods and don't allow those changes. Secondly, their UI/UX design team was really good, Brian. Even from the proposal, we could already see the difference of their UI/UX team. If you're looking for great design opportunities and UI/UX interfacing, then this guy's outstanding.

Are there any areas Hashtaag could improve?

For now, I don't see anything that they need to improve. One thing is, I think they are quite a young company, around 4 to 6 years old. They are reluctant about sending their people to [body shipping]. For example, if you ask them to come to your workplace and work for 2 months to develop with your engineers, they would be a little reluctant to do that. If you're asking for help with a project in India, I think they can do a great job. That's the main thing I will mention here.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re trying to make a financial NSC [National Saving Certificate] card that can be used across India. Our radius of services includes tools for users among other things. I am the product manager.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hashtaag?

From a project perspective, it’s extremely complicated because it involves financial transactions and NSC technology. There is going to be a huge backend which has to scale to millions of users. It is a lot of mobile app development. There is front-end development as well. We were looking for somebody who could do it all. We also wanted a trusted partner. There are a lot of people out there providing services but there are only a few who you can trust to deliver. We found that these guys are enthusiastic and we felt that they could deliver.

What was the scope of their involvement?

From a project perspective, it’s exceptionally complex because we have multiple apps including a merchant app, a consumer app, and a sales agent app. So we have multiple apps on iOS and multiple apps on Android. On the web front, we will have the main website on which merchants can register and consumers can check their card status and their balances and things like that. There is development there as well. Right now, the project is in progress; I would say we’re about 40% done. The other portion is also figuring out the NSC technology - the readers and cards, and things like that. They’re actively working on all of these pieces including the backend. It’s not like an e-commerce solution where they had to use Magento; it’s primarily being built in backend technologies like NOR, MySQL, and Mongo. On the front-end, they’re using Angular 2; on mobile apps, they’re using iOS and Android.

How did you come to work with Hashtaag?

We went through a lot of vendors and did due diligence. We wanted somebody we could go and physically meet and see their offices. There are quite a few vendors that don’t have actual offices. We wanted a young, energetic team. There are a lot of giants in the consulting space as well but they’re not Agile in their methodologies, they follow waterfall models. We wanted somebody who could work fast, deliver sprints, and with which we could see real progress. We had multiple conversations with them before we decided to work together.

How much have you invested with Hashtaag?

We are going with the time and money model. It’s going to be massive because the scope is quite big. I believe they do fixed model as well, but we went with the time and money model. We also are defining our product as we go, so we didn’t want to put a fixed scope around it. If we go with a single vendor, we want to continue using that vendor and increase the scope when we want to. I would say it’s going to be over a million dollars.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’re actively engaged with them. They’re also doing the UX [user experience] for us. The product ideation has been going on for 6 months plus. The actual development started at about four months.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I think the project looks good. The only thing we’re trying to do from a UX perspective is to try and make it as simple as possible to a normal Indian consumer who may be in a village. From a UX perspective, these guys are good. They do a good UI [user interface] for the high-end customer, but we are trying to tell them to dumb the UX down as much as possible, even if it means that it’s colorful and not really specific because we’re trying to reach a certain market segment.

How did Hashtaag perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management perspective, they are extremely methodical. They do get constrained sometimes in terms of bandwidth, but they say what they’re going to deliver. Every two-week sprint we have a demo that they do and we agree on the scope of the demo at the beginning, and they shoot for it.

What did you find most impressive about Hashtaag?

For me, specifically for this project, I needed somebody who could do end-to-end because I didn’t want to deal with multiple vendors. The coordination becomes a mess when you do that. I wanted somebody who could do it all, including the UX and even figuring out NSC stuff. There are companies that specialize in one, and then there are companies who wouldn’t even accept it because they would have to learn new technologies like NSC and cards and all of that. They were able to provide me an end-to-end solution that very few other companies could. I would say that for me, that hit the mark.

Are there any areas Hashtaag could improve?

Initially, from a backend perspective, I did feel that they could improve. But I think they’re actively heading in that direction, so I’m hopeful that they’ll improve there.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of Curiocty. We currently have an iOS app available. The premise of our company I s that we help people peek into the lives of strangers and discover stuff about others that they could have never known otherwise ,all while remaining ANONYMOUS. The more the user shares about him/herself , the more they can know about others. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Hashtaag?

I’ve been working with Hashtaag to develop the MVP [minimum viable product] of our app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hashtaag was primarily involved in the MVP cycle. They were involved throughout the entire process in terms of design, conceptualization, and delivery. Although I do a bit of back-end development, I would only step in once in a while to do some coding. I met them at a Starbucks about 8 months back. I just had the concept in my mind, so we sat together and sketched out the different pages and put them in wireframes. Hashtaag had a lot of experience working with other apps and developing them. They gave me ideas about the functionality of the app and how to increase user engagement.

How did you come to work with Hashtaag?

My main consideration for choosing a business partner was the fact that I was on a tight budget. Even with the limited budget, I wanted to find a world-class team. I had a lot of developer options in India and the US who were ready to work within the budget that I had in mind. I rejected most of them because I wanted a team that would do a wonderful job in creating the app. I wanted a product that could be launched all over the world and still look and feel good. I spoke with many teams from both the Silicon Valley in the US and India , looked at their quotes, and reviewed many portfolios. Hashtaag was pretty new, but I felt that the founders had done a lot of good work for international apps. I also liked that they were located nearby which allowed me to drop in anytime and work with the developers and designers face-to-face. That's why I picked Hashtaag as my MVP development partner

How much have you invested with Hashtaag?

The project cost ranged from $10,000 to $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We just launched on the app store a few days back.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Right now, we are contacting people who may want to try it out, so we haven’t advertised the app yet. Hashtaag opened up a public beta for us. In the next 1 or 2 weeks, we should start getting metrics, which will be exciting. We plan to interview users about features in the MVP that they like and dislike. Any feedback is good, although considering it was an MVP, people have lower expectations. They expect it to be devoid of any fancy graphics or animations. In truth, the app seems that way because I was bootstrapping and didn’t have the budget. Despite the budget, people have always said that Hashtaag has done a very good job in terms of the design, front-end, and back-end work.

What did you find most impressive about Hashtaag?

The main thing I appreciated about Hashtaag was that they have a very good set of founders. Their leadership team is very good. For someone who’s new to the whole startup game like me, it was very helpful to work with someone who’s already helped other apps grow. They’ve been a good sounding board. I can talk to them about different ideas and they’re always there to help out.

Are there any areas Hashtaag could improve?

I felt that my project would have been completed a lot faster if Hashtaag had more resources. By now, they have scaled up to at least 4 times the number of people that were there when they were working on my project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The organization I work for is Paperboy. Just as how the newspaper is typically delivered to your doorstep, through Paperboy, you get it through your phone, tablet, website, or any other digital platform.

I am the co-founder and the director.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hashtaag?

We wanted to launch a new website and mobile application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hashtaag did a really good job at developing the website and app for us. Whoever has seen the website is impressed, however, we still haven’t launched it because we are still in the finishing stages. Everyone also really likes the design, quality, and clarity in the app. Hashtaag really helped us.

How did you come to work with Hashtaag?

I was searching for a new team to work on the project after an initial setback working with my cousin. I came across Hashtaag and got to know them through researching their work and their website, both of which are impressive. We decided to partner with them and the results were really amazing.

How much have you invested with Hashtaag?

We had a budget of $1 million. We spent a lot of money on development and marketing.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project is currently a year-long initiative based in India, but we plan to expand to other countries as well.

What did you find most impressive about Hashtaag?

When considering Hashtaag to work with, they were distinct to other companies because they speak my language, making the communication really easy. It was great working with Hashtaag because they are very knowledgeable about iOS development and they had a great rapport with my own employees.

Are there any areas Hashtaag could improve?

I would have liked Hashtaag to meet the timeline as soon as possible. Most of the time they do, but sometimes they don’t meet the required timelines.