Hermitcrabs Technologies

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

During my MBA, I wanted to start an online groceries business specifically designed for Indians and Pakistanis, who live in large numbers in Manchester, U.K.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hermitcrabs Technologies?

I wanted to build a responsive website which people could easily access.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hermitcrabs developed my website and provided support for it. I had an initial discussion with them about what I wanted. I didn’t know much about the technology, but they did some research and suggested Magento 2 as the best choice since it would be more responsive, easier to manage, and could give me access to analytics on how many people were ordering online.

I also gave Hermitcrabs photos for which they had to write product descriptions.

What is the team dynamic?

Whenever I had to give input, I could talk to their owner, Niranjan Reddy, who distributed the work to his partners. I was also in touch with a project manager for the development side and one for the management side. We created a Slack channel for communication, and also used Skype, WhatsApp, and email.

How did you come to work with Hermitcrabs Technologies?

I was looking for web developers and had a friend who had used them. He pointed me to their website and I contacted them. I looked at a few of the websites they’d worked on and liked them a lot.

How much have you invested with them?

I have spent 8.5 Indian Lakhs on their services [U.S. $13,024].

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website is live and there are 300–400 products listed on it. Hermitcrabs wrote the product descriptions and uploaded photos for all of them. Everything that can be seen on the website was done by them.

We only have a few users right now, since I’ve only just started marketing the site.

How did Hermitcrabs Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They were always available, but there were times when I couldn’t respond for 10 days due to various reasons, so fixing technical issues sometimes took longer. Generally, though, Hermitcrabs fixed problems right away.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their quick response time is impressive and they were always willing to help.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They knew how to connect PayPal, but didn’t know much about the U.K. market. I assume that Hermitcrabs has worked on more U.S. projects than U.K. ones. Otherwise, they have good technical knowledge and they’re learning and improving.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the managing partner for a startup mortgage brokerage.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hermitcrabs Technologies?

We wanted to automate the entire mortgage process online from start to finish. The customer would interact with the AI, and then the customer representative would take over once the customer submits all the information online. The whole process takes three weeks now, and we want to cut that down to a week by automating the entire process. Eventually, we plan to incorporate blockchain technology in the background to validate all the transactions.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We only asked them to do the front end of the product for now. We let them know that if we liked how they did that, we’d want to connect a background software we already have.  We gave them the option to develop in the language they wanted to. We wanted the platform to be like other mortgage brokerage products. Once we develop the pipeline here, we intend to invest in the backend.

We purposefully gave them a vague description of about 30% of what we wanted because we wanted to see what they would came up with.

What is the team dynamic?

We had two resources from their team, a frontend resource, and a technical resource, that we spoke to. I don’t know how big of a team they were using there.

How did you come to work with Hermitcrabs Technologies?

I knew one of the guys who started Hermitcrabs. They were recommended by a friend of a friend. I looked at their portfolio and asked them to develop a structure and show us a product because they hadn’t done anything in the FinTech space. Once they did that, and we liked what we saw, we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

The quote for the entire project is $12,000. We’re paying them in increments as the work is completed. We have paid them $3,000 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2017, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We wanted to include certain things on the web page that they didn’t have initially. They were flexible at looking into technologies such as AI bots and AI chatbots. We felt comfortable working with them. They were open to criticism and changed whatever we didn’t like. We showed the front end to a few potential investors, they liked the design and were impressed with how the web page flowed. 

How did Hermitcrabs Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

The quality of communication was good. I spoke to them over the phone once a week. I would say 70% of our communication was through Slack and email where they would give me updates, and the rest was over the phone. Initially, their team sat down with our team and we had consistent phone calls. After that, they wanted to put everything in writing so we didn’t miss anything.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Hermitcrabs was flexible and reasonable to work with. We just wanted the frontend and other companies were quoting too much. We got quotes of $15,000 and $25,000. The quality of Hermitcrabs’ work was as good as the other companies that were charging more. We like their team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s too early to say. Once the system is built out, we want to try using it with a lot of traffic to see how it holds up.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a startup online service for logo designs. People can order a professional logo for an affordable price. I’m the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hermitcrabs Technologies?

I needed to have a website developed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I provided designs to Hermitcrabs and they did the development. We wanted to include an ordering system and questionnaire and payment forms, as well as the ability to add more features in the future. The site is going to be in WordPress or ExpressionEngine.

What is the team dynamic?

There were a couple of developers working on the project, and I had one point of contact I would discuss details with.

How did you come to work with Hermitcrabs?

Someone I met in New York introduced me to them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2017, and the project was completed in May 2017. I requested a few revisions after it was finished.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since the site isn't live yet, we don’t have any data. We're still making changes.

How did Hermitcrabs perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Google Hangouts and WhatsApp, and I was happy with the communication. They were nice guys and always listened to what I wanted.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They never told me they couldn't do something. They made suggestions about how to make the site better, and I’m always open to professional opinions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Once, I gave them files in Sketch, and they made it almost exactly how it was in the file, but they messed with some stuff and we had to go back to fix it all. So, they could improve their pixel-perfect approach. Developers have access and put everything together; they shouldn’t mess up the original file. But nobody is perfect.