Idea Maker

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Founder & CEO of an online two-sided marketplace that offers music creators (singers, songwriters, etc.) a complete, fully-immersive music experience for fans, all centered around video.

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

Our web application was initially created by a separate development team, i.e., other than Idea Maker. When our application was towards the end of the development process, we handed everything off to Idea Maker in preparations for beta testing and ultimately the final launch of our product. Idea Maker has been involved with the maintenance of our application ever since.

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

After working with a development team that was completely offshore prior to launch, I was hoping to find a local development agency to work with that would allow me to better focus my efforts towards creating awareness and generating traction on the application. Because of Idea Maker's areas of expertise, cost/fee projections, etc., I thought it would be a perfect match. I ended up working with Idea Maker for two years plus!

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

Idea Maker was able to work with the original architect of the application for a short time when the project kicked off. And, the transition, i.e., "hand off," happened pretty seamlessly.

We had laid out a list of items that needed debugging as well as some product enhancements that needed to be implemented prior to launch. Idea Maker was able to develop high-quality effective solutions while sticking to the timelines.

In terms of the technology stack, we are using Django's web framework and Python's programming language, which runs on a Linux-based system. The front-end was created using a single-page JavaScript application (SPA), with Vue.js as the framework. The front-end communicates with the backend using the REST+JSON API.

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

The founder of Idea Maker has been my main point of contact and has been throughout the entire process. Multiple developers have been assigned to work on various parts of the application throughout the project.

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

Idea Maker took on a relatively complicated video-related project with many intricate layers. And, they have been able to come up with solutions that optimize value while at the same time are also cost-effective. Idea Maker has been easy to work with, and I believe can they take on projects at all levels of complexity.

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

My interactions with Idea Maker were on an as-needed basis. When the workload was heavier, for example, we would have a weekly call towards the beginning of each week, and I would receive task updates almost daily via email. Tasks would initially be created and uploaded to GitHub, then would be categorized and traiged using Trello (for tracking purposes).

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

Because of the founder's background as both an engineer and an entrepreneur, Idea Maker was able to see things from a very unique perspective. From my standpoint, it was nice having a partner that could look beyond just software development, e.g., They were able to provide technology solutions that matched my business goals and objectives.

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

I just wish the application itself would have had more success, but these doesn't take anything away from what Idea Maker was able to achieve and do.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Quila Flower. We develop social media apps.

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Maker?

We needed help with mobile app development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Idea Maker developed a social media app. First, we worked closely with the team on the color scheme. They then developed the app and set up a landing page to announce it using WordPress. The app is called Quick Friends, and its key features are the ability to find friends and schedule events in your local area. The app is integrated with Google Maps and is available on iOS. Idea Maker is now developing the Android version.

What is the team composition?

I’ve only worked with three teammates, including Thomas (Founder).

How did you come to work with Idea Maker?

I posted a job listing on LinkedIn. I interviewed 3–5 companies and ended up choosing Idea Maker.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in June 2020 and is ongoing.

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

Their work has gotten a lot of positive feedback, and our users love the app. They’ve truly exceeded my expectations — I’m looking forward to moving on to the Android development with the Idea Maker team.

How did Idea Maker perform from a project management standpoint?

Idea Maker has done an excellent job. They’re great at responding immediately and fixing any bugs within a short timeframe. To communicate, we use text messaging, phone calls, and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their customer service is excellent — they’re incredibly accessible and available, which I appreciate. Furthermore, they have enough experience and bandwidth to fulfill all my needs. They’re one of the best vendors I’ve worked with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s a bit of a time difference between us, so it would be great if they could have a teammate work around my business hours.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just be sure of your requirements. Overall, I highly recommend them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

CoFo of the app; I Am Available Owner of the company; Very Very Exciting Productions PTY Ltd.

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

Idea Maker was engaged to develop an app that I have wanted to have made for a long time, called I Am Available

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

My CoFo and I looked in multiple directions over several months for a suitable app developer, and I in fact engaged one in Australia for a while, but it didn’t work out for reasons of costs and them over scoping, which was a shame as the original plan was to use a local company. We ended up choosing Idea Maker after having interviewed numerous other app development companies, but when we talked to Tom, Idea Maker's Founder, we knew immediately that we had the right partner for our endeavour.

I have zero experience in creating an app and my CoFo has some but for a very different type of offering, so we needed some guidance and to be pointed in the direction of what would work (easily and within a small budget), and what has worked successfully in the past that we could 're-use', and most importantly what wouldn’t work and/or would cost way too much.....plus, the quote was ‘all in’ total price, phased over a number of stages and within our budget (just about).

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

Phase 1: Regular meetings initially for IM to understand the concept and the visual ideas we had and to discuss how that would be most effectively deployed in a ‘real life’ app.
Phase 2: App wireframe created and evolved through more discussions.
Phase 3: Test app create on Test Flight and some beta testing.
Phase 4: Weekly call to work though, correct and update ‘Issues List’.
Phase 5: App released on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Phase 6: Ongoing support.

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

Tom the boss - A lot of engagement at the beginning and then less because he handed over to an excellent PM. Tom remained always available but he was required less after Phase 1. Raquel the PM - Excellent, regular and irregular communication. Helpful, very knowledgeable and fast. A Dev Team - We didn’t engage directly with them but were clearly there coding etc

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

The app 'I Am Available' has just been launched in the past few days, so I cannot judge any true commercial outcomes yet, but please download it for yourself and check it out!

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

This is my first mobile app.I am pleased and appreciative of the guidance and the quality of the work that the Idea Maker team has provided. At no point did I feel that I might have been given the wrong information because I was a newbie and inexperienced. Tom and crew are a team to trust.

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

Possibly set timelines expectations slightly differently.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of an e-commerce platform that provided communications services for inmates and their loved ones.

What challenges were you trying to address with Idea Maker?

I needed to develop a backend service system to facilitate communications. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a new website for me. They also built the system that manages our e-commerce orders. I had a website that I made myself, but they redid the whole website for me. I think they used WordPress. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with Thomas (Founder). 

How did you come to work with Idea Maker?

I found them on Upwork. I chose them because they understood what I was looking for, and they were within my budget. 

How much have you invested in them? 

We spent $17,000–$20,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August or September 2020, and we completed the project in January 2021. 

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

The quality of the work was excellent. The website is working well. Everyone seems to like the new look. It looks very professional. 

How did Idea Maker perform from a project management standpoint?

It was good. Every time they developed a feature, they uploaded a video with instructions. We mostly communicated over email. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Their knowledge impressed me. They knew what I needed, and when issues arose, they figured out how to fix them quickly. They worked hard to gain all of the knowledge necessary to complete this project. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I’ve found yet. We just launched the new website, but so far, everything is going according to plan. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you know what you want. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The name of the organization is Advance CPE and I am the CEO. We facilitate the provision of continuing professional education primarily to accountants and CPAs through a unique webcast delivery system.

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Maker?

I had some specifications for a webcast delivery platform so I hired Idea Maker to develop it from scratch.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Idea Maker to create a webcast delivery platform using Django for the database, PHP, and JavaScript for the front- and backend. They are also currently doing the hosting, maintenance, and designs for us.

They built mockups as temporary placeholders which I use as a logo now. And in terms of security and ancillary services, he’s the de-facto IT advisor in addition to the developer. 

What is the team composition?

We are aware of two people from their team. Tom (Founder) is the primary face of the organization. Everything goes through him and we directly deal with him for all project matters. 

How did you come to work with Idea Maker?

We found Idea Maker through LinkedIn. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we've spent approximately $45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Idea Maker in February 2020 and we continue to collaborate.

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

There are milestones and tweaks we’ve assigned to them. I’ve got an Airtable spreadsheet that we share where I type in our requests. So far, they've completed all the tasks we've given them. If it turns out there’s a new feature we ask for, he creates it, and then he charges me. 

In addition to the overall development of the project, he is cognizant of building our platform with an eye towards scalability. 

How did Idea Maker perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very responsive. The way they understand the requirements we present to them is fairly solid. In cases where there’s vagueness in what we ask for, we discuss and negotiate it. After that, they manage to complete the tasks we ask of them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communicative approach and their ability to interpret our assigned milestones impressed us. There is a bit of improvisation required in this particular job and I think they always get it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really don’t think there’s something they could still improve on. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This advice would be to anybody going to any developer to be as clear as possible about your actual vision. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Executive Director of a tech startup nonprofit.

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

We tasked Idea Maker with building a web-based framework for importing, storing and automatically updating data from multiple sources and creating a methodology and work-flow for merging the data into a standardized presentation.

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

We found them through an online portal for finding contractors and developers. We had conversations with, and got proposals from two agencies and one independent contractor. Idea Maker' provided us the a cost-effective proposal showed the most insight into our project.

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

The framework is dedicated to gathering business information about minority-owned businesses, built with Django and Selenium. The system also includes dynamic web pages, such as the database viewer, which uses Vue.js as the frontend. The system is flexible for adding new data sources, and features as our budget allows.

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

We worked directly with the owner and a senior developers; we also reviewed work by a UI/UX designer.

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

The development was completed on time, and they provided us with a functioning system that would serve as the backbone of our consumer-facing product.

This phase of the product development stands on its own for demonstrating the capabilities and possibilities of our product for donors and grantmakers. Idea Maker was really helpful in building a framework that has the capability to grow in sophistication and functionality without sacrificing performance.

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

We had weekly meetings in which updates were reviewed, questions/options/paths forward were discussed and decisions were made. Demonstrations/Instructions were provided as screencast videos. As mentioned, earlier, the scope of work was completed on time.

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

We interacted directly with the owner and a senior developer, who both were very invested in the work and our mission. There was a situation where one of the team members assigned to our project was impacted by a major winter storm, and the owner made sure that the project continued to move forward.

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

Overall, we had a really good experience.

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

Our Website needed a major update. We didn't have an in house team to do this so we hired Idea Maker to help with the process.

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

They were able to add so much functionality to our site, and made the entire process feel easy.

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

If your website could use a boost, I can't say enough good things about working with Idea Maker!

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

Whenever I had a question, they responded right away.

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

I'm sure with the quality of work they do that they're very busy, but they always made me feel like I was their only client.

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

n/a