InspiLab

Please provide a description of your company. 

I have a company that provides software development to clients in Canada and America. We build various custom software systems, billing systems, subscription systems, and so on.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the founder.

What was your goal for working with inspiLab?

I work with them whenever I have projects that demand more resources than I have in-house. I had hired the owner of inspiLab when he was a freelancer several years ago. We formed a friendship and, since then, he was able to grow his business, and I was able to give him larger projects.

Please describe the scope of their work.

The biggest project we did together was the creation of a content management system for a client in a very niche market. The inspiLab's team was primarily responsible for building the front end of the template websites. We created a system that would allow the client to repurpose their content in various templates. Everything was dynamic and resized to fit the various templates. inspiLab helped us to construct those designs, and the system for managing those templates and switching them out.

We've also used them for work on landing pages. We’ll need a nicely functioning landing page, with a responsive layout, often with certain dynamic JavaScript elements. I’ve come to depend on them for any kind of complex JavaScript work that we might have.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

During the past five years, we’ve spent in the $50,000 to $200,000 range.

What was the timeline of the project?

We started working together five years ago, and the relationship is still ongoing. We’re not actively working at this moment, but I’ve got some projects that I'm about to get them started on.

Can you talk about how you feel inspiLab's performed?

I’ve been very happy with the quality of work and very happy with the relationship I have with their owner. He’s very accessible. Although they're located in Asia, he’s very indifferent to the time zone difference always defers to me when it comes to communication. I'm very appreciative of that. 

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

The team at inspiLab has a very strong work ethic. That’s something that I noticed was dramatically different versus working with Canadian and American developers. They have a sense of entitlement almost. They don’t get invested in the projects, whereas inspiLab has always considered my problems their problems. If the work isn’t done, they’re committed to getting it done with me. They make my priorities their priorities, which is different from some people that I’ve worked with here in North America.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

My only complaints would be that, in times when they were very busy, I could sense they were a little afraid to tell me when they would be behind which was frustrating.