ivelum

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Project Officer of a non-profit company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We tackle the impact of digital and emerging technologies on global affairs through research, education and public engagement with policymakers, industry, civil society, and the general public.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ivelum to accomplish?

• Build a matchmaking platform that allows universities to connect students and local businesses. This is a supplement to a grant given by Google.org to augment, and train students in cybersecurity who may have had no prior experience.

SOLUTION

How did you find ivelum?

Online Search

Why did you select ivelum over others?

Continuous development advertised

How many teammates from ivelum were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

 Design and build the platform based on our requirements and feedback from universities. The first phase is meant to be a preview, and the second phase - a production version

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We had a hard deadline in December when we had to demonstrate at least a system preview. The demonstration went well, and universities responded mostly positively although there were some concerns about security (after all, this is to promote cybersecurity education).

After that, ivelum has been working on the remaining items and are now close to launching it into production

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They are proactive, suggesting ideas and brainstorming together with us - nice that they suggest ways to keep track (e.g. Trello) of tasks, and encourage prioritisation of features that can be updated / added on.

Mostly on time, great especially considering that many other dev teams we contacted almost refused services considering our timelines.

What was your primary form of communication with ivelum?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Continuous development - seemed to be unique / rare amongst dev teems sampled.  This was a major reason why we chose ivelum in the first place.

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

The team has done an impressive job in building the Reach platform and facilitating cybersecurity matchmaking for our needs. I really admire the ability to conduct business in a second language—it’s impressive and not an easy skill! One area for potential improvement could be streamlining communication, particularly for non-native English speakers, to ensure smoother interactions. Perhaps additional language support or clearer guidance in key areas could help bridge any gaps. Overall, though, the effort and execution have been great!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-Founder of Linguix.com

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Linguix is an AI-based writing assistant for multilingual professionals

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ivelum to accomplish?

• Frontend and Backend development

SOLUTION

How did you find ivelum?

Referral

Why did you select ivelum over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from ivelum were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We partnered with Ivelum to enhance the stability and performance of the backend for our AI-powered writing assistant browser extension. Their expertise was instrumental in optimizing our existing infrastructure, ensuring smoother operations, and improving the overall user experience.

Key contributions included:

1. Backend Stabilization & Performance Improvements: Ivelum helped refine our backend architecture, addressing bottlenecks and improving system reliability to better handle increasing user demand.
2. Third-Party LLM Integration: They assisted in integrating external language models, optimizing API calls, and ensuring efficient communication between our extension and AI providers.
3. Scalability Enhancements: Their team implemented solutions that allowed us to scale more effectively while maintaining speed and responsiveness.
   Security & Compliance: They provided valuable guidance on securing data flows and adhering to best practices for handling sensitive user content.
4. Ongoing Support & Technical Consulting: Beyond hands-on development, Ivelum acted as a strategic technical partner, offering insights and recommendations that helped us refine our approach.

Throughout the collaboration, their team demonstrated strong technical expertise, excellent communication, and a problem-solving mindset. Their support significantly contributed to the stability and efficiency of our product, making them a highly reliable partner for backend optimization and AI-related integrations.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Ivelum’s work had a tangible impact on the stability and efficiency of our AI-powered writing assistant’s backend. Key measurable outcomes included:

1. Backend Stability: System uptime improved by 0.4% (e.g., from 99.5% to 99.9%), reducing downtime-related disruptions.
2. API call success rates improved from 97% to 99%, reducing failed or delayed AI-generated responses by 66%. This resulted in a smoother and more reliable user experience, with fewer interruptions due to LLM request failures.
3. Security Enhancements: Compliance with industry best practices was strengthened, reducing vulnerabilities and improving data protection.

Thanks to Ivelum’s expertise, our backend infrastructure became more resilient, ensuring better performance and reliability for our users. Their contributions directly improved system efficiency, making them a valuable technical partner.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Ivelum demonstrated strong project management skills throughout our collaboration. They maintained clear and proactive communication, ensuring we were always informed about project progress. Their team was highly responsive, quickly addressing any technical challenges and adapting to our evolving requirements.

• On-Time Delivery: They consistently met agreed-upon deadlines, delivering key improvements to our backend and LLM integrations on schedule.
• Agile & Flexible Approach: When unexpected challenges arose, they adjusted their approach without delays, ensuring smooth project execution.
• Collaborative & Transparent: We appreciated their structured workflow, regular progress updates, and willingness to discuss potential optimizations proactively

Overall, ivelum’s reliable delivery and adaptability made them a valuable partner in stabilizing our system and improving performance.

What was your primary form of communication with ivelum?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What impressed us most about Ivelum was their deep technical expertise and highly collaborative approach. Unlike many development partners, they didn’t just execute tasks—they proactively identified potential optimizations and offered thoughtful, well-reasoned solutions to improve our backend stability and LLM integrations.

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

Our collaboration with Ivelum was highly successful, and their expertise made a significant impact on our backend’s stability and performance. If there’s anything that could make their already strong service even better, it would be:

1. Proactive Roadmapping: While they were highly responsive to our needs, introducing a structured roadmap for long-term optimizations could help us plan even further ahead.
2. Even Faster Iteration Cycles: Their implementation was thorough and well-executed, and in some cases, even quicker iteration cycles for fine-tuning integrations could have further enhanced efficiency given that we are a startup and need to move lightning-fast. 

Overall, these are small refinements rather than gaps. Ivelum’s commitment to quality, adaptability, and problem-solving approach made them a fantastic partner, and we’d gladly work with them again.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product Manager 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We build digital products from strategy to design, implementation, and data optimization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ivelum to accomplish?

• We needed to build a learning platform with diverse options for learners to engage with the content and track progress through the courses. The current project includes the MVP phase, which is scheduled for 6-7 months, and ongoing support and feature development after that.

SOLUTION

How did you find ivelum?

Referral

Why did you select ivelum over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Expertise in LMS builds

How many teammates from ivelum were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We needed to build a specialized learning platform for a university to mimic the phases of a training book for researchers, with diverse options for learners to engage with the content and track progress through the courses. The current project includes the MVP phase, which is scheduled for 6-7 months, and ongoing support and feature development after that.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

 The MVP launch is a major milestone, and we are on track for launch this month and right under budget.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Features were delivered on time each monthly Sprint and according to the roadmap and priorities set by our agency Product team. Ivelum team members were HIGHLY responsive and amiable, always willing to go the extra mile and seek to understand the goals of the task and project as a whole to aid in their deliveries. The Ivelum team worked very well with all members of our team, keeping positive and professional attitudes even under project stress, e.g. when roadmap priorities shifted suddenly, a feature was especially difficult to build, etc.

What was your primary form of communication with ivelum?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

• Calm, pleasant demeanors under pressure and shifting priorities
• Daily standup messages were concise and clear
• Sought to understand vs assuming
• Patient and thorough
• Devs had a supportive system of engineers who had worked on similar projects to sync with when they got stuck

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

All areas of improvement identified were minor and primarily concerning using new PM tools and new processes (first time working together). These were addressed by our teams together and desired outcomes have continued.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of a Marketing Company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Helps businesses give rewards to their customers for creating content.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ivelum to accomplish?

• Build out MVP
• Launch MVP
• Maintain Development

SOLUTION

How did you find ivelum?

Referral

Why did you select ivelum over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from ivelum were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Ivelum is developing the MVP for our iOS application. They are also developing the dashboard for the businesses to login and manage their account. They are building upon the backend Django which we had already had.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Each week they give us a summary of the work that has been accomplished via a video call. They have daily updates on the current progress while utilizing Trello and Slack to communicate with us. Launching the MVP is the biggest measure of success.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They are on top of it. Daily communication and swift adjustments when necessary.

What was your primary form of communication with ivelum?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I have not worked with a ton of outsourced dev teams, but they respond quickly and are willing to solve problems with you.

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

Nothing comes to mind at the moment... Roughly 2 months into the project and we want to continue to work with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Sr. Director of Product 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We create software-driven solutions and content for public safety.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ivelum to accomplish?

• Build and grow an online Learning Management System (LMS)
• Built a centralized system for cross-product functions like user management, ecommerce

SOLUTION

How did you find ivelum?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select ivelum over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from ivelum were assigned to this project?

10+

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Built an LMS from scratch based on our unique requirements for our unique market needs. Included build of an early MVP, then migration to a new tech stack. Later built several proprietary features and integrations into the platform (cannot publicly disclose proprietary details).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Revenue from the LMS went from 0 to millions of dollars with several consecutive years of revenue and adoption growth, which led to two successful private equity exits. Large volumes of users have taken training on the LMS on a regular basis. Exact numbers cannot be disclosed.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Work was basically always delivered on time, unless we needed to change scope or some other project parameter. They responded to our needs quickly and per whatever level of priority or urgency that we communicated. They were highly flexible and adaptable, and understood how to work in a rapidly changing environment.

What was your primary form of communication with ivelum?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

High intellectual capacity with very intelligent software development philosophies, approach, and recruiting/staffing. All of this translated to a high velocity of delivery with high level of quality.

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

No, I don't think so. Feedback was regularly collected and acted upon for regular improvement, so any company-level or team-level areas needing improvement were already addressed, as was the case with individual performance reviews.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Organic

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

B2B SaaS Platform for Digital Media

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ivelum to accomplish?

• Build and grow a SaaS platform for media publishers

SOLUTION

How did you find ivelum?

Referral

Why did you select ivelum over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from ivelum were assigned to this project?

15+

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We approached Ivelum in search of engineering talent that we could embed with the rest of our America-based team to accelerate the development of our core platform. They needed to get up to speed quickly on the nuances of the publishing world, including best practices for deploying and managing CMS backends, analytics, advertising, affiliate monetization, privacy compliance, data management, and a broad swath of the needs of an entire industry while simultaneously distilling the expertise into best in class tools lead by our own Product Managers. They were tasked to implement a variety of web based apps on top of a new core platform, with integrations with dozens of third parties, and documentation and support for large scale customers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Projects were all seen through to completion. Ivelum expertise and proactive feedback was key to successful delivery. Products have all been high quality, and support responsiveness to maintain them has been very fast (above reach goals).

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Ivelum has provided not only the highly skilled engineers that we needed to get the company off the ground, but they brought best practices, excellent management tools and practices, and an enthusiasm for our business. They worked with our own product and project managers, but also self-organized internally. 

Delivery has always been punctual - both due to their own buy-in to our business needs and also their ability to deliver honest, clear updates throughout the execution. Everyone on the team is always responsive, and the time zone differences have been an asset for the volume of work produced.

What was your primary form of communication with ivelum?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The passion and capabilty for quality engineering and their ability to quickly take ownership not just of tasks, but of the results of the business as a whole. We have always felt like they are part of our team and not a separate entity.

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

No. Our work with them has been a learning experience for us as well, since I have never trusted this much of the core work of a startup to an external team before, and our own biggest learning has been how to improve the clarity of our own communications and to lean into treating them as a unified part of our own company. Collaborating with them has, and we expect will continue to, result in constant growth for both parties.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Engineering Team Lead of Intterra

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Geospatial intelligence platform for real-time data and insights for public safety and emergency management

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ivelum to accomplish?

• Migrate our product suite to a new authentication provider

SOLUTION

How did you find ivelum?

Referral

Why did you select ivelum over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from ivelum were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We hired ivelum to help migrate our platform to a new authentication provider. The migration required numerous updates in our codebase in multiple repositories. The migration was planned for little to no downtime and without impeding user login, so it had to be implemented carefully and tested thoroughly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Helped retain a major contract with an on-time, bug-free release

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes, we launched on time. They were flexible with our requests and integrated with our team well. They were engaged, thoughtful, and adjusted quickly when needed.

What was your primary form of communication with ivelum?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They were able to assess our complex codebase and make an impact quickly. They ask the right questions and make the complex simple.

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

No, we were satisfied with the work delivered and our working relationship.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Engineering at a software development company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We build software to prioritize, remediate, and report on security vulnerabilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ivelum to accomplish?

• Build and grow an MVP for a security startup
• Build an app from scratch in collaboration with our in-house team.
• Build more features and iterate quickly based on clients' feedback.

SOLUTION

How did you find ivelum?

Other

Why did you select ivelum over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from ivelum were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Build an app from scratch in collaboration with our in-house team. Build more features and iterate quickly based on clients' feedback.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The key success metric was happy clients who liked our product leading to signed contracts to purchase our product. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

This company is founded and led by engineers, which results in a great engineering culture. They know how to work fast and promptly respond to our needs and feedback.

What was your primary form of communication with ivelum?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They have hired great engineers who are skilled and are able to embed well into our team. Their focus on full-stack development is great because we can have their team members helps us across our technology stack. 

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

Nope. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founding Engineer of ScaleOptima

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

SaaS for CEO's to manage their organizations strategy. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ivelum to accomplish?

• Update SaaS UI and UX
• Update DevOps

SOLUTION

How did you find ivelum?

Referral

Why did you select ivelum over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from ivelum were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We partnered with Ivelum to update our UI and UX. The focus was on making data entry easier for executive users. 

• Update Modals
• Update Tables
• Update Styling

As a secondary goal, Ivelum helped us get automated testing and linting turned on to decrease the number of bugs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Customer Feedback. 
• We got more positive feedback. 
• We got less negative feedback. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They were highly responsive to our needs. 

They generally shipped on time with ambiguous requirements. They did a very good job managing expectations. 

What was your primary form of communication with ivelum?

Virtual Meeting

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

They were very good on the phone with other developers. They were quick to make proactive suggestion that had strategic value rather than only working on assigned tasks. The longer we worked with them, the smoother and simpler the tech stack became.

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

I think they did a great job. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of a consulting company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Small business assistant

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ivelum to accomplish?

• Establish an MVP to test 2 hypothesis

SOLUTION

How did you find ivelum?

Referral

Why did you select ivelum over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from ivelum were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Develop MVP small business assistant to test value.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Continued, observable progress week after week.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Their team always responds to needs. Project is not based on scope, rather time. So, scope is not fixed and is determined by what can be accomplished week after week.

What was your primary form of communication with ivelum?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Unique: Clear and direct communication and good mix of thorough and flexible development

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

Not at the moment