Kernelics

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a WEB3 developer for eCommerce, AI NLP, AI GAN, tokenization and blockchain technology. I am the COO of the the company and we have several globally recognized clients.

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

We required support with web native front end design, plugin development and general assistance. This is not the core of our business practices and specializations and our existing team was at capacity. We did not want to hire a permanent staff member or outsource to questionable developers via upwork or other platforms.

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

Our deciding factor for the team was their mix of being exceptionally responsive, taking time to understand our challenges, offering a variety of solutions, and delivering exceptional quality. We started with some smaller contract gigs and have now retained their services on an ongoing basis.

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

Front end mockup and functional design via Figma Desktop and mobile, fully responsive designs Custom asset sourcing and creation React.JS compatibility Project management AWS, Github Responsiveness to deadlines Exceptional written and spoken English Very pleasant and responsive team

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

We worked with the leadership at the vendor, the project management team, their front end designers and developers. They managed their team, project milestones and deliverables internally. Exceptional communication all around.

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

All items were delivered per the agreed-upon timeframes. The team was exceptionally responsive to revisions and feedback.

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

All communication via dedicated discord channels which is our native team and client communication platform.

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

I have outsourced contract development over the last 10+ years to many individuals and companies via upwork and similar platforms. I have never worked with or in any way retained a firm or individual that has delivered on quality, deadlines, intellectual property privacy concerns, exceptional english and versatile skills like this team.

They are truly exceptional and I am only writing this review to help them grow their business, but I truly hope it is also our competitive edge for now. They exceeded our expectations on every objective and subjective measure.

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

None.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and sole employee of an online retail store specialized in fashion. We're a small conceptual brand, and we deal in small quantities, but the items I sell are unique and rare.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kernelics?

I needed help bringing my website live.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kernelics built my Shopify store, and they've also done business analysis and QA for me. I started by giving them a design that wasn’t ready for web development, and they determined how they could build it on Shopify — they've given me lots of advice on this topic. We've added a few custom solutions aside from e-commerce functionalities, most of them on the design side.  

Currently; they’re continuing to provide maintenance

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with three people from Kernelics, including Nikita (Co-Founder), a programmer, and a tester. Nikita manages the whole process, and I've been in contact with him from the start to discuss how I wanted the site to look.

How did you come to work with Kernelics?

We found them through online ads.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $5,000–$7,000 with them so far. I've asked for a few design changes, which raised the cost a bit.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. I will surely contact them in the future if I want to change something on the site.

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

The feedback on their work has been very nice in general — Kernelics has exceeded my expectations.

How did Kernelics perform from a project management standpoint?

They're good at communicating; I share all my thoughts about the project with them, and they're always available. In terms of tools, we usually use Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication is outstanding. The most important thing for me is how the project is managed, and everything has been excellent, but communication is the best part of the experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think there's anything they can improve on — everything has been great.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be open and share all thoughts and feelings about the project; they’re always ready to hear it.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the creator of the application "Witness".

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

I had a mobile project in mind, and I wanted to accelerate the speed of development vs just doing it myself. I hired Kernelics for their design, mobile & web development. They were with me pretty much from the start of the project through two different versions.

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

I was introduced to them through a referral. I decided to go with them based on their flexibility and thoughtfulness in listening to my project requirements.

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

I provided them a project brief, and we had an introductory call to describe the project. I provided product specifications and they provided a development team along with a project manager and business analyst to help break down the requirements. We used a Java backend, and we implemented an iOS and Android application.

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

At the end of the project, I was mainly interacting with the project manager and business analyst. However, throughout the course of the project I probably worked with 10 different developers (across iOS, Android, Web, Backend), and they ranged from senior to junior developers.

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

I was able to launch a first version of the application about 5 months after the first conversation with them. Subsequent versions were faster and more streamlined as we pegged down the process, so we ended up shipping two more versions in the following 5 months.

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

We use Slack, JIRA, Google Docs. They were generally very timely, and had good project management skills.

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

I found them very accommodating and competent teammates. Their quality was generally pretty high-- versions shipped were well made, minus a few follow-ups which they were quick to fix. I think their adaptability and engagement with the project can set them apart-- even the developers cared about what they were making. Also, when I looked at the infrastructure they set up, it was professionally done.

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

This was my fault, but probably helping clients think through the cost of what scale they want. I probably implemented more infrastructure than I needed initially.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a music community company building an application that provides audio streaming and vertical social network experiences. I am the Engineering Lead on the project. Initially I was the sole frontend developer building the React Native app and managing our builds, but I have progressively taken on several managerial duties including project management, feature roadmapping, and hiring.

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

We required additional hands on both frontend and backend, beginning with a full-time React Native engineer who continues to exceed expectations, followed by a full-time backend engineer a few months later. Along the way we have also utilized Kernelics developers for temporary work in Swift, Unity, and DevOps. Our goal is simply to create the best product possible within our chosen timeframe.

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

After having a negative experience with an agency located elsewhere in the world, we were drawn to Eastern Europe due to the quality of engineering work and the greater value offered for what we were paying for previously. We soon found Kernelics, and haven't looked back!

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

The scope of work is quite expansive for both frontend and backend. On the React Native side, we have had a stellar Kernelics engineer working on audio chats, direct messaging, authentication, payments, notifications, UI updating, and general refactoring. A number of third party services have been used for these features, some of the more well-known ones being Firebase, Sendbird, and Stripe. 

On the backend side, we initially relied on AWS Lambdas, S3, and Cloudfront as a quick serverless solution, but ultimately needed something more robust; our Kernelics engineers are currently working on an entire overhaul of not only our API's, but also the security and scalability of our entire infrastructure. Some of the frameworks and technologies being used include FastAPI, Postgres, SQLAlchemy, Pytest, Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, and Amazon RDS. 

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

We currently have two full-time engineers -- one React Native, one Python -- and one temporary DevOps engineer who is helping us with our AWS architecture. In the past we have also had two temporary engineers who were helping with frontend R&D work in Swift and Unity.

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

Not at the moment, since we have not yet deployed a public version of our application. 

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

We chose to manage our chosen Kernelics developers ourselves, which has allowed for our small, flat-structured team to iterate very quickly. Communication and timeliness of delivery have been satisfactory.

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

Kernelics is lightning fast in attending to client needs. Anytime we've required a new or different resource, they have responded with excellent options very quickly. And the quality of work by the engineers speaks for itself.

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

None that come to mind currently!

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO at Trusty (https://trustyco.com). We are a Real Estate listing portal that offers multiple options on listings from expert local real estate agents.

For what projects/services did your company hire Kernelics?

We hired Kernelics for node.js, react and general full stack web development.

What were your goals for this project?

Kernelics was part of our very early team, meaning our only engineer was the CTO. Kernelics helped us with early prototyping and completing our proof of concept. Next the project evolved into the product web application. Kernelics was integral in architecting and building our early product. The Kernelics team also flowed nicely into our org as we added full-time engineers and grew the engineering team.

How did you select Kernelics?

We found Kernelics through word of mouth and are so glad we found them. We considered many companies and took many meetings, but we liked what Kernelics had to offer.

Describe the project in detail.

First building our POC and then our production product. https://trustyco.com is a real estate portal with listing of home for sale combined with opinions from local expert real estate agents. The project include lots of of node, api, react, google maps.

What was the team composition?

Kernelics provided full stack engineers and architects to help build our POC and early product.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our POC allowed us to validate our idea and answer many questions. Kernelics allowed us to move quickly and had a super fast turn around. Our production product has evolved so much in just a few months. Code quality and collaboration is great with Kernelics.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Kernelics was always available, never missed meetings and were great communicators. We brought them into our slack and project tracker and daily standup.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They could easily find talented developers to fit our needs. The developers we worked with were great.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not much, I had a really great experience and have Kernelics at the top of our list when we want to flex and add more resources.