KiwiTech

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We make rapid digital disease screeners for national security customers, and I'm the CEO of the company. 

What challenge were you trying to address with KiwiTech?

We needed them to provide a software solution. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

KiwiTech helped us make software that turns graphical spectra into chemical composition reports. It was an app that ran on a tablet computer with a spectrometer. We also had to do some machine learning work, and since they didn’t have the expertise to do it themselves, we did it together. 

We created an algorithm that interprets laser sensor outputs. We’d send a laser at a sample, and the light that bounces back would be measured by a sensor. The algorithm would then turn the output of the sensor into a chemical composition readout.

What is the team composition?

I primarily worked with three people from KiwiTech. They were Mohsin (EVP & Chief Startup Officer), Andres (Regional VP), and Gurvinder (CTO). 

How did you come to work with KiwiTech?

We met at an event in San Francisco, California. They approached me during the event, and we went from there. 

How much have you invested with them?

We paid them around $150,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our collaboration lasted from December 2018–January 2020.

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

Overall, it was a pleasant interaction. They introduced us to a lot of investors, which was very helpful. Their team was very kind and ethical. I didn’t have performance metrics, but I had a good experience with their team. 

In the end, we didn’t use the product, but the reason wasn’t related to their performance. We received funds from the Air Force and had to develop a different product. 

How did KiwiTech perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication was strong. We definitely fell behind on deadlines, but the onus was on both of us. It was a two-way street. As for communication tools, they used Basecamp. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ll do what others will do, but they'll get a half in equity, and because they own a piece of the company at that point, they’ll introduce you to investors.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only frustration I have with them right now is that they’ve been unresponsive. We haven’t paid them to do software in a while. I feel like we’re put on the back burner. Communication has always been excellent up until we stopped paying them. It’s been about a year since I paid them for anything, so I really can’t complain.

That said, they do still owe a roundtrip flight and an introduction that we negotiated as part of one of our contracts. I’m waiting for them to follow through on that. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of AlphaDelphi, Inc. We’re a software and consulting company for the health care sector.

What challenge were you trying to address with KiwiTech?

We engaged them to build a software system.

What was the scope of their involvement?

KiwiTech is working on building this system out. They’re incorporating AI components and an electronic health record interface.

What is the team composition?

We work with an overarching manager, a team lead, and various task-oriented individuals. There are probably about 7–8 individuals that I work closely with and a few others behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with KiwiTech?

I was looking around originally for funding as a seed-stage start-up. I was searching the internet and Googling and came across KiwiTech. They were advertising as a hybrid where they build tech stuff and also provide capital. That intrigued me, so I looked into it. I vetted them before deciding and checked Better Business Bureau and other sources. I attended a holiday get-together that had probably 100 or more different clients and all of the feedback seemed to be positive.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested approximately $58,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in December 2020 and is ongoing.

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

The collaboration has exceeded my expectations and I don’t have any complaints.

How did KiwiTech perform from a project management standpoint?

We have 1–2 week sprints and we discuss what is doable or not. If there is any doubt that doesn’t fit with my initial interpretation, we work that out. They supply feedback and give us copies of line items which is really helpful. We mainly use Zoom to communicate but also use Basecamp which is helpful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication, timeliness, efficiency, and organization are most impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there is nothing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You’re in good hands.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of an enterprise SaaS solution that does performance management for healthcare communities.

What challenge were you trying to address with KiwiTech?

We had a prototype and we were looking for a company that could take it to an MVP. We were looking for an outsourced development team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We used the prototype as a jumping point.  KiwiTech was tasked with making it more functional. They help us get through the product development lifecycle using Java on the backend, Angular on the frontend, and HTML for the UX/UI.

The product is a performance management tool that uses observational and objective behavior metrics. The system takes a look at the observational evidence that they’re performing their job correctly and the services as prescribed.

 It captures the hard and soft skills and environmental barriers that are preventing optimal performance. That information is recorded and reported to executives and offers tools to change behaviors.  

What is the team composition?

I work with six people from their team, including a business analyst and a tech lead. We also have two Java developers and two Angular developers. As part-time resources, we had UI/UX support specialists, QA testers, and senior management specialists.

How did you come to work with KiwiTech?

They reached out to me very early on when we were still trying to figure out what to do with a prototype. I was intrigued by their business model and if we were a good fit. We did our due diligence and compared them to other vendors. Ultimately, we were impressed with what they wanted to develop using our prototype.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $300,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2020, and our work is ongoing. We did our commercial launch in February 2020 and signed a new statement of work.

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

I spent a lot of time with their business analyst to make sure we were all marching the right way. I was very happy with the outcome. They had our MVP ready for pilot customers by our deadline and we released commercially by the deadline we wanted as well.

How did KiwiTech perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed perfectly and they had the flexibility to allow us to adjust their business processes. We learned over time to adapt our communication and to make sure everything was executed successfully.

We used the sprint management within Jira for project management in addition to Google Docs. We also used Slack for day-to-day communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their adaptability stands out. They really understand when changes need to be made. We aren’t afraid to make mistakes; we just make sure that we go back to fix them afterward.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It took a bit of time to get that culture of adaptability in place while working with them. They shouldn’t have been afraid to communicate or ask questions early on. Some of it was probably COVID-19 related since we couldn’t have any in-person whiteboard sessions.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to keep the team structured in place. You can’t lose institutional knowledge during development. I was happy that I was able to get resources dedicated to the project. There were times that people did leave the company but KiwiTech was very proactive in making sure there was a good knowledge handoff.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a business networking platform called Treble (TrebleNetwork.com). We help business professionals manage, grow and, most importantly, leverage their trusted, business network to find new opportunities.

What challenge were you trying to address with the vendor?

We started a pilot project with KiwiTech to establish a proof of concept. That went so well we continued our development with them to build an iOS, Android and web platform. We’ve continued the business relationship with them after launching to address new features.

What was the scope of their involvement?

KiwiTech’s design team helped take our preliminary designs and get them ready for a mobile and web platform rollout. They also performed all of the software development efforts for iOS, Android and web. KiwiTech helped us with some testing as well. We’ve relied on them to help with managing our AWS hosting environment and assist with iOS and Android certificates, updates and other technical and business requirements.

What is the team composition?

The first phase was a small team that included 1-2 designers, a program manager, lead developers, UI/UX developers and database architects. Since that first pilot, the team has varied in size and scope depending on the specific tasks.

How did you come to work with the vendor? 

We met their Chief Startup Officer through a mutual contact. We were in the process of selecting a development partner and they provided an estimate to us.

How much have you invested with them?

Financially, we have spent over $500,000 in design, development, hosting and maintenance with KiwiTech.

What is the status of this engagement?

On-going support for our existing platforms. We are also in early discussions about a new development effort.

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

When we started the project, we thought we had a very good (nearly complete) vision for our platform. As we started working with KiwiTech, we were surprised at how much their team offered new insights and questioned some of the processes we had designed. They didn’t merely ‘do the work we hired them for,’ they pro-actively made valuable suggestions that improved our product.

This is one of the biggest ‘value-adds’ that anyone considering a software development partner should consider. We are very glad we chose KiwiTech and the proof of the impact is we’ve returned to them each time we had more work to be done.

How did the vendor perform from a project management standpoint?

Excellent. The program managers communicate quickly, effectively and provide excellent notes regarding key decisions and timelines. KiwiTech’s PM’s (we’ve had two over the 4 years) are outstanding.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The entire KiwiTech team cares about our success. They often make insightful suggestions, many of which have ended-up in our product. Also, their Sales team and Sr Leadership team have been incredibly responsive and supportive. On a few occasions, when I’ve reached out to their CEO, COO, Chief Startup Officer, their Sales Team and others, I get immediate responses and they have always been proactively supporting us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing significant.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO at an Amazon marketplace consulting services for brands. We also do their warehousing and fulfillment.

What challenge were you trying to address with KiwiTech?

We needed help with development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first component they built was the database. The user can either upload all of their product data as PDFs or weblinks. The second component is a data warehouse that was built by a different vendor.

Next, KiwiTech built an interface to that data warehouse so all the data populates onto the UI and generates reports. Our clients can log into it and access their inventory levels and access data.

What is the team composition?

We worked with their sales team and one project manager. We only had to deal with that project manager and they worked with the entire development team.

How did you come to work with KiwiTech?

Their sales team reached out to me. We’d been using a different company at the time and we were having a lot of issues with them. We spent 8 months talking with them and talking how their workflow went before deciding to use them.

We chose them because of their investment model, wherein we pay for half our project and the other half is paid for by an investor. Their project management style was also very helpful.

How much have you invested with them?

Our ballpark spend is about $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2018, and we work together with things that arise.

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

There are about 70 clients using the database now. We’re constantly getting great feedback. It’s also cut down our need to have account managers because now we can just direct people to the dashboards as a self-help solution. We’ve been extremely happy with the results. KiwiTech is great about making little tweaks based on feedback.

How did KiwiTech perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. The team is on time, precise, and clear when there are any issues. They’re great at taking our direction and improving on what we asked them to do. We used Jira for project management. For communication, we used email and had a conference call every two weeks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team that was placed on the project was one that had worked on something similar in the past. They were able to leverage their knowledge and experience to help steer us towards new features and avoid pitfalls of their past clients. It was extremely helpful and cut down on our costs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we don’t have a single complaint with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Making sure that the development team had worked on something similar helped get a great finished product.  

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO and Founder of a Fintech startup called cwallet. Its a multifunctional mobile wallet in the State of Qatar that provides financial services for the unbanked and low-income migrant workers, domestic helpers and blue collar workforce. It also caters mSME, homemade businesses and startups. A fast, secure and hassle-free payments, payroll and cross border remittance mobile application.

For what projects/services did your company hire KiwiTech?

It was a take over from a previous developer that did our MVP in Android version. Kiwitech help us launch the product in iOS and Android plus sub partners app for companies that deliver along with API integration for online payments.

What were your goals for this project?

To provide financial services and financial literacy to the unbanked majority in the region. Nonetheless with the potential of increasing the customer segments to Qatari locals, middle class and expats with families residing in the region.

How did you select KiwiTech?

Kiwitech was introduce by Qatar Development Bank who's also investing in Kiwitech.

Describe the project in detail.

The project was inspired from M-Pesa in Kenya, PayTM in India, Bkash in Bangladesh, Gcash in the Philippines and Ooredoo mobile money which is a local ewallet by a telco company here in Qatar. It aims to provide financial services with basic principles evolving around Payroll, Payment and Remittance.

What was the team composition?

Node.js Dev Project Manager Fluttter Dev QA Tech Lead Technical Architecture Vue.js HTML

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

After the take over the app when live in 3 months and after another 6 months we are releasing cwallet 2.0 with better UI/UX and additional features for easy onboarding and API integration from 3rd party service providers

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have used basecamp, whatsapp, zoom and other online tools to make the communications and workflow effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were always available for us. NO downtime.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything can always be done faster but we acknowledge that during this pandemic times things doesn't go along as plan. But overall satisfaction is very high.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a seed-stage startup company based in Tysons Corner, Virginia. We’re on a mission to accelerate human-centric clinical trials using a SaaS platform that accelerates patient recruitment and retention.

What challenge were you trying to address with KiwiTech?

We wanted to build a SaaS platform on AWS in a bring-your-own-device model. It would be a web-accessible application with multiple users and role-based access.

Both the data and interface would vary between the role and permission level of the user logging in. We were building it for both mobile and desktop devices.

What was the scope of their involvement?

KiwiTech’s range of services included software requirement elicitation. They produced specifications from a functional, technical, and security standpoint. They handled UX/UI, database, AWS architecture design, full-stack software development, and data integration and analysis.

They’ve delivered a number of documents, including requirements design, a traceability matrix, release notes, and user guides. They handled the deployment and testing of the software product itself. The platform was built as a responsive app.

They release new components and features at the end of each two-week sprint. In addition to the product development itself, they also offer a startup ecosystem and investor introductions. They’ve introduced us to around 15 investors so far.

What is the team composition?

There have been around 10 people from KiwiTech involved on a regular, ongoing basis, and another five that provided support from a sales and marketing standpoint.

All in all, I’ve interacted with around 15 people from KiwiTech on the product side. I was the main visionary behind the product on our side. I provided most of the requirements. Aside from me, there were 4–5 people from our side involved in the development.

Our chief science and technology officer was involved for about six months, and we had a subject-matter expert available on an ongoing basis to clarify requirements. There were also advisory board members available to guide the engineering and architecture at a high level.

How did you come to work with KiwiTech?

We chose them mainly because of the open and candid communication. KiwiTech had an attractive business model for startups. They put their skin in the game by investing in our company and vision, and they provided the service in a flexible, high-quality manner.

They had a good setup from a strategic standpoint for startups to engage with.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent a total of $350,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

I first met them in December 2019, and we started working formally in March 2020.

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

It’s an ongoing journey, but they’ve lived up to delivering the quality product that our healthcare and life-science customers expect.

They invested 50% of our company's development cost, but with the intellectual property remaining solely ours. Our software has significant regulatory requirements, in addition to technical ones. KiwiTech was flexible in supporting us on an as-needed basis.

How did KiwiTech perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management point of view, they’ve delivered everything we expected.

KiwiTech definitely met the standards of having a quality management system, in terms of processes and documentation, as well as on HIPAA and other regulatory compliance requirements. They helped address most of our third-party audits.

We have billable and non-billable resources on their end. Not all 15 people from KiwiTech bill us, but they do guide from a project management perspective. They have a dedicated project management office, and we have a technical project manager and a regular project manager onboard.

I have daily Zoom calls with them to review our current status, features to be developed, and so on. The project managers pull in all the pieces on KiwiTech’s side to support the project.

We have monthly review meetings with their CTO, project management office, and senior vice president of operations. We review how the project is going and whether there are opportunities to improve.

We’re using several tools, including Jira for bug and resource tracking. KiwiTech sends us a monthly resource utilization sheet, detailing what activities developers, QAs, and all other resources performed. There’s a lot of transparency in terms of billing.

Basecamp is used to organize all the team members regarding access permissions, and all documents are tracked there. We use Google Docs and spreadsheets for requirements tracking. We share folders to organize documents. They use InVision to deliver all the UI designs. We can collaborate and provide feedback through it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team is easy to work with. They’re friendly, open to listening, and very reasonable. I’ve developed a comfort level with them over the last two years of interactions. KiwiTech adheres to everything written up in our agreements, but there’s flexibility in making any minor accommodations we may need on an ongoing basis.

They’re willing to work through with us on the specific needs of the company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The documentation process is one area where we’ve had to make improvements.

KiwiTech had standard project management and documentation processes for both fixed-price and time-and-materials agile projects, but we’re using a quality management system, which means that we have audit trails and logs of which person offered which document, from requirements to design, test plans, and architecture.

Every little aspect has to be documented from cybersecurity, privacy, and compliance standpoint. Defining and documenting the process is one area where we’ve worked together to improve the months.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to understand the process. We have to plan for significant time commitments, and it’s also important to coach their team. KiwiTech provides excellent resources, but the client needs to take the time to set expectations right from the beginning.

There’s nothing called a “standard software engineering process” in the industry. We have capability maturity models (CMM) levels 1–5, but we’re not looking at that rigorous process for a startup.

Each company might be at a different stage in its evolution. Depending on the specific situation, there will be a shared responsibility there. The client shouldn’t look at it as a matter of outsourcing everything to KiwiTech and staying less involved.

Rather, they should take an active role in coaching the team and setting expectations on the level of speed, quality, and process documentation they need.

The KiwiTech team has demonstrated that they can be flexible, but there have to be daily, weekly, and monthly interactions to continuously set expectations.