Koombea

Introduce your business and what you do there 

I’m a software analyst at an energy and natural resources company. 

What challenges were you trying to address with Koombea? 

We needed to develop a tool to help us coordinate with our operation centers, as we have different centers throughout the coast. Each center has a manager in charge of the workers and resources there. We used to coordinate using an excel sheet, but we needed to find a way to make that process more efficient.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Koombea has created a software platform using Ruby on Rails, which we’ve implemented into our Azure platform. They’ve developed the project in different phases. First, we had a workshop in which we validated and adjusted our process. After that, the team went into the design and ideation phase. From there, Koombea started working on the development of the platform.  

What was the team composition? 

We’ve worked with the commercial manager, different project managers for each phase of the project, some developers, and designers. 

How did you come to work with Koombea?

They were referred to our IT manager. We had a meeting to get to know Koombea and hear their proposal. When we were able to start with this project, we decided to reach out to them.  

How much have you invested in them? 

So far, we’ve spent around $116,000. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working with them in October 2018, and our collaboration is ongoing.

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

Since working with Koombea, we’ve seen increased client satisfaction as we’ve been able to transform our processes.  

How did Koombea perform from a project management standpoint? 

We’ve had a very good project management experience with them. They’re very well organized, and their processes are very well structured. The team is rigorous about dailies, timely deliverables, and follow-up and validation strategies. Moreover, they’re always checking in with us to avoid any delays.  

They use Jira as a project management tool. We use an instant messaging platform to communicate and periodical Zoom meetings.  

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Besides helping us create a tool, Koombea has helped us structure our processes, which has been a great advantage and something not all service providers offer. We’re also impressed with their great project management and efficient work methodologies. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

They’re too strict sometimes; at times when our processes have been subject to changes, we’ve felt that there wasn’t much time to make them. However, I understand their approach, and as a former developer myself, I know how important it is to respect schedules.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

I recommend you appropriate the technologies and processes Koombea uses because they’re very valuable. They have very talented professionals, so make sure you take advantage of that.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Joynup Inc. We’re a web app that helps people in romantic relationships discuss and decide on their future plans. They can record their plans, outline agreements, and sign those agreements on our platform. 

The divorce rate is high and the industry generates $12 billion per year; this situation can be avoided if people take more time to discuss their relationship plans. Sometimes, those conversations are hard, so we’ve created our web app to help people have such discussions in a curated, technologically based manner. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Koombea?

We hired Koombea to develop our web app, along with its UI/UX designs and functionality. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project started with the platform’s wireframes. After finishing the wireframes, Koombea created a style guide for the artwork and UI/UX design of the web app. From there, the team coded the product’s front- and backend. We then tested its alpha version and launched the beta MVP to the market. 

At present, we’re still working with Koombea to take feedback about the MVP, aiming to make the web app even better. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 15–20 people at various times and capacities. A project manager has led the project from the beginning and coordinated all tasks. Meanwhile, their salespeople have talked to us about the platform and ensured they understand what we need. Designers do the UI/UX designs and artwork. 

How did you come to work with Koombea?

The reason I started this web app was because of my experience. I was a corporate partner and practiced law for 20 years, and in the course of my practice, I met Koombea — they became my clients. I helped them for years on their own matters, so when I had to choose a vendor for this project, it was natural for me to engage them. I had a trusted relationship with them, and I knew their team well. In other words, I felt I could rely on them. They had high standards and work ethic, so I hired them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

On the basic level, I measure success based on Koombea’s ability to achieve the goals we’ve set out during the sprint development process. So far, we’ve met such goals. We’ve achieved project milestones in a timely manner. 

How did Koombea perform from a project management standpoint?

Koombea’s project management is great. We use Jira for accountability and to communicate milestones, ensuring that we’re following them. We’ve also used collaboration and communication tools like Slack to share our day-to-day feedback. Overall, the team has been great at communicating and responding to our needs quickly. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They truly believe in what we’re doing and are passionate about it. The team has also been highly responsive every time we need to do anything. Moreover, their resources always try to provide high-quality work; they set high standards for themselves — they always want to be cutting-edge.  

On top of that, Koombea is conscientious about their projects. I also love that they feel like a part of our internal team even though they’re outsourced. They care about what we’re doing — this makes all the difference. It’s nice to feel extra motivated because they love what they do.

The startup and development world aren’t easy — the experience is like a roller coaster ride. Knowing that the people we’ve hired care about the project and are committed to it gets us through the struggles and difficulties. We can always rely on them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing specific comes to mind. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take more time to clearly map out your vision, and commit to a plan before going into the project. This makes the engagement more efficient. Be vigilant about the clarity of your deliverables to the developer, and take the time to make everything as clear as possible to them. Sometimes, you have to make some changes and there’s no way around it because the technology can’t do what you want. However, having clear plans is still helpful.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at a B2B SaaS company that sells marketing technology. I’m the senior product manager within the company, so I look after all of our integrations.

What challenge were you trying to address with Koombea?

We tried to build integrations between our software and other B2B SaaS tools in-house, but we faced a very slow time to market. Thus, we hired Koombea to help us address that challenge and develop the integrations that we wanted.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Koombea provides us with their custom software development tools and their iPaaS software (integration platform as a service software) to help us build the implementations we need. With their help, we’ve built middleware applications that connect our marketing software to third-party systems like CRMs, e-commerce platforms, and payment platforms. These applications can either send or receive data to and from those external systems as needed.

Typically, we first approach them with our problem, and they put together a proposal on how they will implement a solution. Then, our product team meets with their technical people to discuss the proper solution for our requirements before going into the implementation itself.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with around eight different people from Koombea, including Jonathan (CEO), Robert (Chief Revenue Officer), and Nicolás (Director of Customer Operations). On an ongoing basis, I work with Ebed (Project Manager & Scrum Master), Carlos (Backend Developer), Brenda (PHP Developer), and another developer. Additionally, Miguel (Director of Products) offers occasional technical project management.

How did you come to work with Koombea?

Someone from Koombea emailed our CEO, and he passed the message to me.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

Currently, we have over 500 companies using the integrations that we’ve built with Koombea.

How did Koombea perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve had an excellent experience working with Koombea. They’re very comprehensive, proactive, and communicative, which is very helpful for our partnership. We set up a Jira board to manage the projects together, and we communicate via email, Slack, and Zoom. For every project, we have the typical scrum meetings, daily standups, and sprint cycle reviews, which have enabled us to work in a very effective way.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Compared to similar development companies, Koombea goes above and beyond to understand our needs and deliver those in a timely fashion. Additionally, they’re very flexible and provide ongoing support to ensure the success of the projects.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I highly recommend working with Koombea; it’s a great experience. Invest a lot of time and energy in working with them to make your project be successful.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a consultant for AltaThera Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical company that offers an antiarrhythmic drug called Sotalol IV to treat patients who have atrial fibrillation. This drug helps the patient after the cardioversion procedure to keep their heart in a normal sinus rhythm.

What challenge were you trying to address with Koombea?

The indications for the use of Sotalol IV are difficult because it has a dosage regimen not easy to prescribe. Thus, doctors needed a tool to ensure that patients would apply the right doses at the right time, so we needed help to develop an app that supported doctors with the prescriptions.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Koombea has helped us develop an app for both iOS and Android systems. We requested them to be easy to use and graphically oriented so that it wouldn’t take much of the doctor’s time. The app is specifically designed for physicians, but the idea is that they would be able to download the app from the App Store and Google Play and use it in their daily practice.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with 4–5 people from Koombea, including a main point of contact and a designer. 

How did you come to work with Koombea?

A person from our company found Koombea through a Google search.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $25,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around September 2021, and our engagement is ongoing. We already have the app, and it works well, but the FDA’s approval process isn’t finished yet. Now, we’re waiting for the feedback from the FDA to know if the app will need changes or not. If so, Koombea will help us change what’s needed.

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

Koombea has gone above and beyond to ensure the app's success, doing things that weren’t part of the original contract. For example, the app needs to be approved by the FDA because it is going to be used alongside a drug. To get the approval, we’ve needed to develop a lot of documentation that we didn’t initially consider. However, Koombea’s team has supported us in producing that documentation.

Now, we don’t just have a great product, but we’re also very happy with their effort and willingness to work with us to get results.

How did Koombea perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve been very satisfied with Koombea’s team. Initially, we weren’t sure of what this project would entail, but they've worked with us around the challenges that have arisen, allowing us to come in on budget. We communicate via phone calls, Zoom meetings, and Slack messages.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Koombea’s collaboration and willingness to work as a partner are impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wouldn’t change anything about Koombea’s work. However, they initially approach clients in a very structured way. This approach wasn’t fit for me, but it became less and less of an issue over time. Still, this is not a criticism but a personal comment of a challenge I experienced — it’s not their fault.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with Koombea. They want to satisfy their customers, and they’re willing to work with them to make it happen, so expect them to be responsive to your needs.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a chief strategy officer of a communications app that allows individual users to connect with experts to get their questions answered.

What challenge were you trying to address with Koombea?

They developed our mobile application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided a detailed specification, and Koombea developed our iOS and Android application. They built it on an AWS database and server.

What is the team composition?

I don’t know the exact number, but I worked with 5–6 people daily, including lead developers and a project manager. There were also another 5–6 people in the background such as individual developers and UI/UX people.

How did you come to work with Koombea?

They’re based in Miami, and we got a reference for them. After narrowing it down to three companies, we chose Koombea.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $200,000 in the initial application, and we’ll invest more in subsequent versions moving forward.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since June 2021. The app went live in August 2021, and we’re on version 1.4. Koombea is doing a fine job.

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

It’s been a success.

How did Koombea perform from a project management standpoint?

They are solid. We communicate over Zoom and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re based in Colombia, where most of their development is, so they get cost benefits, but they’re very precise in the work that they do. They listen carefully and put a lot of effort into the specification upfront, which eliminates confusion during the development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t there’s anything they could have done differently. They’ve learned our business well, understood the specification, and executed it. I don’t have any negatives for them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very precise and spend a lot of time on the specification. As with any developer, the most energy you invest upfront, the better off you’ll be.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO at Nauty360, an online platform for boat booking services.

What challenges were you trying to address with Koombea?

We were looking for a technology partner that had the experience working in a project and creating a platform as big as the one we needed. We had tried with different companies before but never felt completely satisfied until we found them. So they developed our web, responsive sites and mobile apps.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They used Ruby and Rails and Java for web development and React Native for the mobile apps.

What is the team composition?

We worked with six people.

How did you come to work with Koombea?

As we had bad experiences with past providers, we were looking for a new company that could guarantee quality. Koombea’s name came up in our search for the best agencies. When we met them, we knew that we wanted to work with them.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in 2019 and are continuing our collaboration.

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

They have a great understanding of startups, are very flexible, and were there for us through the entire process. We are very happy with the results of the development. They have a flawless methodology and make everything completely clear for those without a technical background. We saw results almost immediately after the site went live.

How did Koombea perform from a project management standpoint?

They have very clear processes, and their project management was great. We met once a week at first, transitioning to biweekly meetings later in the development. They were effective communicators in their willingness to listen to our needs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Over time they've become a strategic ally, rather than just a services provider.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be more precise at indicating their initial requirements. There were a couple of times when the project didn’t go forward as efficiently because some of the requirements they needed were not ready.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an omnichannel manager at a retail furniture store. We also provide credit services for furniture.

What challenge were you trying to address with Koombea?

We were looking for a company to develop an e-commerce site for the store, as well as train our employees on new technologies and agile development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Koombea used Shopify, Ruby, and AWS to build the e-commerce site. They’ve also trained our team on agility.

What is the team composition?

We work with 4–8 teammates, including a designer and a UX developer.

How did you come to work with Koombea?

We had worked with other local companies before and hadn’t had a great experience. When we contacted Koombea, they specifically mentioned that they wouldn’t just implement the e-commerce, but that they would also tailor it to our company’s needs, which was key for us.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent about $10,000 for the development and around $118,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2018. Although the project was completed, every once in a while we contact them for advice on specific technologies that we don’t manage very well. 

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

In general, the service they provided was great. The software could be improved, which is usually the case with software development, but they are a great team to work with.

Our sales and traffic have increased because of the e-commerce site, so the project paid for itself very quickly. Thanks to what we learned while working with Koombea, our company’s general project has changed a lot. Our whole team knows about agility and analytics. 

We now know that if we want a certain development we need to find talent for it and not just buy a solution. So, in general, the best contribution Koombea gave us as a company was to change our technology culture.

How did Koombea perform from a project management standpoint?

They are always very flexible. We make constant changes and they are able to adapt very quickly to our needs, which is a great advantage. In our experience, technology companies tend to be very rigid, but we don't have that issue with Koombea. 

Additionally, they do everything well and in a timely manner. Since they work with many international companies, they have a culture of delivering within the schedule, which is rare.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Something they do extremely well is the agile methodology, meetings, follow-up, and stand-ups. In terms of consulting, they are also extraordinary. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve their pricing because it’s quite high.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of Nab New. We’re an aggregator of e-commerce stores.

What challenge were you trying to address with Koombea?

We engaged them to develop our first real MVP to get to market. We had the backend covered and were looking for a team to build out the frontend.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Koombea helped us build a mobile- and web-friendly progressive web app (PWA). We didn’t want a native, mobile-only app, but instead an app-like experience that could be found through SEO. Their involvement encompassed the design, frontend development, and QA. 

We also did some user research at the beginning. It was important to me to talk to potential customers before getting into the design phase. They even plugged in my co-founder as the backend developer, which was noteworthy because that was not the way they prefer to work. Their willingness to accommodate us was special, and we made it work. 

What is the team composition?

Our core team consisted of the project manager Jessica (IT Project Manager, Koombea), the frontend developer Miguel (Full Stack Developer, Koombea), and three other people. We had more than 10 people working on it in the end.

How did you come to work with Koombea?

We were looking for developers that could build the frontend of a PWA. Koombea had the experience we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $92,000–$94,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in mid-August 2019 and wrapped in January 2020.

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

After the main project wrapped, it wasn’t a hard-stop to our collaboration. Within 2–3 days, if I found any bugs, Koombea would take care of them without charging us. They wanted to make sure that what went to market was what they promised it would be.

The frontend is so important to our platform. It has to convey that this is a trustworthy site that users want to spend time with. A lot of feedback I’ve been getting is, “Oh, wow.” They say the site is beautiful and has a more professional look and feel than what they’d expect out of a company our size. That’s been awesome. We’re in really good shape with what Koombea built. 

How did Koombea perform from a project management standpoint?

Jessica was our main point of contact and a key reason why this ambitious project worked so well. Whenever the project became more complicated, they could scale instantly. Jessica would reach out to her boss, get new resources on the team, and onboard them to our project within half a day.

The communication was really good. We used Zoom for meetings and a Slack channel for constant communication. They were responsive even after hours. Their Zoom setup was highly professional, and it won our trust. One time I gave feedback about a bad mic on their end, and within a short time, they replaced the single mic with headsets for everyone. It all went really smoothly after that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What stood out to me was their commitment to the project. Koombea got into this project as if it was their own company’s product, which meant a lot to us as a company on our first product.

In the end, they went above and beyond, working 10–14 days in a row — including weekends — to meet our deadline. They even included a spreadsheet of billable hours that they didn’t charge us for, which we didn’t need to see because we saw the effort they put in. Their investment in us as a small company — especially in scaling their team so fast — was exceptional. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

My co-founder is very disciplined and felt that the sprints could have been run a little tighter. That stressed him out, so we’d probably try to stay on top of them more if we do future projects with their team.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Paymentez is a payment service provider in Latin America. I have worked as a Product Manager, IT Director, Head of Product and Head of Innovation

For what projects/services did your company hire Koombea?

Koombea was hired to help us with the design and UX of Paymentez 2.0.

What were your goals for this project?

To launch in a short period of time a full web payment platform supporting 2 languages (Spanish and Portuguese) with 3 different types of users (customers, resellers, internal users)

How did you select this vendor?

We analyzed several companies not only local (Colombia) but also foreigners and Koombea's portfolio was really outstanding. We requested a couple of previous customers to get contact and validate the quality of their services.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They help us with the architecture of the platform. They fully created the front end and the UX patterns. They keep creating new users flows and improving the previous ones.

What was the team composition?

A "Project Manager" who was our direct contact, an UX/Designer specialist, 4 front-end developers, 2 backend developers. All of them specialized on Ruby and Python with deep knowledge on Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our platform was launched on time and after 6 months we improve our conversion rate more than 10%, we launched in 5 different countries (Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Chile). We moved from 85 resellers to more than 4.700 in Brazil in only 10 months increasing our sales more than 40%.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was very effective. They were always worried about deadlines and valuable deliverables. Our communication was mainly by Skype, Google Hangouts, Pivotal Tracker and GitHub

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Not only their quality level on UX. Their responsibility and commitment to the customer's success set them apart.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Always you can improve, so they can be better than they already are. That's all. They are great!

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company is a large educational company based in the U.S. With a wide range of products from Kindergarten through workforce, we stream to provide students of all ages with the best resources to succeed in their chosen educational path. I am the Director of the Learning Group.

For what projects/services did your company hire Koombea?

With the introduction of Common Core standards in the US, teachers, students, and parents alike were struggling to find resources to help students remediate or excel in each standard. Furthermore, it was unclear how these standards related to the standardized tests students are forced to take.

We set out to create a platform that connected teachers and learners with resources that met their individual learning needs and gave teachers the ability to meet Common Core Standard requirements. While we had machine learning experts internally to do so, we did not have the proper frontend or backend developers to create a user facing product out of the core machine learning technology.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals of the project scaled as did the success of the product. First, we set out to just build the core functionality of exposing high quality content to our users. Then, our users demanded more of us and we set out to have a minimally viable platform that allowed users to log in, utilize learning resources, and report back on scores on any device. This was built in EmberJS and Ruby on Rails. Next, user adoption required a mobile app on Apple, Andriod, and Chrome stores.

After growing our own user base and adoption across US platforms, other companies requested our functionalities to become available through REST APIs, and for us to integrate our platform with their APIs. We also launched SSO with various platforms, including more sophisticated integrations with Google. Our platform (both web and mobile), along with our API, became the sole products of our company and have our full commitment.

How did you select this vendor?

Three companies were considered when we started our search for development partners. We were most concerned with finding a partner that not only listened and executed a broader vision and strategy, but brought to the table their experience and architectural vision. We did not claim to have the answers to all the problems facing the development of a new, sophisticated platform, and needed someone who could help shape the underlying technology and scope. Koombea had a track record of partnering with companies from the very beginning of a product's lifecycle to deliver a scaleable and robust product. THAT is what we needed.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Based on mockups and a detailed SOW for the first MVP, we developed a personalized learning platform for Kindergarten through 12th grade students, teachers, and parents. The platform allows teachers to create classes and invite their students, then create assignments for them. The assignments can be chosen from a selection of online resources that are curated using machine learning or they can create their own.

After students complete their assignments, teachers receive detailed grade reports that shows the student's scores, and provides suggestions for assignments to help remediate poorer scores. In order to accomplish the above functionality, the developers need to integrate the machine learning engine, the resource delivery API, SSO, and rostering capabilities. The platform needs to adhere to IMS Global standards, which are interoperability standards set across the educational industry. Koombea was responsible fo ALL of the backend work and integrations, and for part of the UI.

What was the team composition?

Two developers from Koombea were part of our larger team from the very start of our company. As we scaled, we onboarded two more for a total of 2 UI, one full stack, and one backend developer. All 4 rolled up to the product manager and the team worked alongside a small team of full time machine learning developers.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

After the launch of the new and improved user facing platform that Koombea was responsible for developing, we saw an increase of 2x in 6 months, to reach over a million users in the first year. The most impressive thing was that we were able to launch this product within 3 months! That was unheard of at our parent company.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The Koombea team and my team felt like family. We were in constant communication of Slack, via calls, and on Pivotal Tracker. There did not go a day, even half a day, when one of the contractors did not respond to a question or issue. They were incredibly responsive and never missed a meeting without a heads up.

We tried to be very diligent with our tickets and time/feature expectations. Very rarely were deadlines not met, and usually only due to extenuating circumstances. The team was very good about coming to me with questions on tickets to get clarification so they could attack the problem correctly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I can't say enough how important and effective the team was because of their great communication and responsiveness. We avoided a lot of miscommunications and inefficiencies because they were very good about asking questions and seeking clarification instead of piecemealing something together to be able to say they closed out the ticket.

They also had a deep understanding of the technology and were able to identify any issues quickly; others would spend days to investigate something they were able to pinpoint in an hour. Lastly, as their manager, I appreciated their willingness. They never told me they couldn't do something I had requested. Instead, they would suggest other paths or trade offs if something was unreasonable.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I couldn't be happier with the team from Koombea that we have now. They are the largest assets on my team. However, when we were quickly scaling up the number of developers, we were not quite as lucky with one of them. I should not have expected the best and brightest to show up on a moment's notice, so better time planning for better resources is important.