MateCube

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder and CEO of a financial services company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company accelerates the RFP and proposal management process by cutting submission time by 77%.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Build prototype, product management

SOLUTION

How did you find MateCube?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select MateCube over others?

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

How many teammates from MateCube were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Alex and Vadim were contracted to develop the initial MVP for our company's RFP automation platform from May to December 2024. Their work focused on establishing the foundation for our earliest product vision using Ruby on Rails.

Key deliverables included:

• Development of user authentication interfaces including login and registration screens
• Implementation of the knowledge library interface with intuitive Q&A pair visualization and management
• Creation of project management workflows for RFP document handling
• Development of the UI/UX for core platform components
• Successful deployment of the application to the staging environment

The team demonstrated strong technical capabilities within the Ruby on Rails ecosystem and delivered their assigned components on schedule. While our company ultimately pivoted to a different technology stack that better aligned with our evolving architectural requirements, their work provided valuable insights that informed our current development direction and product strategy. Their professional conduct, communication skills, and commitment to project goals were consistently strong throughout the engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrated progress included:

• Successful completion of a functional MVP for internal testing within the 7-month timeline
• Development of core user interfaces with 8 key screens including authentication, library management, and project workflows
• Achievement of a successful staging deployment with working user authentication
• Delivery of an intuitive UI that received positive feedback from initial internal stakeholders

These outcomes provided valuable insights for our product evolution despite our later technology stack pivot.

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

Alex and Vadim maintained a reliable project management approach throughout our engagement, consistently meeting agreed-upon deadlines for key deliverables. They established clear communication channels with weekly progress updates and were responsive to feedback, typically implementing requested changes within 7-10 business days despite on a part-time basis. Their proactive nature in identifying potential technical challenges before they became issues was particularly valuable, allowing us to make informed decisions about implementation approaches that balanced our immediate needs with future scalability considerations.

Even when faced with shifting requirements, they consistently met agreed-upon deadlines without sacrificing quality. While the initial MVP wasn't ultimately used in our final product direction, the insights gained and quality of work delivered justified the cost and provided valuable learning for our product evolution.

What was your primary form of communication with MateCube?

Virtual Meeting

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

What impressed me most about Alex and Vadim's company was their ability to seamlessly integrate remote team members across different time zones while maintaining tight project coordination. Their systematic approach to requirement gathering and implementation priorities demonstrated exceptional project management discipline. Despite working with our evolving startup requirements, they consistently delivered functional components that met our specifications without unnecessary scopes.

Their flexibility in adapting to our evolving requirements as a startup was particularly appreciated. Their attention to detail on the frontend elements was particularly strong, creating an intuitive user experience despite the complexity of our application.

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

n/a

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and co-founder of nicklpass, a platform that streamlines access to news and information for companies. We also deliver unified billing for clarity and cost control. For professionals, we consolidate hundreds of paywalled sources into a patented one login and AI-powered insights.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MateCube?

We had many challenges with our existing system. Initially, I thought it was because of Ruby on Rails.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

MateCube has provided us with software development services. Initially, they were brought on to do some basic fixes, but we quickly learned they could innovate and build new features to prevent the need for those fixes in the first place. The team has done backend refactoring, engine build-out, load balancing, and added additional sources to our library.

Specifically, MateCube has built a feature that allows us to query a database of sources and get the price for a collection of sources. They've also integrated Typeform and HubSpot. Additionally, the team has built an algorithm that assigns digital inventory (subscriptions) to end users based on business logic.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with three teammates from MateCube.

How did you come to work with MateCube?

I found MateCube through Upwork. Alex from MateCube is the best engineering leader I've ever worked with. He's thoughtful, innovative, and doesn't overpromise. He thinks about problems algorithmically and understands business needs. Initially, I was looking for a Ruby on Rails developer, and Alex had the best hard skills. It's also been great to see that he's a great team builder and has found others who work with the same values he does.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with MateCube in July 2025, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

MateCube's work has resulted in a 70% reduction in our sales cycle, which has led to faster revenue. We've also seen a reduction in churn. Although we don't have any numbers, certain customers haven't canceled because of MateCube's work. All of our customers, especially those in financial services, have benefited from this improvement.

How did MateCube perform from a project management standpoint?

MateCube delivers on time and above the scope. We communicate with MateCube via WhatsApp and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

MateCube is doing a great job of architecting and developing at the same time, which is rare to find.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren't any.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of a coupons and vouchers platform.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We run coupon/voucher code websites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Bug fixes
• New features
• Product improvement

SOLUTION

How did you find MateCube?

Online Search

Why did you select MateCube over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from MateCube were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We required a developer that has a strong working knowledge of Ruby on Rails to help fix some bugs and give ongoing support with some issues we face with two applications we own.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Closing of outstanding tickets and bug fixes.

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

Vadim is always very clear in his communication and the MateCube team is usually very quick to overcome problems and fix emergency issues.

What was your primary form of communication with MateCube?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Alexey is very talented and has the ability to get to the root of a problem very quickly.

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

In Q1 of 2025, there has been a slowdown in tickets being closed on Trello for various reasons, such as complexity of tkts.  We would like to move on from the current tkts to new tasks now.  I think this coincides with Alexey having less time available.