Mind Studios

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a company and platform that specializes in real estate.

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

We were trying to develop our front-facing MVP that would be received well by the end consumer as well as the real estate agents that would work with it. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked together to identify what I needed, and what business challenges we needed to overcome. Adhering to a sprint schedule, we then launched into the design phase. We reevaluated our progress at the end of every sprint.

The scope of work included Stripe, Twilio, and Calendly integrations, and the team coded in JavaScript to create the single-page application (SPA).

What is the team composition?

The team size fluctuated throughout the process, but the team consisted of an initial designer, front- and backend devs, and two project managers. I’d say that I worked with around ten people in total.

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

I found them through Clutch. I liked the reviews that I saw so I held meetings with 4­–5 of their teammates. Anton (Co-Founder, Mind Studios) really impressed me, so I decided to go with them.

How much have you invested with them?

The project began in July 2019 and the work is ongoing. We’ve completed our rough MVP and are putting in the finishing touches. I plan on engaging them long-term.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve spent around $100,000–$120,000.

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

They’ve done an amazing job. While I’d heard horror stories about outsourcing, I’ve had no issues at all with development or general output. While we haven’t launched our product yet, the platform has received great feedback, and the process of working together has been very smooth.

How did Mind Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They were flawless. They kept me in line the entire time and there was very little miscommunication. They did a good job of prioritizing certain tasks over others. We used Slack, Skype, and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their services are extremely fairly-priced for the quality of the development you’re getting. They’re truly top-notch.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything negative. I’ve just had a really good experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d encourage you to have a strong relationship with your project manager. Make sure to communicate effectively with the team lead so that you can be successful in your end product.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of BonApp Ltd, we’re developing a mobile poker odds calculator.

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

I hired Mind Studios when I realized I had an idea, but no programming skills. I wanted them to help make my app idea a reality.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mind Studios developed my app for Android and iOS. They developed the native app using Swift and Objective-C for iOs and Java for Android. Their team was involved from the discovery stage to the end. They helped with the market research, finding any demand for the app and identifying competitors. From there, their designer created a prototype and then they fully developed the app with the statistics calculator features. They also helped make improvements based on user feedback. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with Alexandr (IT Project Manager, Mind Studios), one designer, one iOS developer, and one Android developer. Mind Studios also had a marketing department in their agency that helped with that aspect of the project. 

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

I used Clutch to research the agencies I was considering. I was mainly looking in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, and Bulgaria, and I made a list of several agencies, based on Clutch. From this list, I went to each of the websites and contacted the teams to ask questions about their portfolios.

I considered 10–15 agencies and chose Mind Studios because I was impressed with their portfolio. I’d also read some articles and heard from friends that Mind Studios was good in terms of quality and price. I’d tried some of their previous apps and thought their UI/UX elements were strong.

How much have you invested with them?

The total came to $84,000. We used agile development, so we made payments every two weeks.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Mind Studios from December 2018–September 2019. Our first launch was in March 2019, but the paid launch was at the end.  

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

Since our first launch, we’ve had around 3,500 downloads in total: 2,200 downloads on iOS, and between 1,300–1,500 on Android.  I’ve received some positive feedback and made improvements to the app based on other feedback. 

How did Mind Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They were well organized. We had an agile development process with two-week iterations. We’d have a team meeting at the beginning of each process to estimate the time and cost of each task. Later on, they’d send me invoices along with a plan for the next week. We had video calls every two weeks and I could call them whenever needed. Whenever either of us had a question, we could message or call each other, but we mostly communicated through Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their iOS developer was fantastic. He was really responsive and the communication was always professional. Their developers understood our requests clearly and easily, so we never had to give additional information. The iOS developer was comprehensive, understood quickly, and worked well with us.

I was worried that a vendor could try to mislead me and use technical terms to extract more money from me, but Mind Studios showed great integrity. They were transparent with their schedules and estimations.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our project manager’s communication could have been improved since he acted as a bridge between our teams. When it came to specific topics, communication was occasionally a challenge. 

The Android developer did some great work too, but the first version presented some small bugs and mistakes that we fixed through an additional sprint. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Fitr. We’re a remote, client-to-coach delivery mechanism that’s looking to apply our technologies to various industries. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

We were trying to develop our apps and platform but our code was horrendous—unusable—and we were in a really sticky situation. We said we would give it another roll of the dice with a development house that knows what they were doing or try something else. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mind Studios provided end-to-end development services. At the first call, they provided excellent advice about whether or not we should carry on with the code that we had or if we should scrap it. We decided to take the good ideas from the original business, get rid of the stuff that wasn't working, and build a platform that was designed to take us where we wanted to go.

After we scrapped the old code they gave us some advice about rebranding the company with a fresh start. They were very much concept-based and got involved in the business analysis, even before going anywhere near design or code. They helped us learn from our customer experiences and think about the features with which we wanted to go back out in the market.

The next step was building an outline or concept of what this might look like. We went from the Ferrari model with all the glitz and glam to the Audi model, which still had the nuts and bolts, and finally to a minimum viable product (MVP) version of Fitr. They were very instrumental in helping us understand what could wait. Ideally, you want to put everything in, but that’s just not possible. We came up with ideas internally, but Mind Studios helped us put the apps on hold and start by focusing on building a web tool and having that optimized for phones.

What is the team composition?

I mainly deal with two people: the project manager and the team member who sits underneath him. I’ve had some involvement with one of the founders, who was my original point of contact. Other than that, there’s a team of between eight and ten designers and front- and backend developers.

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

I had terrible experiences with two other development houses, so I decided to give it one more chance. I was recommended to Mind Studios by a friend of my brother who had used them before.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since February 2018.

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

We've released the beta so we're not fully-fledged, out there in the market, but it's been well received. It might sound really obvious to say, but the stuff just works. Going from the experience of broken code and buttons not working and coming to a set of guys who are excellent designers and having stuff work is amazing. It makes it a lot less stressful. Rather than spending huge amounts of time trying to fix bugs we can look to how our user base is using the platform and make tweaks.

How did Mind Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Mind Studios is currently four weeks behind schedule, however this does include some small additional work that was not originally agreed.

The main tool we use is Slack and I think it’s excellent. All the team members are on Slack, but I also have communication with two main contacts. They’re always very attentive and are always online the whole day. Slack is really useful because if I'm out and about I can be on a laptop and open up the app on my phone and everything works directly from there. It's very handy if I'm traveling. If we need to do chats, which we do occasionally, we use Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The two team we previously worked with jumped right into design and coding and would get stuck. Mind Studios will set the designs and think at a high-level before touching even a single line of code. 

The quality that I've seen coming out of their development house is outstanding. Not just that, but they've built a beautiful design and it works – which you'd expect should be the norm with development houses, but, in my experience, it hasn't been. Overall, just end-to-end, I’ve been very impressed with all stages. If I tried to do the whole thing in the U.K. it would be three or four times the price no doubt. It was very cost effective for me to get something up and running.

They really think about the problem; they're not yes men. They'll challenge the client, which I see as a huge benefit, especially coming from a startup position. It's great to have people to bounce ideas off rather than just developing what I say I want to develop. I don’t see them as an external development house that's developing my code. I very much see them as the Fitr team—as if they're sitting in the office with me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall, as you can tell, I am happy with their performance. However, occasionally there has been a lack of communication with progress, as we’d originally agreed to be complete in five sprints, however, this was unexpectedly extended to seven, adding on four weeks of delay. Being fair, some of this was due to some improvements not originally planned.

Due to these delays, I needed to release further resources to pay for the development work. This took longer than expected. Although I made Mind Studios aware of this and was greeted with a ‘no problem’ response, without warning the work was stopped immediately and there was an unfortunate further delay. Whilst I understand work has to be paid for, I was very unhappy about the lack of warning and even though the invoice was cleared Monday morning, work stopped for the full day.

A week prior to this, two members of the Mind Studios team left the business which caused the quality of work to deteriorate and be slower. We understand this is part of the course of working with an external party, and Mind Studios apologized and tried to rectify the lost time, but it was not taken into consideration when ceasing work. This was the first major issue with the Mind Studios team.

This review was updated on October 22, 2018 by the client. The original star ratings were: Overall - 4, Quality - 4, Schedule - 3, Cost - 5, NPS - 4. New content is below.

Mind Studios has installed a new designer into the team who has been excellent, producing first-class designs and getting up to speed with the project rapidly. With regards to timing, the team installed a new process; they organize each new sprint, which has helped visibility for all parties on what’s expected in each development sprint and expected timelines. This has helped the smoothness to which we are moving forward.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of qWaqq, which is an app we developed and launched for hidden-gems songwriters. Songwriters are pretty much unknown entities. Artists are the faces of their music, and that makes perfect sense, but almost every song you know and love may have been written by the artist in part but was also written primarily by a songwriter behind the scenes. For every song that becomes a hit, generally, songwriters also have a big back catalog of other stuff that never gets released for various reasons, many of which have nothing to do with the quality of the songs. qWaqq is putting those hidden songs out there.

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

We needed some great tech people to develop several different technologies. We needed a website to be built with 2 specific areas. One was a marketing section of the website, which would incorporate some technology as well as a lot of text. Then, there was a completely different section of the website to allow songwriters to upload their content—lyrics, videos, pictures, stories—to qWaqq. We needed people to design those aspects on the marketing side and also to design and build the app. We had designers assist with the creation of other aspects of qWaqq. Mind Studios was involved with the design to a certain extent, but they mostly handle the complete build and app experience. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mind Studios is our go-to provider for all aspects of technology. They set up the server and storage systems for all of the content. They created all the technology for the different sections of the website and the app itself. We had some designers involved along the way, but as we started building, things had to be tweaked. Mind Studios handled many of those design tweaks along the way.

They’re also extremely astute, particularly Anton [Co-Founder, Mind Studios], who I deal with almost exclusively. He is the face of the company, at least for us. He’s very skilled on a business level and tackles problems head-on. I am very instrumental in setting our goals. But, this is always a collaboration in terms of both technology and end goals. How can we twist the technology to entice more users, to get more songwriters involved? How can we make it easier for the users and the songwriters? Answering these questions has been a constant tweaking process. We wanted to find ways to scale our idea and make it easier technologically as well as on a design level. Mind Studios has been fantastic about brainstorming about that and making the changes.

They have been really helpful in terms of marketing suggestions, as well as with the technology stuff. Anton is really in tune with the app world. He was the first guy that came to us, for example, and told us that the App Store is now doing ads, and we should try that. They were running a promotion for free advertising for a month at a fairly low cost. Of course, App Sore ads are going to explode in terms of cost once people realize their effectiveness. We put together a little promotion, and Mind Studios assembled the ads and choose the keywords.

The app is just for iOS right now, but that is not due to any technological limitations on their part. We just have a limited budget and little time.

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

My partner worked with Mind Studios on a number of different projects in the past. He said these guys are fantastic, and I trusted him. We did talk about other options, but it quickly became clear that they were our best choice.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September of 2015, and the project is ongoing. 

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We just launched a few months ago, and we are just getting into our social media. The PR part is really starting to pick up steam. It’s been a total team effort, but everything Mind Studios has done has been incredibly helpful. We have hardly any crashes. We posted various iterations in our social media and have gotten fantastic reviews on the App Store, but we can’t find them because every time we do a new iteration, the other reviews go away. We have all 5-star reviews so far in the App Store. Then, we have informal user responses through comments on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with users saying how much they love the app. That all speaks to what a great job the whole team is doing, but in particular what Mind Studios is doing. I can’t say enough good things about Mind Studios.  

How did Mind Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very organized and focused, and they are responsive and communicative. We have a great working relationship, but the time difference is a little difficult. We make it work, and it’s worth it. We Skype and email regularly about what we want to achieve this week or this month, and then they put together an estimate. We prioritize if we need to, they just start building and sending us versions, and we send suggestions. They are very flexible. They are also extremely positive all the time and give us great feedback about different ideas.

What did you find most impressive about Mind Studios?

I can’t speak to other providers because this is the first app that I’ve actually launched and developed. I researched other providers and got a feeling from them, but I didn’t actually work with them. I can address the relationship from a more global perspective in terms of working in different areas of life and business. I love the way these guys work. There is no ego involved. They are very smart and communicative. They’re open to trying stuff but also willing to say when something isn’t a great idea and why. They work really, really hard. They give a lot of their time at odd hours for them. We don’t go crazy and push it to unreasonable extents, but they make themselves available in an appropriate way.

Are there any areas Mind Studios could improve?

The only issue I have had occasionally with them is QA. I examine the app as best as I can, and then I’m relying on them to make sure it’s all going to work in the backend and that there are no hidden problems with text or misspellings. Occasionally, things like that pop up. If they were 5% better in this area, in terms of anticipating issues, that would be great. But, that’s a minor complaint. Overall, these guys are terrific to work with and very good at what they do.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My husband and I run a full-service horse hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We are classic coupleprenurs, and I’m the vice president of our company. We provide horse owners with educational information and tools via Horse Side Vet Guide. HSVG is built on a complex and constantly growing database of interlinked information. In essence, it’s a reflection of my husband’s brain after 24 years of exclusively practicing equine veterinary medicine. It has become a very important project for us. It was a bit crazy at first, but things improved when we figured out how to structure the categories in the database. HSVG is available on our website and as a mobile app.

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

We have always had a strong focus on client education. Specifically, we wanted to share information about equine health beyond our local clientele. In 2011, we decided to create a free website and mobile app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dmitry and a few others from Mind Studios’ team helped create the mobile app. It was built on iOS and Android. Dmitry was the main guy on Android. I believe some of his current employees were part of the iOS build too. I do not know what technologies were used, but they worked. Dmitry and his team inherited a jumble of half-baked coding that didn’t work properly. He and his team were able to discern what could be used and what needed to be redone. Ultimately, they created a mobile app that works.

We recently did a few more updates on both platforms. His current iOS team updated some of the coding to Swift, and we hope to continue that in another update. Since they inherited the project, much of the conceptualization was already done. However, we will be using Mind Studios to help with later updates, including design elements.

They submitted the app and updates to both app stores and ensured they were available to the public. We did not ask them to help with marketing or strategy. However, we are in discussions now with Mind Studios about how to monetize the app better.

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

Looking back, I can understand just how risky software development was for novices like us who were inspired by a great idea. We went through 4 other development teams before we finally were introduced to Dmitry. That was even before he started Mind Studios.

How much have you invested with Mind Studios?

We’ve paid over $50,000 and counting.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s hard to say. We went far beyond any reasonable deadlines, but that was not their fault. The first project started in January 2013 and was completed in August 2013. We continue to work with Mind Studios and have updates pending on both platforms. We just need to find the time to test them.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

HSVG is the most highly rated equine health app in the world. It has been downloaded in over 70 countries. Our Facebook page is at 63,000.

What did you find most impressive about Mind Studios?

They are competent and capable. They are excellent communicators. They don’t shy away from issues with a mobile build. Instead, they engage in detailed discussions about what is needed to fix an issue.

Are there any areas Mind Studios could improve?

Nope.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an attorney and the founder of My Lawyer is Coming, an app that provides legal services to users on a mobile platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

I knew what I wanted, but I needed someone to build the app since I had no coding experience. I had tried to do this with another developer before, but it just didn’t work out.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were on the same page from the beginning. They knew exactly what I wanted, which was like a chat/text message/GPS document/upload/exchange kind of thing. They gave me a scope—what it would cost, what it would be, and how long it would take. Then, we went back and forth and tweaked it for about a month. They provided me with a beta version. When we liked that, they got me a proper launch in November of 2016. They submitted the app to the App Store. I’m not really a tech-savvy guy, so they handled all that stuff. I thought it was going to take a month or two to get on, but it was like seven or eight days. They took care of any issues that came up with Apple updates.

There were five or six resources working on the project from Mind Studios. They had good designers working for them, too, and they were impressive. I gave them a logo and told them what I wanted. I thought I was going to have to go elsewhere for a graphic designer, but that was not the case. They didn’t really do the website. I had someone else do the web.

They produced a video for me for my launch party, which I thought was so sincere and proper. They sent me a video of their studios, and it was bigger than I thought. They impressed me with their headquarters. They have a nice workspace.

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

I had a friend of a friend who had done some work with Mind Studios and who referred me to them. They were very professional. I contacted them, and they set up a call to discuss the project. I sent a follow-up email where I pitched them my idea. They came back to me with a proposal of what they could do. I chose them because they liked my idea. Anytime you’re employing someone to do something for you, they’re going to love what you’re doing because obviously, there’s a financial incentive for them to brownnose you a little bit. But I thought they were sincere, and they actually did like the concept.

How much have you invested with Mind Studios?

We spent about $20,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2015, and the product was launched November 2016. The work is ongoing. They’re handling the backend of the app and we’ve done updates. The app is on iOS now, and we’ll be doing Android later.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We’ve been live for about six months. We have 254 users, with probably just a little over 300 downloads and 5,500 impressions on the App Store. We’ve generated three or four cases, which is how we judge the metric of it. Overall, the user feedback on the app includes how simple and sleek it is, which is exactly what I wanted. People don’t get confused by it.

There are no bugs. I think there was one issue for six hours in the six months we’ve had it. That was when we were doing an update, and something just didn’t get rebooted. That was corrected immediately. Consistency has been there, and the app itself has performed as I thought, probably a little better.

They asked good questions and listened to what I wanted. I liked their ability to take what I was doing and take it a step further with the design. They gave me a product in the timeframe and at the cost that they told me that they would provide. We launched it without any major issues. They took my vision and made it into a dream product.

How did Mind Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

When I told them that I needed something, they would give me a timeframe. They advised me whether they could meet that timeline and what they would need to meet that timeline—such as more resources—or simply if they were unable to meet it. But every time, whatever they told you was actually the case. They broke down the stages so that throughout the process, you were getting updates, and you were seeing how the project was developing. If I wasn’t satisfied with the timeline, I could just pay them an expedite fee, which would have been minimal. I know they have people working on things, and they can’t just stop the presses for me.

We arranged a call if we had any questions and worked through it within 20 minutes. Everything else was done via email. And throughout the process, there’s communication, via email or Skype, where you can see how the project is going. They are very good at adapting, which means maybe going down one road, but ending up somewhere else because I wanted them to. They were not rigid at all. Whatever you wanted, they were willing to do it, and they didn’t overcharge you for it. They did exactly what I wanted, at the price I wanted. I was expecting to either have something lost in translation, get ripped off, or have someone tell me at the end there will be add-on fees. When you don’t have the tech yourself, you kind of put yourself at the mercy of whoever you’re dealing with. But that was not the case.

They’re good folks. I actually referred one of my friends, who is doing an app with them, as well, in the food service industry. I’ve been able to follow his road, and it’s similar to mine.  I think Mind Studios does very good work.

What did you find most impressive about Mind Studios?

They have the ability to do graphic design, too, which a lot of coders and developers don’t have. I think they have some very talented designers, where, if you give them a vision, they’ll be able to pop out either a logo or a theme. I was very surprised that someone in their position was able to do that.

Are there any areas Mind Studios could improve?

No. They have met my expectations, and I have had no disappointments with them. I don’t even think they were all that expensive. Compared to the quotes I’ve gotten from other places, they were reasonable. The quality exceeded the price tag you were paying.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I handle marketing and management for a nightlife platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

Mind Studios helped with a marketing platform for a small- to medium-sized business where the users can see what their favorite venues are posting, including news, videos, events, photo albums, etc.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mind Studios is doing 2 applications and a dashboard for the venues to manage their marketing activities and loyalty programs for their customers. We also have applications for venue staff so they can track all the discounts, the bonus system, check-ins, the guest list, and so on. Most importantly, the owners and marketing managers have a dashboard where they can track all the analytics and all the marketing activities, the loyalty programs, and find out what their customers like. They can also tailor the loyalty program for each customer by adding different layers of VIP customers or certain groups.

Dmitry Dobrytskiy, the co-founder of Mind Studios, is a shareholder in my company and he’s also a sales manager. Mind Studios gave me a rough budget estimate and also suggested technology we could apply to this project. We spent 2 months putting the technical specifications and prototyping together. At this stage, we were working with 3 people: a project manager, a business analyst, and a graphic designer.

We already had another company working on design and Mind Studios worked well with them. We were all in touch through Slack. My business analyst gave them clear guidelines regarding design and efficiency; the design portion can tricky because there are different types of development that apply to different types of design.

At the moment, we’re doing backend development. We do iOS and Android development as well. As far as I know, I think they assigned 2 developers for the platform and we have one frontend developer.

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

I did a lot of research and found 100 different companies. I was looking for a company with Russian native speakers because it’s easier for my team to communicate with them. The deciding factor was price. I was looking for an efficient company with a reasonable price for quality work. Mind Studios met my expectations and fit my budget. This is a very big project and we have a huge platform that requires a lot of development.

How much have you invested with Mind Studios?

The entire project is worth $140,000, including an $80,000 minimum viable product version that’s coming out in June 2017. Every 2 weeks, we’ll add on sprints and each sprint will include some new functionalities and features.​

​​​​​​What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in January 2017 and the project should be completed by December 2017. They will provide technical support after that.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

What I like about Mind Studios is that they always deliver work on time. This is very important because I’ve always had problems with timing when working with other companies. When it comes to the technology and development, it’s very difficult to estimate a proper timeline. With Mind Studios, I never have this problem and I really like their style of working. Mind Studios had a personal approach.​

​​​​​​How did Mind Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They have their own system. While inquiring with other companies, I noticed that their communication was very manual, including a lot of back-and-forth emails. Mind Studios, however, set up a Slack account where we can all communicate together. They use Google Docs to show me prototypes, which they can update online, making it much easier for me.

Usually, we communicate in Slack, but now that I’m in China, we use WeChat because it’s more convenient for me. The project manager gives me daily updates and at the end of each week, they send me the full report of what they’ve done. Every 2 weeks, they send me different builds for the app. We also do phone calls 2–3 times a week. It used to be every day back when we were doing business analytics and prototyping.

What did you find most impressive about Mind Studios?

They make the project personal instead of just thinking of the income that comes from it. They’re very flexible and want to push the project forward.

What I also like about Mind Studios is that they understand the business. There are times when a customer of mine has their own requirements for the project. I can see the project in general, but I don’t know how to put it in technology terms. Mind Studios listens to the customer and guides me. There might be something I want to do, but they’ll let me know if it’s a mistake and then explain why.​

​​​​​​Are there any areas Mind Studios could improve?

They’re one of the best regarding development and I’m happy to work with them. They might want to improve the design part, though. At the moment, I think they have only 1–2 designers.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Rentorr is a platform for independent landlords and tenants. I am a co-founder of the company. We are a startup with five employees.

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

We were trying to develop the core application for our startup.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mind Studios has developed a prototype of our web application using Ruby on Rails. They also conducted technical research for the platform. We plan to also develop iOS and Android versions.

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

I had been looking for a developer for around a year before finding Mind Studios online. They had some favorable customer reviews, so I contacted them and asked for a proposal.

How much have you invested with Mind Studios?

The cost of Mind Studios’ work has been close to $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Mind Studios in October 2016.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Mind Studios has put a lot of effort into the development of our project. They’ve been supportive, understanding, and swift at the same time. If the client has an idea, Mind Studios will be able to turn it into something great.

How did Mind Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Slack and communicated on a daily basis. Mind Studios has delivered on time and within budget. They’ve always been fast to respond to my feedback, and we had no language or time zone barriers.

What did you find most impressive about Mind Studios?

Their fast delivery time is most impressive.

Are there any areas Mind Studios could improve?

Not at the moment.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the co-founder and co-CEO of a B2B company that provides video inspections in the government space.

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

It was actually a turnaround situation, both from a business and technical perspective. The founder of the company had engaged a development group who had steered him the wrong direction. We needed to go in and basically restart the development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were able to do that over a 1- or 2-year period. During that time, we put together a product that was challenging from a technical perspective. We got it up and running. It’s an app for iOS and Android, and there was a web part in which Mind Studios was also involved. I’m a marketing-focused and business-oriented individual, so I can’t tell you all the code we used and everything like that.

Mind Studios was starting from scratch. It was a great idea with failed technology, so we started over. The other projects they’ve worked on have all been absolute cold starts. Although they do offer these services, I didn’t use them for marketing or strategy because I wanted someone closer to the market in the US. They were very helpful in terms of supporting the development effort and getting the app launched on the Apple and Android stores. They know their way around. When your apps aren’t clearing at the Apple Store, they know how to maneuver to get the problems corrected and get the apps up and running. Our product was incredibly complicated, and the Apple guys had trouble getting their heads wrapped around it for quite a while. The guys at Mind Studios were very helpful in managing that process.

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

Three of their founders came out of a previous company that I used to work with for another startup. The other company dissolved, and these guys went on to start their own firm. I really liked these three guys, and I wanted to give them a chance. I think I was one of their first projects.

How much have you invested with Mind Studios?

I’ve invested more than $1 million with Mind Studios over multiple projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran approximately from April–August of 2015.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

It’s a little tough to say. I developed a level of trust with these guys. We Scrum a few times a week. I treat them like they’re part of the company, and they behave in that way. They’re responsible, and they take ownership. I don’t know how to put numbers on that, but that’s one of their strongest attributes.

I’ve learned to do these startups in a very lean and mean way, and that’s what the market demands. There’s a lot of outsourcing going on, but the problem is developing a relationship and level of trust with a developer in that situation. Over the years, I’ve developed that with Mind Studios. It’s something that I really appreciate about them. Our stuff works. I use US-based designers for UI/UX [user interface/user experience]. Mind Studios was able to execute the designs and gave additional ideas.

I outline ideas and try to get the product to meet what we think the market is going to be. I worked with the guys at Mind Studios 2–4 times a week, making sure that everyone understood what we were trying to achieve. In order to avoid wasting time, I check that they are heading in the right direction in terms of development efforts. They were very good at that, at a very good price.

How did Mind Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

There’s a big time difference. They’re about eight or nine hours ahead, so we do our work in the mornings. I work principally with one individual, although I work with other team members on occasion. We have one dedicated project manager, and we communicate through him 95% of the time. We use Skype a lot, both video and audio, and we do a lot of screen sharing. They are organized, and in most cases, they deliver when they say they will. I appreciate that.

What did you find most impressive about Mind Studios?

I’ve been working with them since 2007–2008, and I’m in a position where I can really treat them as team members. They don’t abuse that, and they’re very value-added. They’re my go-to team, particularly in very early setup—the first six months to two years. I will often bring in US-based developers behind them, but they’re very good at getting things up and running to that minimum viable product stage. The ability to Scrum, versus having to draw out some specs, is probably the biggest advantage of working with them.

Are there any areas Mind Studios could improve?

Our project manager’s English is very good, certainly a lot better than my Ukrainian. Having said that, he’s not an American. We always check any content, any wordage; we’re very careful about that. We’ve developed an easy system to go back and adjust any language. QA is always interesting because of the language issues, so we often run our own QA.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder of a mobile app company called Envol, based in The Netherlands.

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

We hired the MindStudios for a complete redesign of our existing app and to launch it on both iOS and Android. The speed of the app, features, and the design had to be improved and modernized.

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

We came across the MindStudios when browsing on the internet for mobile app development companies that had experience with meditation/wellness apps and audio players, together with a modern design. After reading a blog of the MindStudios and checking their portfolio we decided to contact them and discuss the project.

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

We started the project with a complete redesign of our existing app. The Mindstudios came up with a modern and nice looking design. After the design phase they started developing both the app on iOS and Android, and in parallel implemented the new website with new app screens and functionalities.

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

A project manager was assigned to the project, together with a quality team and developers. Furthermore, we were in contact with their business developer manager that was there helping us throughout the whole project.

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

We had a successful relaunch of the iOS and Android app and have already over 3000 downloads after a few weeks after the launch. The feedback we are getting from users is amazing and everybody loves the design and flow of the app. The MindStudios delivered a state of the art app.

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

The project manager setup Slack as communication tools and other tools like Figma for the app design and UX/UI. Every week we received an update on the project and all the features that were implemented. The MindStudios work in sprints of 2 weeks in which they before share the scope and after approval start to work on it. This gives a clear idea of what is happening.

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

The mobile app development skills were even better than we have hoped. As well their dedication to the project and enthusiasm really made the collaboration successful.

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

We have opened up to them about a few minor things that could be improved, they listened to our feedback and immediately took action.