Minimum Inc.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Sunland Group is located in Australia, in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast. I am the Creative Design Manager, responsible for generating a range of corporate and marketing-specific visual communications for online, print, and mobile outlets in order to raise, unite, and elevate the Sunland brand and its developments.

What challenge were you trying to address with Minimum?

We want to create an iPad app that our sales team can use as a resource to showcase the Sunland Group portfolio.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Minimum is implementing new features and updating existing features.

How did you come to work with Minimum?

We sent out a brief to a range of studios and chose Minimum based on their pricing, service, and reputation.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent $10,000-$30,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work is ongoing.

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

We are still measuring outcomes.

How did Minimum perform from a project management standpoint?

Very well. The team performed tasks in a very reasonable time-frame, and work was executed as per our brief.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated Minimum's willingness to discuss and learn about our business and look for opportunities where we can do better.

Do you have any tips or recommendations for other prospective clients that might increase their success when working with Minimum?

Trust Minimum, and let them do what they do best.

Please describe your organization.

Archimedes Labs is a Palo Alto, California-based tech incubator. We developed an app called just.me, which is a full-featured media capturing and sharing app. It enables users to share their content with people from their address book based on groups they can create, or they can publish on Twitter and Facebook. We're now working on another app called chat.center.

What is your role or position at the organization?

I am the founder.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Minimum?

We were seeking a developer to help us launch a consumer social networking mobile application. It needed to be visually compelling and functionally engaging at capturing and acting on media to save, share, or publish it.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Minimum provided full UI/UX design and coding of an IOS and Android app.

Our first app, just.me, had one explosive feature: if someone made a public post, another user could chat with that person within that post, even if they weren't friends. On Instagram for example, people can't simply click and chat with someone who made a post. We focused on that feature, which resulted in chat.center. It is the opposite of Chance: a person receives a chat ID in the form of a URL which plays the same role as an email or a phone number. If someone knows the chat URL, they can chat with that user, without installing any software. A web app is invoked through the URL which routes messages to the receiver. chat.center is a paid service aimed at businesses. It works like a software-as-a-service. A typical use case for it would be a company obtaining a chat ID which is the same as their domain name, with "chat." at the beginning. Once that is in place, a widget can be placed on the website, allowing users to send messages directly to a smartphone. It's a customer engagement tool.

Minimum assigned a team of 20 people for the development of Just.me. They handled the UI, UX, and design. They were in charge of some of the more complex iOS graphics which were hard to accomplish at the time, like bouncing screens.

How did you come to work with Minimum?

We did some due diligence on Alex Komarov, the cofounder of Minimum, including interviews and paid trial designs.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Over the course of our multiyear engagement, the total cost of our projects falls in the $200,000 to $1 million range. However, this is a high figure because we have worked with them for so long on so many things, so I don't want to discourage smaller clients from approaching Minimum.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work began in 2011 and is ongoing for our current app, chat.center.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We now have a great product, which launched in 2012. We have had two pivots and now have a successful company with a good product-market fit.

We launched just.me at a DEMO Mobile conference. In and of itself, this was an achievement, as that is an extremely difficult event at which to launch a product. The media audience saw it as an outstanding step forward, from a design point of view. Apple used our app in their roadshows, teaching other developers how they should design for iOS. It became a standard of the time in terms of very good design. This spilled over into acceptance so, within 3 months, we had reached half a million downloads across 220 countries. We became the social networking leader in many of those countries.

While this may sound successful, we're based in Silicon Valley, so the bar for success on a social media app is in the range of around 10 million downloads. Just.me did well, but it fell short of what I'd have wanted it to do in order to become sustainable, so we pivoted to a new app, Chance. This app is still available in the app stores, and it receives many downloads every day. It revolves around anonymous chats with strangers. The next pivot is our current app, chat.center, which allows businesses to chat immediately and directly with their customers.

How did Minimum perform from a project management standpoint?

It was a very good process with Alex as our anchor and manager.

What distinguishes Minimum from other providers?

Their UI/UX and design skills are outstanding. Futhermore, there is a huge difference between a person who can make a design and one who can understand product goals. When working with an external team, the individuals are the most important factor. I've worked with two members of Minimum, which have been world class. For example, one of their members was part of the team used by Steve Jobs to launch the first iPad.

I truly worked together with Minimum, iterating and learning from them. They aren't simply designers, but are capable of participating in long-term product strategy. 

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve or things you might do differently?

There could be some improvement in the technical architecture prior to back-end coding.

Please describe your organization.

LipSync basically works as an Uber for interpreters. For example, if a customer were to go to China on a business trip and needed to open a bank account there, they could use our app to order a bilingual interpreter. He could then have a three-way conversation with the interpreter, the teller, and himself right there at the bank. We initially envisioned it as a business-to-consumer app, but we've found a good enterprise opportunity. The on-demand interpreter aspect is still the same, but the payment is different. We're based in the US and China.

What is your position?

I am the CEO and co-founder of the company.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Minimum Inc.?

We needed a prototype of our app.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We have a number of features that were built over the last few months. Minimum was responsible for development, UX/UI design, dealing with server-related issues, and beta testing. The app was first built for iOS, but we're planning to build an Android version as well.

Our team consisted of a frontend developer, a backend developer, an iOS designer, and a technical project manager. Our project manager was great at understanding our vision in lay terms and translating it to their team, which is very useful for non-technical clients.

How did you come to work with Minimum Inc.?

In November of 2015, I was looking for a chief technology officer [CTO] for my company. I'd raised the necessary money and knew enough about technology to at least work on a beta by myself, so I started looking online for developers that specialized in working with startups and offered outsourced technology services. I came across Minimum, along with some of their competitors. They got in touch very fast, and responsiveness is something that matters a lot to me as a startup founder. I explained the concept of the product and decided to work with Minimum a month later.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The cost varies month by month, depending on the tasks that need to be done. The average cost per month has been almost $12,000, so over four months we've spent $45,000-50,000. It's actually a really great deal for us, considering how good the work has been.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in early December 2015. The prototype was finished at the end of January 2016. Beta testing started in February, and version one of the app was built afterwards. Minimum has since worked as an outsourced CTO for me, doing work on things like UI/UX design and server-related issues. Work is ongoing with them, and they’re going to build an Android app for us soon.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We were contacted for an interview with Y Combinator [a prominent tech incubator and seed accelerator], which wouldn't have happened if we didn't have a prototype in place, so Minimum was a great help.

Our initial idea consisted of having a chat function which would facilitate communicating with interpreters. Minimum suggested an annotations system which would allow saving images and texts that are used frequently. People would be inclined to go back to the platform in order to use those cards over and over again, and we would also build up a database of accurate interpretations, giving us a competitive advantage. This kind of insight isn't something that you’d get from regular contractors. Minimum is a part of my team, and they're trying to make the startup work, as opposed to simply delivering the project on spec.

How did Minimum Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team has been extremely responsive and professional. They took care of everything asked of them, down to trivial administrative elements like adding someone to the beta testing.

What distinguishes Minimum Inc. from other providers?

Having Minimum is the closest thing that a client can get to having a professional CTO onboard. I've worked with different development teams in the past. There are ones that aren't very good at engineering or strategy, but they are cheap. It's possible to pay $10,000 for a two month project for delivering a beta. The company will deliver it in eight months, and it will be a horrible, buggy result. In contrast, Minimum has made mock-ups, sent screenshots as the work progresses, and delivered the work in six weeks instead of three months, making it ready for testing within two months. On top of this, they're aggressively fast at identifying problems. If there's something wrong with the server, Minimum will find it immediately, talk about it among themselves, and solve it that day. We only hear about it a week later at a meeting, after it's been fixed.

Most people think of a CTO as a brilliant person that will fix any problem. In reality, a CTO is someone who can think about a business from a strategic perspective and solve problems.

Is there anything Minimum Inc. could have improved or done differently?

They need to fix their payment method. I have to make wire transfers every time I pay Minimum. It's 2016, and they're a tech company, so they should figure out a way to make payments easier, either through PayPal or Stripe. I don't want to open up my bank browser in order to do this. The tech part of their business is amazing though, and I wouldn't work with anyone else.

What was your main business goal in working with Komarov Mobile?

We’ve undertaken a few different projects with them. The projects they worked on with us have focused primarily on user interface. They fix the wireframes, and polish the marketing. We also work with them in order to manage our capacity. We have some UI and UX designers, but not enough for the demand that we find ourselves having. They are great at it, and deliver much better work than we could if we did it entirely in-house.

What was the process by which you selected Komarov Mobile to work with?

We were familiar with them from other projects, and they also have an established reputation for delivering quality work within the community.

Could elaborate upon the scope of the project?

As I previously mentioned, they focused entirely on design. The project didn’t include any kind of custom development, programming, integration, or support.

How long ago was the most recent project completed?

They actually still have a pending project with us right now, and it’ll be in progress for some time in the future.

Could you please provide a general cost estimate for the project?

I’d say it’s typically around $50,000.

How happy are you with the results of their work so far?

Oh, I’m quite happy with the results so far.

Is there anything that you would consider special or unique about Komarov Mobile when compared to other providers you’ve worked with?

Their work is very thorough and detailed oriented. There are certain projects that are more conducive to their capabilities. When clients can take their time and desire maximum detail, that’s when they ought to enlist the Komarov team. They work independently very well and require very little micromanagement. They’re so professionally unique. They put such great focus into understanding the user.

Do you think there are areas that Komarov Mobile could improve upon?

Perhaps there is one thing: they should cultivate more empathy for the developers and not only the end users. For example, creating instructions that are easier for developers to follow, which isn’t necessarily a series of beautiful pictures, but having the requirement in every detail. That’s something I asked them to do because not only do we need to create beautiful designs, we also have to make them executable.

That’s where we have a lot of expertise, and we are more aware of which items should be included or not. They might provide a quote for something, and we’re expecting that would cover the entire UI and UX. However, we later found out, "Oh, we [Komarov] weren’t considering the application icons." That would normally be included in the designer’s work. It would have helped if they were more explicit with their work deliverables, but that’s all.

Can you give a description of what your company does?

We are an emarketing company, and we offer solutions where our users, our retailers who use mobile apps and other emarketing platform type things like email and text messaging to engage with the customer base.

What is your position within the company?

I am the founder. The chief executive officer.

What were your business goals or objectives for working with Komarov Mobile?

I have worked with Komarov Mobile to develop the design for a mobile app, which is what they did. So, we worked with the strategy and design of what the mobile app should do, and how it should look like.

How did you find out about Komarov Mobile?

I learned about them through the Internet and different blogs.

Could you tell me about the scope of the project? Was Komarov Mobile just involved in the design work?

Yes. At that time, when I was working with them, they were probably involved with design. But I understand that, since then, they kept them busy to do the actual development work as well.

How long ago was the project completed?

About two years back.

Can you give me a general cost estimate for the project?

Under $50,000.

How happy are you with the results of the work?

They did a great job.

Was it just for iPhone or for Android, too?

We used the design for both.

Compared to other developers you may have worked with in the past, did you find anything unique or special about Komarov Mobile?

I think that they have a lot of experience in the industry. I think they’ve been instrumental in guiding the project to market and giving it a better chance of being successful.

Do you think there’s any area that Komarov Mobile could improve in or do slightly differently?

No. I think they have been a good developer.

Can your briefly describe your company?

We are located on a tropical Pacific beach and give tours of the surrounding area.

What were your goals for the project?

We wished to provide our customers with a better experience when they visit our area while promoting our location to visitors around the world.

How did you discover Komarov Mobile?

After searching for a designer and developer for awhile, I came across Komarov Mobile. I was stunned by the quality of their work, and they immediately became my first choice.

What was the scope of the project?

I created the wireframe, and them handed the work off to Komarov Mobile. They collaborated with me to create a great visual design, and completed the backend development.

What was unique about Komarov Mobile?

While other firms seemed to be most interested in profit, Komarov Mobile was more interested in creating the highest quality design possible.