MojoTech

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Nova Farms is an integrated grower, manufacturer, distributor, and retail dispensary dedicated to making cannabis accessible to everyone. We believe cannabis is a right and should be readily available to all. We strive to cultivate better lives, one plant at a time.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with the vendor?

We needed a B2B eCommerce platform that would make it easier for wholesale customers to place orders and communicate with us. Our current process includes spreadsheets, calendars, and emails, and we need to reduce the reliance on human intervention to ensure the correct allocation and delivery of products. Additionally, the system needed to be more scalable so we could manage inventory more efficiently as well as track and process wholesale orders, all through one integrated back-end system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

MojoTech led the discovery, identified user journeys, prioritized features, planned the product roadmap, and architected the infrastructure to allow us to scale our B2B sales in Massachusetts. The solution provides a platform for Nova Farms to expand into other states. MojoTech designed and developed a clean, intuitive user experience that represents our brand well.

What is the team composition?

The MojoTech team consisted of a product manager, a designer, a software architect, and two software engineers.

How did you come to work with the vendor?

We worked with MojoTech in the past and knew they would be a good fit for our current initiatives.

How much have you invested with them?

$350,000

What is the status of this engagement?

Phase one, the launch of our wholesale platform, is complete. Phase two will involve integration with our enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and additional feature development. Our new ERP went live in mid-February, and we expect to begin integrating it with the wholesale system this Spring.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

MojoTech designed and developed an architecture that allows us to integrate our systems holistically. We are poised to expand to other states and save time managing inventory and processing customer orders. In addition, MojoTech has helped us extend and promote our brand directly to B2B customers.

How did the vendor perform from a project management standpoint?

MojoTech managed the project timeline well. They were proactive in asking the right questions and transparent with their communication. As a result, they effectively uncovered the information required to deliver results and helped us streamline our processes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

MojoTech did what they said they were going to do. They took the time to understand our requirements and processes and translated them into an effective eCommerce platform. They sat on our side of the table working with other vendors and have provided a solution that genuinely benefits us now and into the future.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we have been happy and appreciate the work MojoTech has done.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the controller for Pineapple Payments, a full-service credit card processing company on the merchant acquiring side. We provide services to merchants and vendors who sell goods or services, and we help facilitate them receiving payments from their customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MojoTech?

We've been working with MojoTech for about three years, building out business intelligence tools to be able to standardize the reports that we're getting from multiple sources into a comparable set of data between all the different payment gateways, which we have about 12–15 of. We've built that out from a reporting standpoint, and from that, we are able to determine what commissions we need to pay to our outside agents. We realize the incredible success in our business intelligence side — with MojoTech’s help, we’ve got a better understanding of our revenue and cost drivers, which we use to calculate the payments we make to the agents.

We do five commission payouts every month for the different portfolios that we do. We have one portfolio that is incredibly manual because we have a lot of components into the agents' structure, withdraws, advances, and what we call splits between agents who work as a team on certain deals, if not all deals. Getting all of those moving parts organized and understood and properly allocated to pay the agents the correct amounts has been an incredibly manual process, so we asked for MojoTech’s help to build a payroll tool to automate those processes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

This specific feedback is for the payroll tool that we've been building with MojoTech. The solution automates our payroll processes and gives us better visibility and control over how everything flows so that we can make sure that the agents are being paid correctly and that reports are being generated in such a way that it decreases confusion on our end as well as on the agents' end.

They’ve started building the solution from scratch. I'd initially given them some of my Excel spreadsheets that we've used with macros and other things that we've built to try to make this incredibly manual process easier. Then they've done what they need to from database management to replicate the experience and automate a lot of the features and functions that we have been doing manually. They've been helping us document the workflows, making recommendations on how best to improve the workflows, and providing solutions based on what we told them that we wanted.

We've also been using them to aggregate files from multiple payment gateways. We get nonstandardized reports covering fairly standard information for payments processing, which deals with a volume of transactions.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with Eric (Software Engineer), Zach (Software Engineer), and a couple of other people from MojoTech.

How did you come to work with MojoTech?

We found MojoTech through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $6 million on everything so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It has been absolutely excellent. We've run into some bugs on the production side, and the level of responsiveness I got for workarounds and bug fixes has been tremendous. The shortest turnaround time I had on fixing and finding a workaround was 5 minutes, and I don't think I've had to wait longer than 48 hours for certain other things to be done and get fully fixed. 

How did MojoTech perform from a project management standpoint?

MojoTech has performed well in terms of project management. They tend to underpromise and overdeliver on time and cost, and they typically meet our expectations or actually do slightly better than projected.

We use Jira for project management, and we typically communicate through Slack and email. We have daily stand-ups where we talk about progress and get clarifications, and we also have a weekly planning meeting for each set of sprints as we go forward.

What did you find most impressive about them?

MojoTech has an extremely thoughtful group of professionals that is able to apply their expertise and critical thinking not only to address what we're telling them we want but also to find a solution that gives us what we need. They're able to infer from what we're telling them what the true end product will be and what will get us there in the most efficient way as well as to give us the full solution to what we're dealing with. 

I can recall at least three instances I've told them what my desired outcome was, and they actually came up with unique solutions that actually accomplished what I wanted better than what I had imagined. I can't overstate how happy I am with MojoTech.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’ve been very happy with what they’ve done.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to be very clear about what you’re trying to accomplish so that you can communicate effectively with their team. They will do absolutely everything that they can to give you what you want, but they can only give you what you ask for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Chief Information Officer

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have hired them for several iterations of our nationally recognized 211 search engine.

SOLUTION

How did you select MojoTech and what were the deciding factors?

We reviewed several web development companies and chose them due to their diverse skill set and proximity to us. We also liked that all the work was done by Mojotech employees.

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

We started with a very open scope and Mojotech helped us to define the project as well as adding their own experience and expertise to get us to a product spec that we could not have imagined on our own.

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

We worked with the Business Development Director, the CTO, a product manager, and many developers throughout the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Mojo has always been able to deliver on the project level estimations for all of our engagements.

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

It is a true agile process that includes daily standups and interactions with the product owners at our company as well as the Product Manager and developers from Mojotech. Many vendors claim to be agile, but Mojo delivers on the approach.

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

The added value that they provide during product specification that always leads to a better product in the end.

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

We always manage to get better products than we envision, so there is not much to improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the program manager of the building information modeling team at Schneider Electric. We provide energy and automation digital solutions for homes, buildings, data centers, and industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MojoTech?

We wanted to build a cloud-based, digital solution to assist our customers in designing electrical systems.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

MojoTech created an electrical system design solution for us. The product supports our customers who work in design-build engineering and electrical contracting. 

We presented them with initial requirements and brainstormed with them on enhancing our product and feature set. They used React and other technologies to develop the software.

What is the team composition?

We worked with five people from their team including a product manager.

How did you come to work with MojoTech?

MojoTech’s well known in our area. Also, they were recommended to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $250,000–$300,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We collaborated between October 2019­­–May 2020 on this project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I haven't hired a better software development provider than MojoTech. They were the highest quality team that we’ve engaged as a company.

How did MojoTech perform from a project management standpoint?

Their product manager worked closely with us every step of the way. He proactively anticipated our needs. Their team’s communication was excellent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were a team of talented, highly qualified technicians. MojoTech was also versatile.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not at the moment.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure your requirements are clear. Define the roles and responsibilities related to who represents the product. You should have a good understanding of the Agile framework.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the UX director for a leading provider of cloud-based visual merchandising software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MojoTech?

We wanted an experienced firm to design the prototype for our product’s next iteration. The project needed to be completed quickly so the resulting prototype could stimulate subsequent market research.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a concept in mind by the time MojoTech accepted the assignment. They allocated a team of resources that wanted to understand our business, users, and the current product. They looked at our architecture to evaluate the kind of systems and concepts we wanted to test. Their team led us through the ideation process and designed several screens to best represent the concept.

They helped us prioritize deliverables to ensure they achieved the project’s goals. That included addressing the product’s UI issues, developing an intuitive screen design, and creating the final prototype. They worked meticulously to finish the project within the established budget and timeline.

We present the prototype to potential users when we conduct market research. The prototype gives people something to react to during our presentations. We also use the prototype as a presentable concept during large trade shows. It helps to communicate the direction our platform is taking.

What is the team composition?

Their project manager and lead designer worked with us closely. I also spoke with their business development director.

How did you come to work with MojoTech?

I met their business development director at a technology leadership event. We started talking, so I explained my idea of a conversational UI-based prototype. He thought his team could help us out, so I reached out to them with the full pitch. They stood out to me as a firm that provides expert-level engineering and visual design services.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent roughly $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project took place from June–December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

MojoTech created an intelligently designed prototype. Its polished presentation impresses potential clients. Their attentive approach to frontend design generated a fluid and intuitive UI/UX. Every feature looks expertly-crafted.

How did MojoTech perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project manager respected our budget and timeline by keeping the team as productive as possible. He made sure that the development time we paid for was used efficiently and effectively. The designer selected his tools with the intent to produce the best content he could. They adopted a flexible approach and worked through different ideas with several members of our internal staff.

Our overall approach included a regularly scheduled meeting that’s supplemented by 24/7 support availability. We had biweekly stand-up meetings with them to discuss project updates. We also communicated via Slack, phone, and email whenever necessary. They’re extremely responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate their integrity, reliability, and responsiveness. A grounded project management strategy facilitates their success. They possess extensive knowledge regarding mobile technology and enterprise software. They also understand the sort of the issues that a company of our size faces.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Every interaction I’ve had with them has been great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Start the engagement with an organized set of project requirements. Future clients should manage their time effectively so they can take full advantage of MojoTech’s talents.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

TapKat is a unique fundraising platform for nonprofits. All of our customers are nonprofits, and we help them raise money by conducting online sweepstakes. Our platform allows them to automate all the logistics of their contests so they can concentrate on getting the word out about the fundraiser. I’m a co-founder and CMO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MojoTech?

When we started this company, we wanted to stay lean and use an Agile development process. Because it was a new, unique platform, we felt Agile would be valuable for us. Neither my co-founder nor I are engineers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Previously, we had a piece of software created for a contest. Several nonprofits started calling and asking to use the software, but it wasn’t really a platform. We had a good idea of what the architecture should be and what improvements and functionality we wanted, but we wanted to start from scratch with a new code base that was designed for scale.

We had a brainstorming meeting with MojoTech that was pretty short because we were on a tight deadline of four months for the MVP.

MojoTech replicated the software we already had and also added new features. They added a lot of backend database architecture that was much more sophisticated than what we had in the prototype, which enabled us to collect the data that we needed. When a user makes a donation to one of the nonprofit’s contests, they get entry numbers back and access to their database. We added the ability to easily get that donor database to the nonprofit.

So far, we don’t have any custom integration, but we’re planning that for the future. Our next task is to make the platform more of a self-serve model. Nonprofits will be able to build their own contest site. We want to make the platform scalable so we can start serving a lot more nonprofits.

What is the team dynamic?

We had as many as five people working on the project. The core team was three and they would bring in more resources for certain phases of the project. We interacted daily with the core team. We had the same core team for the duration of our project.

How did you come to work with MojoTech?

We interviewed 6-7 firms and MojoTech had the right fit for us. We liked the way they communicated to us as non-technical business people. They are really smart. We are both located in Boulder so that was also a consideration. All the proposals we got were comparable in terms of cost, so that wasn’t a big factor in our decision.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They built us a very solid platform that’s been running for 14 months. It’s enabled us to raise over $1 million for nonprofits in that time. Most of the new nonprofits come to us as a result of making a donation through the platform. They call us and comment about how easy it is to use and understand, and they want us to help them with their fundraiser. We’ve acquired a fair number of new customers this year because of the platform.

How did MojoTech perform from a project management standpoint?

When we’re doing sprints, we’re doing daily stand-up meetings either in-person or online. We have weekly planning meetings and debriefs after a sprint is over. The online tools we use are Pivotal Tracker and Google Hangouts. They were able to meet our deadline.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What is impressive about MojoTech is that they maintain a partnership attitude throughout the development process. They’re very good at communicating what they’re doing and what to expect next. They add value way beyond the code they produce. They have so much experience across different platforms, and they bring that knowledge into our projects when we’re facing issues.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We operate in the events and hospitality technology space, building software that helps companies plan their events, including things like register attendees, create websites for events, check-in people at events, and book hotels for events. We also allow hotels to create booking experiences for people attending events. I’m the senior VP of products. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MojoTech?

Our first engagement was a number of years ago, and it was one of MojoTech’s first engagements when they were getting started. We were looking to enter a new space and wanted to build a prototype for a software concept that we had for an e-commerce marketplace, and they helped us do that as an initial mini-engagement.

After that, we were looking to make a major improvement to our product, primarily with an eye on user experience (UX). We hired MojoTech to do that, and they helped us revamp and retool the product again, primarily from a UX perspective.

Since then, they’ve worked with us on a bunch of projects, including some pretty large ones. Most recently, they helped with a major project in the e-commerce space. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

All of our engagements with MojoTech required similar types of interactions, skill sets, and capabilities. Usually, each product started with defining the product, gathering requirements, conducting market research, reaching out to users, and doing a lot of discovery. They don’t just start writing code or building UX or wireframes; they really like to understand the business behind the software, user personas, and objectives.

That’s usually the first phase. Depending on the complexity of the project, it could either be a more intense process or a very simple process. Then, we go into wireframing and project planning. If it’s a complex project, we break it up into phases; they agree with us on setting priorities and what’s going to get done when, phasing, and aligning with our engineering teams to make sure that all the plans are landing on time in terms of delivering UX and writing code.

A planning phase to discovery is first, planning is second, and wireframing is third. We align if this is really what we want to build and how we want to build it. The fourth phase is coming up with the actual UX, which is a combination of interactive and visual design. MojoTech does both and is very good at it, which is why we like them; many firms out there are either great at visual or interactive.

Lastly, depending on the project, we either do the bulk of the actual development, or we engage them to help with the development. In some cases, we’ve done 100% of the development, and they only deliver UX files to us; in other cases, we worked together with their development team to build the product. In rare cases, they’ve done it from A-Z: they’ve coded it, they did the QA for it, and they were the development shop for that product.

At peak capacity, I’d say there were 10 people from MojoTech working on projects. Usually, the interaction within projects is kept to three or four people on a regular basis.

How did you come to work with MojoTech?

For us, it was unique because one of their founders used to work for me. He was my chief architect at a prior firm and had incredible talent. Then, their CEO was also introduced to me through him, and we did some work together. When they founded MojoTech, they were the top of the list because I knew they could do magic, having worked directly with them before.

We gave them a small project, they really hit it out of the ballpark, and our relationship continued to grow alongside their company’s growth. We were one of their first five engagements when they had two or three people at the firm.

How much have you invested with MojoTech?

Knowing the size of their company and what percentage of them was working on our stuff, I assume we’re surely one of their larger clients for the past couple of years.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first engagement was in 2008. We’re still working with them. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the challenges in working with an outside firm to build or renovate software is going from concept to launching a successful product. The reason we keep going back to MojoTech is that they’re very execution-oriented. They’ll get stuff done on time—often ahead of time—which is unique in this space. They are very quick; get them engaged with something, and within a couple of days, they’ll bring ideas to the table and really get it up and running. They almost have a right and left brain in one firm: they’re able to come up with user-friendly designs that are also beautiful and engaging. My association with them would be getting products out the door on time as opposed to products lingering, which often happens.

How did MojoTech perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very responsive. They’re focused on client deliverables versus having things continue without deadlines. We used a bunch of different tools for communication: everything from Slack to Basecamp to other tools that don’t come to mind. Let’s say there is something in the UX we want to explore. Rather than going to a project manager for that particular situation, we can deal directly with the designer, which truly takes out a lot of the noise and expedites matters. They are nimble enough to be able to do that.

What did you find most impressive about MojoTech?

It’s their flexibility. Whether it’s getting a feature done on a smaller project of a few weeks or a massive multiyear project, they’re able to handle both and everything in between fairly easily. We also appreciate their quickness, responsiveness, and ability to deliver on time and within budget. That’s fairly unique in this space because software development companies are part of ongoing engagements, deliverables are not as clear, and there are delays.

Are there any areas MojoTech could improve?

They’re growing very rapidly, and they will continue hopefully to do that because they’re good. But, with growth comes issues of scalability and organization, and I think they’ll do that as they grow. I don’t see gaps today, but it’s just something where they’ll continue to evolve.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with MojoTech?

We highly recommend them. They’re a great team. They always underpromise and over-deliver. 

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your organization and what you do there.

We provide healthcare plans to individuals and employers, including dental, vision, medical, and insular products in support of overall health. We are a part of the Rhode Island Healthcare Exchange, and also offer Medicare plans for individuals. I am the director of channel management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MojoTech?

We needed to redo our e-commerce experience for Medicare and direct-pay clients who don't use our services through employers. The website was offering a poor experience; we could see that both through our usage, and the ability to convert customers who were looking at plans. We had a high exit and dropout rate through those processes and were looking for a firm that could help us with some web/mobile design capabilities, bringing a fresh interface and user experience to our shopping and application pages. We wanted someone with a different view of the world, who wasn't from the healthcare industry, but who understood its mechanics and good user-experience design in general. We lacked that, as well as resources in general.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Our primary goals were to improve the conversion process and to have customers remain engaged longer on those pages. We wanted an increased number of applications on our digital channel, versus some of the other ones we offered such as phone and retail locations.

For most of our engagements with MojoTech, they've primarily been in charge of user experience design. As of yet, we haven't engaged them for anything engineering-related, but we have begun a new engagement with MojoTech for building our annual report site for 2016. They will not only be designing it but also building it from start to finish.

The team ranged from three to five individuals from MojoTech's side. We interacted through daily or semi-daily standups. The constant communication and interactive, Agile process were two of the most valuable parts of the relationship for me, and it continues to be. We can give feedback and see it put into action in a matter of hours or a day, versus the team going dark for days or weeks.

How did you come to work with MojoTech?

I found MojoTech through an internal referral. Our creative director knew Nick Kishfy, their CEO, from prior relationships. We had a need of augmenting our team with digital creatives and had a quick conversation with MojoTech. It took off from there.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with MojoTech in May or June 2015. We engaged them again in 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Within the two years of improvements we've done with MojoTech, we saw 50% improvements year-over-year in conversion rates. We saw significant increases in overall applications, by 70% in year one and an additional 30–40% in 2016, depending on which applications we're referring to. The results have been fantastic and somewhat surprising. Tech projects don't usually exceed the objectives, but when you have a partner able and willing to work with you so closely, these are the results one might obtain. It's a real testament to their working style. 

How did MojoTech perform from a project management standpoint?

MojoTech's working model is simple, meaning that it's a common-sense approach. We had open discussions about what our problems were and what we were trying to achieve before beginning any contracted work with them. They laid out a plan for how they could help, and how they thought they could augment the goals we were trying to achieve. MojoTech understood our budgetary limitations and they were conscientious about what activities were better suited for our team versus theirs, thus helping our overall cost management. Once we signed a statement of work, the execution was started right away, and MojoTech was proactive in setting up kickoff meetings, standups, and stakeholder meetings. They really understood the work itself. From the time we started the work, MojoTech was excellent in meeting our timelines and the goals they set out.

MojoTech took our feedback and incorporated into the ongoing work, but also kept mindful of the timelines. They were aware of the results of any changes being made. We had healthy conversations daily or every other day, in order to keep the communication flow going.

Because we're a healthcare organization, we're constrained in terms of the tools that we can use and the information which can be shared outside of our walls. We did use InVision, which was the only means of sharing information, outside of email.

Is there anything MojoTech could have improved or done differently?

As a waterfall organization, we weren't used to working in MojoTech's lean model. We've had to be conscious of that fact and make sure that the information format could bridge the gap between our sides. This is more of a behavioral issue on our side, and it was a matter of becoming accustomed to it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We offer a web-based application for automobile dealers which works as a CRM and internet lead manager. It's designed to help dealerships sell more cars. We've been in business for ten years.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with MojoTech?

MojoTech resumed the work started by our original developers in Ireland for our mobile app.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

MojoTech had to create the application program interface [API] that acted as the connectivity between the mobile devices and the web application. The mobile app is not designed to work as a standalone product.

They analyzed our code and told us what some of the issues with it were. It was agreed that it didn't have to be rewritten. This was already a mature application and MojoTech was used to writing code starting from scratch. Being able to continue the work for our app was proof of their expertise and willingness to adapt.

We weren't planning on having as many engineers as we did for the project’s work. I was convinced otherwise by MojoTech and it has paid off in the end. We had up to four developers, but that number settled to two. Our quality assurance person was based in Portugal, while the rest of the developers were in Providence, Rhode Island. If we had more financial resources, we'd add more people to our team.

MojoTech was quite aggressive in trying to make the solution work and keeping us as a client. They invested a lot of time in finding the right people for us. We requested a lead programmer in August and only received them in December of 2014. Getting used to the code of a mature application takes some time. We started seeing the benefits of their work by the third quarter of 2015.

How did you come to work with MojoTech?

I had worked with the same project manager from the beginning of our software development. When he left his company and started his own, I had confidence that he could hire the right people for my needs. For a while, he did, but then the relationship became stagnant. He couldn't find the right help and had some personal issues. I started looking for a different company and eventually found MojoTech, which happened to be located four blocks from my office. We researched young companies that were using Ruby on Rails as their main language and had mobile capabilities for developing an iOS app. We interviewed a number of candidates, and among them, met with MojoTech's owners. We found them to be honorable people.

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

The total development cost for 2015 has been $700,000. In 2016, we will be spending another $600,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our initial talks with them started in 2014. We started working with MojoTech at the beginning of 2015. We will be having a meeting soon in which we will plan out our requirements for the next year and a half.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

MojoTech has picked up some features from code that were already written and also wrote some elements from scratch. They're adapted to the task and it has been mindboggling what we've been able to accomplish within the last year.

We have some catch-up to do in regards to our competition. We operate in the same space as some billion dollar companies. We had a good application before MojoTech, but they were able to incorporate some feature content which works within the original minimalist philosophy. The user experience has not been affected by the changes.

We started to see a change within 2015, which was their first year of development. We knew that some of the features entered into the system, like texting, added to the impact. The first quarter of 2016 has been the best quarter we've ever had, not just in terms of new accounts created for our software, but also in bringing the attrition rate to an acceptable level. We work within a very competitive space and there are alternative systems to ours which are very feature-rich, but difficult to operate. People were interested in our solution even though we weren't technically equal to the alternatives. During 2015, customers who had cancelled our service came back to us and we came to install it at a higher rate than we'd ever installed before. This is a direct result of MojoTech's feature development and their ability to execute my visions.

How did MojoTech perform from a project management standpoint?

We conduct weekly meetings with their project manager which can sometimes run up to two hours, depending on what we're working on. He is able to write the stories on the base of which the developers actually build our solutions. This has been a tremendous advantage, not just from my point-of-view, but also from that of the support staff and tech development team. The increase in our business and the income resulted from it are directly tied to the feature development done by MojoTech.

We used Pivotal Tracker at MojoTech's suggestion, as well as Basecamp and HipChat, which we were already using. We mostly communicate through HipChat and Pivotal Tracker. Previously, we'd used Trello.

What distinguishes MojoTech from other providers?

There are a lot of programming companies in the market, each with a different process. MojoTech builds, checks, and organizes the code in an exceptional way. Their meticulousness might slow things down a little bit because it's important to build code without having the system crash. It can happen either way, but we have a better shot of getting it right the first time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

SendGrid is a proven, cloud-based customer communication platform that drives engagement and business growth. We are a leader in email deliverability and our platform successfully delivers over 23 billion emails each month for Internet and mobile-based customers like Airbnb, Pandora, HubSpot, Spotify, Uber and FourSquare as well as more traditional enterprises like Intuit and Costco.

What is your position?

I am a front-end software engineer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with MojoTech?

We needed help in implementing a new design for one of our products.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We had an in-house designer who had worked on our product's visuals using a wireframe. MojoTech built out a static site reflecting our wireframe design. We used that site as a mockup prototype in order to work on the design further.

We worked with another one of their developers in order to implement a feature on our site based on CSS wireframes that had already been built. We would have continued our work, but didn't have the budget to do so.

Throughout the project, we worked with two developers. Both were responsive in incorporating feedback into their work and talking to the right people in order to make progress within the project.

How did you come to work with MojoTech?

My manager was acquainted with their CEO. I wasn't involved in the selection process.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship is temporarily on hold.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

MojoTech were very efficient and responsive while working on our CSS [cascading style sheets] implementations. They took initiative in talking to the right persons regarding information about the wireframes. They were proactive about making any necessary changes and understood our constraints regarding how the work should be implemented. They were overall flexible and made sure that the work would be of high quality and would work well with our product.

How did MojoTech perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Basecamp for project tracking. I reviewed their tasks through it, but mostly we had live conversations. Our work was done remotely.

We had twice-weekly meetings throughout our project in order to touch base. We also made a dedicated channel in Slack for their team. This was important for ensuring that whoever could answer a question was able to jump in. MojoTech wasn't simply restricted to one contact in our group. Anytime we wanted to ask them a question, we'd post on that channel, and vice versa. This lowered the barrier of communication between us.

What distinguishes MojoTech from other providers?

Some developers tend to be stuck in their ways because of ego. We didn't see that with MojoTech. They cared only about getting the project done with a high degree of quality. Whenever we had any issues, we walked through them, and they made an effort to understand our constraints, working with us to solve the problem.