Montevideo Labs

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP of Engineering of a business services company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Provides a platform for analyzing, predicting and improving the performance of athletes at all levels using computer vision, machine learning and biomechanical models.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Montevideo Labs to accomplish?

• Architect and implement SaaS on AWS

SOLUTION

How did you find Montevideo Labs?

Referral

Why did you select Montevideo Labs over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Montevideo Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Augment current engineering staff to design and implement both the front-end and backend of a complex SaaS with a rich UI. 
• Architectural infrastructure and software designs 
• Operational plans and tools 
• Software implementations of written specification 
• Robust, event-driven, high-volume, low-cost batch processing solution

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Work continues to be completed on-time with high-quality and attention to details. Able to cope with ambiguities while making progress to ultimate goals.

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

• Very timely delivery 
• Excellent communication of current status and estimated remaining work 
• Daily meetings to ensure alignment 
• No delay in response to needs or concerns

What was your primary form of communication with Montevideo Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

• Extremely easy to deal with 
• They are highly flexible in terms of changing needs and requirements 
• Works very well with a start-up and the chaos that implies 
• A true contributor of ideas; not just "bodies doing the assigned work" 
• Commitment to excellence

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

No. This has been a great partnership.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Operations Director of an advertising & marketing company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Programmatic Media Buying

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Montevideo Labs to accomplish?

• Improve the way we analyze and visualize data

SOLUTION

How did you find Montevideo Labs?

Referral

Why did you select Montevideo Labs over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Montevideo Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The work had the objective of bringing together various data sources from different media buying platforms into one source were we could blend and cross-analyze data from campaigns running on multiple platforms, to improve insights and optimizations, as well as generating better visualizations for reports.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• API extractions working 
• Database collecting and working. 
• Connection to Visualization platforms working.

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

Everything was delivered on a timely manner Whenever there was a blocker, they were notified on time, which allowed teams to work to resolve efficiently, keeping deliveries within schedule. Communication was extremely fluid all through out project duration.

What was your primary form of communication with Montevideo Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their communication was constant, fluid, and valuable. We were always kept in the loop as to project development, blockers and milestones were properly communicated, and great attitude and disposal towards working together to solve any blocker that could arise during execution.

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

Not that we can think with our project in mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the lead principal engineer for cloud based data science and engineering for one of the largest financial services companies in the world. I manage a cross functional multi-discipline worldwide team of engineers supporting major client loyalty programs. I have a huge mission and a very small internal staff to support infrastructure, as well as codebase with multi-regions and ENV's for development, pre-deployment and staging We required additional engineering staff to help support our ever increasing demands for our services. Our systems are highly scalable but require support and maintenance to maintain proper SLA.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Montevideo Labs?

Initially the team was asked to work on upgrading and stabilizing one portion of our infrastructure. As we gained confidence in their capabilities we have expanded their responsibilities considerably and Montevideo Labs team members are providing excellent support in all areas. Specifically though by tech, support AWS tech stack, EMR, Hadoop, Spark, Elasticsearch, S3, new tenant deployments, entire infrastructure upgrades, and much more.

SOLUTION

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

Personally, I did not make this selection, the relationship was established, and resources already assigned when I was brought into the project to initially manage and oversee the first infrastructure stabilization effort. That being said, since that time, I have certainly advocated and championed them internally as being absolutely key members of my team.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We have around 10 engineers that I am aware of, maybe more, assisting us at present. On my team specifically, I directly manage 4-5 and I interact with all others through various squads they are assigned to in data engineering. We use Agile and JIRA so we follow all those best practices with documentation, workflow, ceremonies, etc. Montevideo staff are active, present, thoughtfully contribute, help adapt to JIRA and to GIT (they know more than me).

Montevideo Labs has provided us with true 'team members' these are not just hired guns, I TRUST them, they care, they are respected throughout my company, and they are dedicated to our success as well as Montevideo, and truly are part of our path to success. We form personal relationships, we all learn from each other, in the end I think the best thing I can say is that hiring Montevideo Labs has made us all better engineers.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

I've not had to interview any of Montevideo Labs resources, there has been no need. Maximo understands and hires the best and the brightest, we have seen that for ourselves, and if there ever was an issue I'm sure it would be resolved quickly. As it stands now, we are greatly saddened when assigned Montevideo Labs resources grow beyond the challenges we offer and move on to other challenges. We, of course, wish them well but so far these are great, talented, and wonderful people to work with, I'd hire them all if I could.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the engagement that demonstrate progress or success?

Many, and again you could say they have been involved with 30 or 40 different 'initiatives' as part of this engagement, each one varied, difficult and complex in their own way. This team is constantly recognized internally on our call out Slack channels for their work and how their work, or responsiveness, helps other teams get unblocked in the company.

Many emergency EMR or ES cluster rebuilds under pressure and other infrastructure deployments happily dealt with even when off hours. They were even called out by the Agile coach leaders for helping to come up with better ways for our company to use JIRA. Always thinking and not afraid to bring up new ideas or approaches.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Excellent, personally no issues whatsoever.

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

Maxio and his ability to find superior talent. He is not only a top-tier engineer he knows how to find the right balance between technical skills and human potential and so far no bad apples, all have been absolute superstars even as they are just starting their careers.

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

No, I think you got it right.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an engineering and product management executive at an advertising technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I have been working with Maximo Gurmendez and his team continuously since the formation of Montevideo Labs in 2016. We have hired them to augment core teams with skills in data science, machine learning, data processing, and devops.

SOLUTION

How did you select Montevideo Labs and what were the deciding factors?

Montevideo Labs' engineers fit the skill profile and cost profile that we needed for the project.

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

The team produced machine learning job chains, big data workflows, handled various devops projects for CICD, and real-time software for advertising auction evaluation. Technologies used included Java, Scala, Python, R, Spark, Hadoop, Hive, and many AWS technologies.

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

Approximately 15 engineers at junior and senior levels.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team has produced continuous improvement to core services, such as an 80% reduction in costs for machine learning job chains, improvements in time to deploy, and improvements in product operations.

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

The has excellent communication skills in video conferences, wiki, slack, or email.

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

I have known the founder of Montevideo Labs since 2009. Maximo Gurmendez is a brilliant engineer with an unparalleled work ethic. He has surrounded himself with a highly professional team. He has never stopped learning and improving himself and his team.

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

no

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Engineering of Pixability

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We run highly optimized advertising campaigns on YouTube and CTV.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Montevideo Labs to accomplish?

• Analyze and improve one of our Advertising optimization ML systems
• Use machine learning to classify video assets

SOLUTION

How did you find Montevideo Labs?

Referral

Why did you select Montevideo Labs over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Montevideo Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Analyze, document, and improve on a key component of our advertising platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Montevideo Labs has generated reports detailing the capabilities of the current solution and comparing these with the improved implementation.

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

The team attends all agile meetings, delivering product value as members of the squad. They have been very responsive and maintain an active dialog on Slack.

What was your primary form of communication with Montevideo Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I have been very impressed with the high caliber of the individuals working with us, who have quickly become integral members of the team.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Disruptel is focused on applying machine learning to the TV viewing experience. We focus on computer vision, natural language processing, and monetization through ads. I am the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Montevideo labs helped us with end to end development. They helped us build new features, scale up existing stack, and were involved in all of our development.

SOLUTION

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

I met with several vendors, Montevideo Labs was the clear cut favorite. All the engineers are very strong and great communicators. Most important, Montevideop Labs has a great culture across the board.

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

• Designed and developed reporting database.
• Scaled up existing infrastructure to handle production
• QPS>Performance optimizations.
• General system maintenance and improvements.

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

3 people:

• Senior Software Engineer (Team Lead)
• 2 Software Engineers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All projects were delivered at a high quality and on time!

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

All deadlines met. Communication open at all times.

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

1. There is a very strong culture, these are the type of people you want for your company.
2. Strength of the team.
3. Communication skills.

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

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Indigo Ag is a software platform for the agriculture industry. I am a Sr Dir of Engineering

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had to add many data pipelines to move data into our data lake.

SOLUTION

How did you select Montevideo Labs and what were the deciding factors?

Through a referral and the fact that they had skills in platform/data engineering

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

The project was more staff augmentation to our data platform team. The MV labs team added over a hundred data sources to our data lake.

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

6 platform/data engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It has been a huge success, customers of our data lake are very happy with having access to so much data.

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

They were very good, but we handled most of the project management through our agile software development practices.

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

They're smart and collaborative engineers that spoke English really well.

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

Longer lead times for them to hire senior engineers.