NineTwoThree

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Product R&D of a non-profit company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Consumer protection non-profit

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Deliver MVP of conversational chatbot with RAG architecture

SOLUTION

How did you find NineTwoThree?

Online Search

Why did you select NineTwoThree over others?

• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned
• AI development experience

How many teammates from NineTwoThree were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

• Deliver a performant LLM-powered system capable of answering user questions across specified categories (namely, all product categories covered by CR testing and reporting) by retrieving data from our resources (i.e., the CR Articles, Products and Cars databases)
• Deliver a consumer-facing conversational experience with interactive frontend components that leverages the underlying LLM-powered system
• Deliver an admin portal / interface that allows CR operations personnel to operate the system including user management, chat management, filtering and search
• A source code repository, which follows best practices in structure and syntax and lives in CR’s Atlassian suite
• Source code documentation and operations manual for admin app in CR’s Confluence
• Figma files of UX and Design work
• Completed Jira tickets

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

An MVP application that met requirements was delivered on time.

Vendor was able to adapt to reduction of scope.

Vendor successfully contributed across LLM development, frontend & backend application development, and UX/UI.

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

Excellent centralization of tasks in Monday.com and regular touch points with internal team to align project management boards and stay on track

Tasks were organized and completed on time.

AI development requires ongoing experimentation - there were experiments that went better and experiments that went less well. Coordinating experiments across teams proved challenging at first, however we improved with time.

I appreciated the regular feedback exchange with 923 management - it allowed us to make process changes along the way so that we could collaborate more smoothly

What was your primary form of communication with NineTwoThree?

Email or Messaging App

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

Fabulous communication from executives, and care to ensure project was running smoothly.

They showed impressive project management coordination across teams in many time zones.

Commitment from engineers to meet development deadlines and work after hours as necessary to drive project to completion.

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

On at least one occasion, responsibilities were rotated among engineering team members and some knowledge/context was lost. I wish 923 had spent more time on careful knowledge transfer when team members swapped responsibilities.

Collaboration with our DevOps org proved challenging at times (most of this was on us). It's a team that likes to do things its own way, not always the best way. 923 came in with different (and probably better) ideas for setting up the right environments -- which ended up clashing with the internal team's preferences. Though I know 923 was probably right, these decisions were outside of the scope of the project and I wish they had been able to conform to the internal group's preferences sooner. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive at SWEE Technologies

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Digitally clone and sell sport coaching services. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Build a best-in-class application and platform
• Develop our website

SOLUTION

How did you find NineTwoThree?

Online Search

Why did you select NineTwoThree over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from NineTwoThree were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Development of a mobile platform that includes receiving video from proprietary hardware and the camera from the mobile phone so that it can be processed using AI to analyze movement patterns. 
• Worked with our team to help design the front-end UX 
• Worked with our internal developers to optimize the backend so there was seamless and resilient integration with the front-end
• Facilitated moving processes that were happening on cloud onto the device so that we could provide services with much greater efficiency. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a functioning product that exceeds our expectations. All of the people using our product, understand how to use it and are receiving the intended value proposition. 

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

They met almost every target delivery date and were within budget. They also handled our change order with ease, limiting delays to final delivery date and cost overruns. Furthermore, their project management team is proactive in identify potential problems AND solutions to both soft and hard problems. 

What was your primary form of communication with NineTwoThree?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They exceeded every deliverable and made it feel as if they were an internal part of our company. It seemed that their number one priority was to achieve the internal goals that our company set so there were many times they would come up with recommendations that would reduce their near-term billables but be a better strategic execution strategy for us. To sum it up, they met every deliverable and helped us craft the optimal straegy along the way. 

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

NineTwoThree's specialists are excellent communicators. They have many procedures for their Monday.com Boards and Slack cadence. However, there must be a way for agencies to have one system in the future - maybe if you are reading this - ask them to build that too - because I am sure it will be A+

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product Manager of company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a certifying body for project management as well as a project management membership association.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Create of proof of concept practice exam using adaptive learning technology

SOLUTION

How did you find NineTwoThree?

Online Search

Why did you select NineTwoThree over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Easy to communicate with, knowledgeable team, and understand business needs

How many teammates from NineTwoThree were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

923 created a proof of concept for an adaptive learning practice exam. They created multiple iterations allowing us to test the solution and make changes as it was being developed. After some changes were introduced, we tested in the 923 environment. Then, 923 worked with our IT security team to test the practice exam in our environment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A proof of concept, adaptive learning practice exam was created that will allow our organization to explore whether it will work with our existing technology and platforms.

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

Yes, all items were delivered on time and we were in communication throughout all phases of the project. Any question or concern we had was responded to promptly and handled appropriately.

What was your primary form of communication with NineTwoThree?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I appreciate their ability to brainstorm with our key contacts to get the product we are interested in creating.

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

None. I was very satisfied working with 923.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-Founder & CEO of Eazigo

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Eazigo is where travelers come to organize and share their travel plans with friends.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• UI and UX Design
• Mobile App Development
• Website Landing Page

SOLUTION

How did you find NineTwoThree?

• Online Search
• Clutch Site

Why did you select NineTwoThree over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Portfolio

How many teammates from NineTwoThree were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

NineTwoThree Venture Studio designed and developed an iOS app that allows travelers to easily organize and share travel plans with their friends. The app allows users to effortlessly curate personalized itineraries, explore an array of pre-existing travel plans, and extend exclusive invites to friends.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Milestones listed
• completed Delivery dates estimated time of completion
• Assigned tasks delegated to the assignee

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

They deliver outputs in a timely manner. They shared their Monday.com board with me so that I can follow along with their team's progress. If there were any potential delays, they made sure to inform me and take the necessary steps to get back on track or adjust.

What was your primary form of communication with NineTwoThree?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Despite the time difference, the team was able to reply to me in a timely manner whenever a concern arose. The CEO also provided his cell phone number in case I needed to reach out to him for a quick or emergency call / text.

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

Be very clear with certain words in the SOW. There were a couple of items in the Project Scope that were interpreted differently by each party. I would also recommend putting more emphasis on your QA Team as I found many bugs that should not have been there. The first version of the app that was presented had many problems with basic functionalities. I had to spend a lot of time going through all the minor details of the app to make sure that simple features were working.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a fintech startup in its seed stage. I have a technical background.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NineTwoThree?

We needed to develop a mobile application to showcase our services. I have a technical background and wanted a company that could work with my internal team. 

We’re a consumer-oriented fintech, and our long-term goal is to be a B2B company. We needed to develop our capabilities and services directly to brokers since brokers have a long sales cycle.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

NineTwoThree designed and developed native iOS and Android applications. They started the project by conducting market and users research with interviews, and their findings were the basis for the app’s design and development proposal. 

NineTwoThree designed the app’s UI/UX using Figma and generated the app’s flows, user personas, and user journeys. After NineTwoThree completed the design phase, we decided to move forward with them for the app’s development. NineTwoThree worked with our engineering team and developed the iOS app using Swift and the Android app using Kotling.  

Our company’s goal is to change how users interact with markets because most people don’t think in terms of financial language. Our app takes a regular idea; for instance, if a user wants to invest in cancer research, they can enter that into the app, and an AI will do research and construct an investment portfolio. Users can select an investment option and monitor their investments through the app. 

Our app allows any user to create their own exchange-traded funds in a natural and easy way. Our in-house team developed the app’s AI. We built an AI that understands financial language and constructs an optimized portfolio. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with Oleksandr (Android Developer), Katerina (iOS Developer), Zoriana (Junior Project Manager), Andrew (Founder & CEO), and Pavel (CTO).

How did you come to work with NineTwoThree?

I found NineTwoThree on Clutch. I have experience working as a CTO and have worked with several contractor teams in the past. An important thing for me was working with a company whose team leaders were local in Boston so I could have close contact with them. 

I talked to two other companies that work on app development in my area. I chose NineTwoThree because I could speak to Pavel in a technical depth that I didn’t find in the other companies I interviewed. We both had experience as CTOs, which helped us have technical clarity and debate different approaches. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $250,000 with NineTwoThreee. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in the design phase in July 2022, and NineTwoThree started the development phase in October 2022. They’ve finished the app’s development and will provide maintenance as needed. NineTwoThree will also assist us with the app’s launch process to publish it to the app stores.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

NineTwoThree met my requirements, and our teams worked excellently together. We had access to NineTwoThree’s GitHub repositories early on and could see what they were working on. Our engineering teams had an excellent rapport and worked as one team. 

How did NineTwoThree perform from a project management standpoint?

NineTwoThree finished the project by the expected date and stayed on budget. They used monday.com for project management, and our team had access to it, although we didn’t use it. I could check what they were working on on monday.com, but we predominantly used Slack. 

We worked smoothly together, and our teams had active communication through Slack. Zoriana was amazing at keeping the project on track. She was phenomenal throughout the process and was always available to help raise questions. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed with NineTwoThree’s team. I was looking for a team that had been working together for a long time. I’ve encountered other contractor companies whose team hasn’t worked together as much. NineTwoThree team had been working together for six years, which shows in their work and process. The designer knew what was possible to develop and what wasn’t, and this was a key ingredient for our project’s success.

On the development side, Oleksandr was super proactive and thoughtful. He was very open and vocal about working with my team effectively, which was something I hadn’t found in other design firms. Andrew and Pavel had engineering backgrounds that helped us work smoothly — we spoke the same language.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for NineTwoThree to improve. I was worried we would have a problem, but everything was perfect, and we all benefited from our relationship. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend ensuring NineTwoThree’s team works together on an individual basis. This didn’t feel like a contract development team because we all worked great together. I also recommend establishing this culture of collaboration from the beginning of your project and keeping it throughout the engagement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of Dataflik. We provide marketing data to real estate investors and agents. We predict what homes will sell off-market to investors and when to sell on-market with an agent. Therefore, agents can use this to generate more listings.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NineTwoThree Venture Studio?

As a startup, we couldn’t afford a CTO, so we needed to scale our development staff.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

NineTwoThree Venture Studio has built our UI, our dashboard, and all our algorithmic models for real estate agents. They work on full stack development on the UX/UI side, machine learning, and data science. Our largest projects are between 2,000–3,000 hours.

Our internal team works on prototyping, and NineTwoThree Venture Studio implements the automation and architecture of our company. They primarily use Figma for the UI. The development stack is a combination of 6–7 languages, including AWS, React, and SQL.

What is the team composition?

We work with eight teammates: Paul (CTO), Andrew (CEO), a project manager, a QA engineer, two full stack developers, and two machine-learning software engineers.

How did you come to work with NineTwoThree Venture Studio?

I found them from a PPC ad.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $350,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2022, and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to the algorithm that NineTwoThree Venture Studio has helped us construct, we predict accurately about 60%–70% of home sales. We’re one of the top five companies in the industry. We’re pretty happy with that, and it gets better every month. 

How did NineTwoThree Venture Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

NineTwoThree Venture Studio has been great. They’re pretty integrated into our daily staff meetings and work. Before them, we had a satellite office and a lot of overseas development. However, the language barriers were too rough, and communication was poor, so we swapped agencies. 

We use Slack for our daily conversations and a combination of Google Meet and Zoom for our video calls. Additionally, we use monday.com for project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The biggest difference marker is their knowledge. The team that supports and executes the implementation has vast knowledge and experience. Moreover, the founding staff is a treasure trove of insight, and everyone is incredibly strong at implementation.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t want to touch anything. If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Outline exactly what you need in thorough detail and take notes of everything. If they understand your vision well, they can add a lot of value.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Dock is a customer collaboration platform. I'm the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire NineTwoThree Venture Studio, and what were your goals?

We hired NineTwoThree to build out a number of features in the application, including Security Profiles and integrations with video providers. Our goal was to increase the speed of our product development while maintaining a high code quality.

SOLUTION

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

923 impressed us from the beginning. Andrew was fantastic to work with when it came to scoping the project. Pavel and Tanya were amazing throughout the process as we moved into development.

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

The project included both front and backend work. Our tech stack is built on Javascript, React, Typescript, and GraphQL. The key deliverables were our Security profiles which included a complex admin flow, but also a streamlined customer experience. We also built integrations with Zoom and Gong.

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

The team featured a project manager, developer and CTO.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

923 delivered an exceptional product right on schedule. They did exactly what we asked them to build with a really high code quality and very little oversight on our end.

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

Communication happened through Slack and Monday boards. We also had a weekly meeting where we reviewed open tasks.

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

923 has been incredible to work with and I'd recommend them to anyone looking for product development support. The code quality was exceptional. Tanya did an amazing job project managing everything from start to finish. It made things really easy for us as a customer.

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

Nothing that comes top of mind! We love working with 923. It's more expensive than internal engineers, but the speed and quality makes up for that cost.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the General Manager for ConferenceSource, we do meetings and events for BioTech companies all over the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire NineTwoThree Venture Studio, and what were your goals?

We were using multiple apps for registration, sign in, venue management, agenda management and compliance. Non of them were perfect and non of them talked to each other.

SOLUTION

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

After researching off the shelf solutions for several months I got 3 referrals from industry contacts for groups that could build a custom solution. I start evaluating responses the minute I reach out to someone. 923 was the first to respond, I spoke with a senior team member for the discovery call and had a detailed proposal w/in 48 hours - before I had even an initial response from one company (so they were eliminated). The deciding factor to go with 923 came down to their communication, clearly articulated technical expertise and the quality of every team member I spoke with.

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

After my initial attempt at a scope of work, 923 came back with detailed questions and suggestions. They then put together a timeline and agreed to a weekly call cadence. We had clear milestones and had to finish X before we could move on to Y - all tracked in Monday.com. Phase one was supposed to take 30 days, they did it in 15. We used React JS + Node.JS & iOS/ipad.

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

5 in total, 3 that I interacted with - Senior PM, junior PM & partner. We had at least 1 designer and 1 programmer, with others helping as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Most importantly, we looked like heroes in front of our first client. We also saved dozens of work hours and the cost was 1/2 of our previous vendor. We will be adding functionality for the next 12 months, so more outcomes on the way.

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

Weekly calls with dev team, management jumping in as needed. All documented with attention to detail in Monday.com

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

The level of professionalism from the partners to the junior developers in the Ukraine. Their full-time employees speak perfect English and are a joy to work with.

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

Can't think of any.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Partner at OnCenter, a strategy consulting firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire NineTwoThree Venture Studio, and what were your goals?

We hired NineTwoThree to build a custom web app platform that helps users/teams organize strategies and goals, all on one page. OnCenter had prototyped the "Strategy Timeline" deliverable for several years in Google Slides, with worthwhile success with clients. We wanted a faster, more simple-to-use tool that allowed us to quickly build strategies on the fly. Our goal was to have a platform we could onboard users to quickly and they could dive in right away to work on their company, department, or personal strategies.

SOLUTION

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

We had a personal referral from a trusted friend who is currently building another project with them. This referral was huge. Andrew's professionalism, Tanya's operational communication, and the dev team's delivery was all super helpful and informative in helping us make a decision.

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

The project was a ~2-3 month build of a web-app. It functions similarly to a Trello/Kanban board with different "cards" that represent "Priorities" and "Objectives." The phases revolved around building out key components of the software -- first the information hierarchy, then the iterative arrows, then finally the "Present" mode. We used Slack and Monday.com for consistent communication.

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

Tanya (VP of Operations) and Anna (Project Account Manager) worked very closely with us on a weekly basis to communicate the updates to the software, and the questions/responses from the Dev team. I am unsure on what their positions are.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Normally, Strategy Timelines would take hours and hours to build. With the software, it takes us minutes for us to thoughtfully introduce and build strategies that can easily help our prospects and clients with their toughest strategic questions.

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

Phenomenally quick to respond. Very thoughtful with keen attention to detail. Clear, to the point yet very kind. We loved the warmth that paired well with the precise execution of exactly what we wanted. Worldclass timeliness and execution.

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

Deep empathetic care for us as clients, paired with respect of our time, budget, and requests. They're the dream team. We literally get both -- great products with great service at a great price. I couldn't have asked for anything more from them.

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

During the development of the SOW, if there were any areas you thought we might want to include, offer your feedback for features then if possible!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a team manager for an influencer booking application. Our app connects influencers to businesses and brands so that companies can book them more easily.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NineTwoThree Venture Studio?

We needed to engage a development company to help us develop an iOS app and launch it on the app store.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we started working with NineTwoThree, we had a lot of ideas for the application. First, we spoke to the team about our concept and provided screenshots of how we wanted the app to look. They helped us hone in on our ideas to identify the most important features they’d need to create a viable product. 

Then, they carried out comprehensive market research to identify potential competitors and see which features could set us apart. The insights determined that our ideas were sufficient to be able to create a new, unique application. 

They’ve essentially taken our design ideas and developed them into a functional iOS application. For the most part, they’ve built the app from scratch, although the team has used some plug-ins to help with coding and APIs. We plan to collaborate on developing an Android version in the future. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with Andrew (CEO), Stephanie (Product Lead), and two developers.

How did you come to work with NineTwoThree Venture Studio?

We found NineTwoThree online.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested roughly $250,000 in the partnership with NineTwoThree.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with NineTwoThree in February 2022, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t launched the application yet, but NineTwoThree has been able to bring our ideas to life beautifully. They’ve taken our broad vision and narrowed it down to give us a solid, user-friendly product. Since we’re still in the development stage, we’ve had a few bugs, but they’ve caught them immediately and resolved issues within 24 hours.

How did NineTwoThree Venture Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

NineTwoThree has excelled from a project management standpoint. Although each team member has a different position with a different goal, the team works well together to create the app. They know how to do their jobs. 

We’ve met in person, but now we meet weekly via Zoom to keep track of the process and go over new developments. If we have questions in between meetings, we can give them a call. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

NineTwoThree’s biggest strength is their team’s investment in our product. They’ve done a lot of legwork for us to make the product as successful as possible.

Rather than working on as many projects as possible to make the most money, they’re very selective about their partnerships. As a result, we feel they’re excited about building our product and care about our success. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing NineTwoThree could improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I advise maintaining an open line of communication with NineTwoThree. If you communicate with them, they’ll deliver a final product that meets your needs and makes you happy.