NineTwoThree

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of Navv Systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired 923 to build our next generation mobile application. Our goals were to have a extremely robust location streaming application connected to the Navv Platform.

SOLUTION

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

923 has solid experience in IOT and iOS application development. they understand the technical challenges of creating commercial mobile applications that have realtime requirements.

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

We had a quick review and kickoff meeting. Prior to this they took our architectural diagrams and built their understanding of our needs. They have extensive experience with realtime - socket.io iOS and GPS/Bluetooth technologies. It was easy to get the scope and they then built that into their project management software to make it easy for us to review and track progress.

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

The team consists of:

• 1 Solution Architect
• 2 iOS developers
• A full time Tester
• A client manager
• a project manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application is our new foundation for our mobile strategy. We will be integrating it into our existing customers in the coming months.

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

Weekly touch base meetings. But direct access with Slack as immediately given, this removed blockers and reduced our time to get the project done.

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

Transparency and Technical Acumen. They are able to say what they can and what cannot be done. They ask questions and are outcome-focused on our success.

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

Not at this time. :)

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of consumer engineering of a pre-launch startup building a consumer electronic device with a companion mobile app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed help to develop our mobile apps. Although we had an internal developer that started the project, we needed to start moving more quickly and iterate on both platforms. I decided an outsourced development team was the way to go, so we hired NineTwoThree Venture Studio. Additionally, we needed some modifications to our e-commerce website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, we signed a four-month service agreement with NineTwoThree Venture Studio. They’re developing two apps, one for iOS using Swift and one for Android using Kotlin. They provide full service, including project management, development, and QA. 

The apps are companions for our consumer electronic device. The team has created the app’s UX flow and functionalities to play videos and view images. The core feature allows the apps to connect with the device and transfer data back and forth, such as over-the-air updates. Before working with NineTwoThree Venture Studio, we managed file transfers with a Wi-Fi feature with reliability issues. They’ve rewritten that feature for us and converted it to Bluetooth using Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi for larger file transfers. 

Currently, the apps are pre-launch. NineTwoThree Venture Studio does internal QA. Their developers do local testing and then shift to other team members within the organization to do QA before passing it over to us. Additionally, they’ve created a multi-stage checkout on Shopify for our e-commerce website. I’ve pitched them a site redesign based on new Figma designs, and they’ve also taken on this project as an additional contract.

What is the team composition?

I work primarily with Andrew and Pavel (Co-Founders) and with two people on the project management side. We’ve also had calls directly with some of the developers. 

How did you come to work with NineTwoThree Venture Studio?

When looking for a provider, the location was a concern because we had physical devices that needed to move back and forth, so I searched close to our Massachusetts office. I found five development shops that fit my criteria. NineTwoThree Venture Studio seemed to have very specific experience with device-connected apps. They had done another app with a laundry company and a baby monitor project, so their experience was very relevant to the type of project we were trying to do. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2021, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Previously, we had a technically intense syncing-up feature using Wi-Fi that was pretty brutal as it crashed quite a bit. Since NineTwoThree Venture Studio rewrote that feature, the UX for transferring data has improved, as well as the stability of the apps. Thanks to them, our development time has also decreased. The speed at which they turn around features is very impressive, and it has allowed us to shorten our development cycles. 

Moreover, their internal QA team does a pretty good job; once they release a feature to us, it’s in pretty good shape. We communicate any issues we find back to them. We also appreciate that they pop teammates in and out as their skillsets are needed, so we’re getting a whole team for half the price. 

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

They provide project management services using Monday.com boards for task assignments, bug reports, and bug-tracking. Their communication is good; we do a weekly touch-base meeting to go through the project. However, we mostly communicate through Slack, sending information back and forth. Our device engineers have a lot of communication with NineTwoThree Venture Studio’s developers, and we’ve done calls with them to discuss aspects of the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with many development teams, and NineTwoThree Venture Studio is really good. They’ve retained their development team throughout the years, so the group is cohesive and works well together. The quality of the code itself plus the team are outstanding. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any complaints; we’re really happy with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise spending some time with them in the beginning, clearly defining what needs to get done. Come in with as much information as you can, and once you have the major details down, NineTwoThree Venture Studio is great at estimating and pricing the project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Dishare is a B2C & B2B food marketplace platform. Dishare is a Personalized Culinary Health-Sensitivity Platform based on social

networking, Crowdsourcing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that helps you decide what to eat and creates the ultimate dining experience. The platform redefines the way people choose what and where to eat, exposes them to new experiences based on their “FoodPrint”, and educates about healthy and sustainable food. As Spotify does for music, Vivino for wine, we do for Food.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• MVP in 4 month
• Native app for iPhone and Android-based on Flutter
• Cloud
• DataBase
• Algorithms and AI

SOLUTION

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

• Vision
• Personality
• Liability
• Trust
• Availability
• Willing to help

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

• MVP in 4 month
• Native app for iPhone and Android-based on Flutter

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

• The CEO and CTO of the company
• Account Manager
• Full-Stack Developer
• Mobile App Developer
• UX | UI Designer
• Project Manager
• Quality Assurance Engineer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are launching in NYC this week the Beta version

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

• Working in Sprints, meeting every Monday
• Working together on a mutual Monday project
• We have mutual Slack

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

We went through a Pandemic, a war in Azerbaijan, a war in Ukraine, where they have employees, but NineTwoThree Venture Studio still delivered even in the hardest time!

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

In our case, to launch earlier with less functionality and then to keep working on the next version

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder of a conference and community for 7 to 9 figure SaaS, Ecom, and Media business owners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire NineTwoThree Digital Ventures, and what were your goals?

We wanted to move off of Slack and Facebook groups to a custom community app which we own and control and has the features we need to better engage our online community.

SOLUTION

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

I had an immediate connection with Andrew, the founder, when we were originally introduced from a mutual friend. He and his company were very enthusiastic and brought several ideas to the table on how to execute the app.

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

The team started by listending carefully to my vision for how the app would works. We refined these ideas to a "v1" feature set. Andrew and his team then designed and built a UI prototype which we refined and would later be used to code the app.

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

I worked with 5 team members. These included a product manager, a technical lead and two designer/developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've been able to leverage the work we did with the team to engage our community and "show them" rather than tell them. This has translated into substantial risk reduction in the decision if end users actually wanted what we built.

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

The project management style included excellent communication through a regular meeting cadence in addition to slack/email collaboration. We felt like we had a pulse on progress and the team came to every meeting with results they could show us.

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

I was most impressed at the team's ability to take a rather nebulous vision in my head and actually translate it to a practical functional system taking into account multiple platform, security, engagment, etc. needs.

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

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I run a team that builds, launches, and grows B2B software

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire NineTwoThree Digital Ventures, and what were your goals?

We started working with NineTwoThree to build a new video software project. We had a clear concept and we needed a capable team that could build it quickly and efficiently.

SOLUTION

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

I'd known one of the founders of NineTwoThree for some time through my network. He'd given me helpful business insight on a few occasions. When the need arose to find an external team to build alongside us, NineTwoThree was one of the first that came to mind.

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

After a few preliminary discussions with the founders, we agreed on terms of engagement and started in on the concept. We shared our vision of what we were looking for, along with the closest competitors and references available.

The NineTwoThree team then took those concepts and spent a few days with them to give an estimate for how complex it would be to build. We set a rough schedule and had weekly meeting to get updates, give input, and see the project come to life.

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

I worked with four team members directly: the founders, a project manager, and a designer. Additionally, they had at least two developers dedicated to the project — but that was managed on their side, so I didn't need to give input or oversight (which was great!).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

At the time of this writing, we are nearing completion of the project but we have yet to launch. The app is coming together really nicely and is looking fantastic. This is the most smooth build process that I've been a part of and I look forward to our upcoming launch!

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

My business partner and I communicate with their team via slack and weekly update meetings.

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

There's so much I could say here. The team is personable and able to communicate about complex technical things in everyday language. They take their work very seriously, but approach it in a light hearted and fun manner.

Every meeting with them is great. I really look forward to them. They are very good at work and timeline estimates and sticking to them — which is often challenging when dealing with complex technologies.

Finally, the scope of what their team is capable of is really incredible. If there's something we need built or added to the project, they can do it.

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

Honestly, I've loved the whole process. There's nothing that I would change.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a social networking app called Grouped, which is designed to enable leaders to create communities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NineTwoThree Digital Ventures?

We needed help with building our prototypes, digital architecture, user stories, and wireframes. Basically, we wanted someone to help us create something concrete with our ideas.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We first shared our designs with the team. NineTwoThree Digital Ventures then delivered all the technical documentation we needed to build our app natively on iOS, Android, and the web.

Then, the team built a prototype, which included over 100 user stories. They used Figma and designed a logo, color scheme, brand identity, and several screens. We regularly provided feedback, which they used to finalize their deliverables.

Finally, NineTwoThree Digital Ventures then helped us conduct customer discovery and research by conducting interviews with potential users.

We then presented their plans to our in-house development team, who used NineTwoThree Digital Ventures’ plans to develop the app. 

We plan on launching it on the App Store in April 2022. The app has a unique chat function and features in-app payments.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact was Andrew (CEO), who managed the project. We also worked with Pavel (CTO), Sasha (UI/UX Designer), a teammate who built the user stories, and another person who helped us conduct research.

How did you come to work with NineTwoThree Digital Ventures?

We found them on Clutch when we were searching for development agencies. We interviewed a bunch of vendors, but NineTwoThree Digital Ventures stood out because they were very personable.

On our initial call, both Andrew and Pavel were present. They promised to be heavily involved in the project, which said a lot because they were the owners.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from August–November 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ultimately, they helped us raise money. Our investors were very impressed with their work.

Furthermore, our in-house developers were thrilled with the documentation the technical documentation they provided. NineTwoThree Digital Ventures freed us from having to conduct research and focus on app development.

How did NineTwoThree Digital Ventures perform from a project management standpoint?

Their excellent project management was the best part of working with them. NineTwoThree Digital Ventures was very quick and kept us involved in every step of the process.

It was a six-week process. We had biweekly Zoom meetings where they presented us with what they had done in their latest sprint. Additionally, we used Monday.com, Slack, and Figma.

What did you find most impressive about them?

NineTwoThree Digital Ventures treated our project like it was their own, which we really appreciated. Their communication skills were also fantastic.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes they made some feature suggestions that we didn’t necessarily want. However, they were a very passionate team who cared about our product, so that wasn’t really a bad thing. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very open and honest with the team. I recommend reaching out and laying everything out for the team. They’ll be flexible with you and give you the best experience.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Altar Live, a video conference and livestream platform specifically designed for faith communities to present services and meetings online.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 923 Digital?

Like a lot of industries, the pandemic rearranged our lives in a significant way. For faith communities, that meant people who gather on a regular basis in person suddenly needed to find a different means of hosting event services and maintaining community and relationships.

We found people were using a cocktail of different platforms to achieve the goals of their community: live streaming on one, video conferencing on another. We wanted to build a platform that could bring everyone and everything together simultaneously.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

923 began with market research. They were on a lot of preliminary calls with us as we were beginning to sketch out what it is that churches are already using, the goal they’re trying to achieve, and the areas they’re lacking. We started exploring in tandem different technology platforms, and ended up landing on what we use now, our WebRTC technology. 

The next stage was design. We spent a few weeks figuring out a preliminary UX, layouts for screens, and the overall flow of the platform. Once that was finished, 923 started writing code to build our first prototype.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with a lot of people from 923, but most of my contact was with Andrew (CEO & Co-Founder), Pavel (Co-Founder), Tanya (Recruiter). We also worked with Ana (Junior Project Manager), and Yulia (Project Manager).  

How did you come to work with 923 Digital?

I met Andrew at a work event. We got to talking and I heard more about what 923 does. We stayed in touch, and when the pandemic started to unfold, they immediately came to mind as someone I wanted to work with. 

They’re a really agile team, and they’re entrepreneurs at heart. I could trust them to fiercely chase the problem we were trying to solve on our behalf as well. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’re at about $280,000 right now.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2020 and did our first full release in December. We’re still working together in phase two.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our biggest metric was whether or not they understood what we were trying to solve, and 923 hit a home run with that one. They did a lot of upfront work with us to really get to the bottom of what we wanted to accomplish. Any pivots that we’ve made have made a lot of sense, and they’re very responsive to what we’ve learned along the way.

We were also looking at speed of implementation. Even though we’ve done a few pivots, 923 has been able to turn around a lot.

Thirdly, we’ve been getting constant good updates from their project managers and their team on when we can expect certain features, what we’ve learned from customers, and more. Their product managers have been in very close step with us throughout the whole project, and I’ve been really impressed with the level of detail that they paid attention to. 

In terms of users, we just passed our 100th paying customer today, which is really great for a startup like ours. Moving at the pace we did with them, it’s a huge win. I couldn’t be happier with where we are now.

The platform 923 has built for us is top of the line. It’s really well thought out, the UX is awesome, and it feels like a $1,000,000 product for a nonprofit community like ours. We’re really proud to bring it to our customers.

How did 923 Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, they’re great. We do weekly meetings, or depending on the sprint, sometimes daily meetings. We get updates from project managers so we stay informed. 

We’re very synergistic. It’s basically like I’ve doubled the size of my own company by having 923 on board. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

923 has a very entrepreneurial spirit. Their company is driven to not just build a product, but to build a product that fulfills our customers’ needs. They’re very involved and have an amazing eye. I feel very confident that the product that I’m giving to my customers is going to make their life better and easier.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything that feels significant to say they need to improve. I feel incredibly satisfied with 923’s services.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t just give them your checklist, but let them in on the design experience as well. Bring them the problem you’re trying to solve and be honest, because they can give insight and help create a better product with you as a result.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of NUU Group, a creative agency and design consultancy. We work with customers to develop their brands by designing and building digital products and experiences.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 923 Digital?

We were looking for a development partner for some of the projects we’re working on for our customers. We were looking for a team to supplement on the development front for digital projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

923 Digital does backend and product management work. They also bring technical expertise to turn the designs that we do into actual working products and applications.

What is the team composition?

Our project manager interfaces with theirs.

How did you come to work with 923 Digital?

They were a word of mouth referral from someone who I know and trust. 

How much have you invested with them?

The current project has a $250,000 budget. It’s ongoing, so that will likely increase. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in January 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Its been a great partnership and experience. The greatest impact has been working with good people and the ability for our team to have full visibility into the status of the development.

How did 923 Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Depending on the engagement, they facilitate the project management. They are very transparent in their communication. The team is also very flexible, which is important for our current project. 923 Digital takes changes and pivots very quickly, which has impacted our relationship with our client. 

There’s been a clear plan for the phases in the project. Overall, the delivery has been on time, and their response time sands out. When we send them a message, the team gets back to us within minutes. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their open communication and responsiveness have helped to build trust over the past six months. So far, so good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Because of the fact that we’re merging two different teams together, it’s been hard to figure out how that comes together. Our relationship may be different than what they typically deal with because we’re also an agency

923 Digital tends to default to their processes, which can sometimes be too much. They try to move too quickly, almost preemptively, which often leads to backtracking and letting them know that we need to have a discussion about everything before we can approve the execution. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The team doesn’t just take a list of requirements and do it; they also provide more strategic planning and advice, which we and our clients have appreciated. 

They are really part of the planning process, so I would advise potential customers to be open to bringing them into that part of the process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’ve worked with them in several different positions. For this project, in particular, I was the CTO of a commercial laundry group.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 923 Digital?

We needed a team to bring the system up. We had the general architecture and approach and we wanted to outsource the development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built out the front- and backend of our IoT system. We had a bunch of commercial laundry equipment that was out in the field and they built a data ingestion pipe and a counterpart processing system in the cloud using AWS infrastructure. Then they built a pretty powerful frontend that allows our customers, distribution partners, and internal teams to evaluate the system in real-time.

What is the team composition?

We had several points of contact and about 10 people on the team overall.

How did you come to work with 923 Digital?

I’ve worked with them in the past on a different project. They deliver, they’re efficient from a capital perspective, they’re flexible, and they’re easy to work with.

How much have you invested with them?

It was north of $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from July 2015–June 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was a clear differentiator for us. It gave us more visibility for our customers. Now they’re able to understand their operations and extract methods in real-time and on a semi-regular basis. It helps us stand out in the market.

At a high level, we track customer utilization of the portal. As we continue to roll out new features, we’ve seen a steady increase in the utilization of the technology for our customer base and from our internal team.

How did 923 Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great; we had no issues at all. We had a regular meeting cadence and we were able to roll out our requirements to them on a regular basis and they delivered. They typically organized their work around two-week sprints. We used conference calls and Trello to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to understand project requirements. On top of that, they’re really easy to work with. I’ve worked with several third-party providers, and 923 Digital stands out for their flexibility.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As they look to grow, they’ll need to replicate the types of individuals they have running the programs. It’s hard to find, recruit, and develop people so their team continues to grow and work as the core team does now. That’s their challenge.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re able to synthesize requirements and provide alternative ways of thinking about things. They really go through that extra effort to make those suggestions, so you should take advantage of that. Their insights are very valuable and that distinguishes them from other providers.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Principal System Architect in the Connected Home team at Dorel Juvenile Group. Dorel Juvenile is a juvenile products manufacturer (car seats, strollers, baby gates, etc). We have 6 brands, Safety 1st being one of them. This was the first product designed and built by our company to re-enter the baby monitor market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire 923 Digital?

923 Digital was brought in to design the UI/UX of our mobile application. They worked with our marketing department to conduct consumer testing to design the correct UI/UX for the app. We then hired them to also build our first App to take to launch. We do not have any software/mobile developers in our company.

What were your goals for this project?

The App was the only interface to our baby monitor (hardware) product. So the App was our product and we needed to stand out from all the competition who either had baby monitors that came with clunky video monitor units or had apps that weren't as slick. In short, we wanted to stand out from our competition.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

923 Digital was referred to by another colleague on the team. They had worked with them before. We had quoted the project out to other larger companies. We ended up selecting primarily because they seemed like a boutique firm (lean and agile) and their price was a lot more competitive than the other vendors.

Describe the project in detail.

The project involved: 1. Consumer research to determine/prioritize features that would be helpful to first time parents. 2. UI/UX design including limited consumer testing to validate design. 3. Develop iOS/Android mobile applications 4. Develop backend using AWS managed services

What was the team composition?

The team comprised of a Technical Project Lead who was local to our office. We primarily dealt with him and he managed all the developer resources. We did have weekly meetings with him and the team (which was offshore). For the first 1.5 years, we had 2 iOS, 2 Android, 2 backend (java) and 2 QA engineers (9 people). They did bring in other resources on occasion to help with certain problems (this was excellent). The team eventually went down to 1 IOS, 1 Android, 1 Backend and 2 QA engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

On iOS we've maintained slightly above 4.0 rating consistently since launch. On Android, we've struggled to stay around 3.0... the problem with android has to do with the diversity of android hardware phones. Our app handles live video streaming and users with under performing phones have poor experience especially when compounded with poor network connectivity speed.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We worked really well with them. They were very flexible and adapted very easily to our team needs. We used our company's Jira instance to track all our development. We had 2 week sprints that the project manager from 923 Digital led. We used our GitHub account to track all code. We used Slack to tie everything up. The team was always very responsive over Slack even during US hours.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

How agile they are. They are quick to implement features and they seem to always be reachable and responsive to any of our needs. Their team was also very invested in our project. I think if we had gone with one of the bigger companies (who were out of our budget), we would not have gotten a team that really extended our own internal team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of anything at the moment. I don't think it's quite fair, but the team was not too familiar with hardware and live video streaming, so there were technical challenges we needed to overcome which took longer than I had hoped. This is a very niche need and we were also not paying accordingly.