OneSeven Technology

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Crew Me Up Inc., a mobile app company that serves the film industry. We connect people looking for employment with different resources. Our purpose is to create diversity in hiring practices. Additionally, we work with nonprofit organizations, as well as with vendors in the community that provide rentals and services. Basically, it is a one-stop shop for filmmakers.

What challenge were you trying to address with OneSeven Technology?

We needed help with mobile app development to get an MVP to market.

What was the scope of their involvement?

OneSeven has helped us with development and project management for our MVP development project. In the early days, they helped supplement our in-house development team. During this process, we noticed that their methodology was good and that they were doing more and better work than our internal developers, so we decided to hire them full-time.

When they joined, we already had a product that we were trying on the market, so we initially provided them with the existing code for it. We also had a systems architect and a designer in our in-house team who had already put workflows together, so OneSeven came in to help us manage all the tasks, keep us on track, and continue to develop what we had developed during the past months.

Our engagement with OneSeven has been a collaborative process. They’ve brought us options on what we can do and how we can do it for us to decide, and they always provide suggestions on what we need to do next. Our technology stack is very specific for what we’re trying to achieve, and it includes React Native, .NET, and eXpress Persistent Objects (XPO) for the frameworks.

Currently, OneSeven provides maintenance services, which include updating the app and performing bug checks. The development work is ongoing; we release product updates every two weeks to release more features.

This mobile app is a tool for entertainment professionals to host their resumes, information, and availability, as well as to look for work and manage their calendars. Basically, it is labor management software. From the hiring perspective, users can see 13 different departments and everyone hired within each department.

What is the team composition?

We’re in direct contact with James (Founder & CEO), who acts as part project manager and part lead developer. Additionally, we’ve worked with a few other project managers and 2–4 developers at any given time.

How did you come to work with OneSeven Technology?

They were a recommendation from a friend.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $150,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together towards the end of 2021, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

Since launching the app, we’ve got 1,000 downloads without marketing it. Additionally, it has gotten very positive responses from first users. Overall, this app has met our expectations.

How did OneSeven Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

OneSeven has met the deadlines and stayed on budget. We use Slack and ClickUp as collaboration tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve worked with many different outsourced companies and developers at this point, and something that makes OneSeven unique is their adaptability. Whenever we tell them our concerns and the direction we need to take, they adapt, move developers around, change their system, and change their pricing model. They always bend over backward to support our company and get us to a place where we can be successful. I haven’t experienced that with any other company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

OneSeven constantly works on their areas of improvement. For example, one of their team members had a language barrier, which slowed down the development process. Thus, we talked to them about the issue, and they helped us solve it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be transparent with your scope and be present in the meetings. Additionally, ensure to understand your priorities and communicate them. OneSeven is very good at getting things done as long as they know what to do.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a Technical Advisor for Databiologics.com. We develop and manage Web-based applications that orthobiologic clinics and providers use to track patient outcomes. Outcomes measure the effectiveness of different treatments performed to improve a patient’s health and well being.

What challenge were you trying to address with OneSeven Technology?

We were looking for a knowledgeable software development partner that could collaborate with our team to improve our platform and deliver innovative features.We realize that many different skillsets are needed when developing software and we needed a partner who could program requirements, design intuitive user interfaces, and reliably manage the operational infrastructure of our Web applications.

Our team includes healthcare providers and medical doctors who interact directly with the developers, so we were looking for a collaborative partner to work with us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started working with OneSeven after having partnered with another vendor. OneSeven took development ownership of our existing applications with a “dedicated Pod,” (or team), to help with migration, support, and platform feature enhancements. They redeveloped and extended the functionality of our applications fixing known issues and implementing new features. 

We have multiple end-users of our platform including medical doctors, clinic administrative staff, and patients. The doctors and clinic staff use the platform to enter patient information, diagnostic assessments, and treatment details. Each time a patient visits a clinic treatment information is updated and the patient receives a survey regarding their health improvements which are scored and tracked through our platform.

The system collects this data and analyzes outcomes to help doctors understand the effectiveness of their treatments. OneSeven Technology helped us improve features and add new capabilities that support our objectives for patient outcomes reporting and analysis.

OneSeven developed a new application interface and integrated it with our platform to help us easily administer and onboard new clinics. The application allows new clinics to set up their information seamlessly. The application streamlines the administrative work to add users, set up logins and passwords, and manage member permissions. In the healthcare field, regulatory requirements and compliance is very important and OneSeven implemented these changes within HIPAA guidelines.

OneSeven’s team also provides for the day-to-day operational support of the Website, which runs on the AWS Cloud, ensuring our servers and databases are running smoothly and are always available.

What is the team composition?

We have access to OneSeven’s entire team as our project requires. We regularly work with OneSeven’s Software Developers, AWS Architects and Engineers, UI/UX Designers, and Project Managers as needed to implement our requirements. In addition, a Software Developer is dedicated to our project and has become part of our team, gaining subject matter knowledge in our business and engaging in productive discussions about our requirements.

How did you come to work with OneSeven?

James (OneSeven’s CEO) approached us. He had heard about our work through LinkedIn, and he reached out to introduce OneSeven and share their capabilities.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered with OneSeven in mid-2021. The partnership has been productive and is ongoing.

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

OneSeven has improved the reliability of our platform and worked with us to establish a software development process based on Agile methods for new software development. They deliver multiple new features each month that help our clinics manage the healthcare provided to their patients.

How did OneSeven perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great with project management, organized and focused on delivery. We consider OneSeven to be our Application Development and IT Team and we work with them on a daily basis. Jointly, we’ve established an Agile-based software development and project management process that is closely aligned with methods from Lean and Scrum.

We define requirements which are reviewed with OneSeven’s team and estimated, we collaborate to deliver and test changes in two week Sprints, and at the end of each two week period changes are delivered to our production environment. This process has been consistent and reliable. Here’s how it works.

During each two week Sprint we have multiple status meetings that align with the Agile development process. We review requirements and their estimates and determine how much can be completed in the period. We track the amount of time to complete a requirement against its initial estimate.

Differences are identified and are used to improve estimates in the next cycle. Accurately estimating work is important for managing our development and support budgets and OneSeven has shown consistent improvements in this area.

In cases when work took longer than initially anticipated, we collaborate with OneSeven to determine the best path forward, sometimes redefining requirements or rescheduling work as appropriate.

James has been a terrific partner. We meet with him weekly (and sometimes more often) and he is clearly very involved in our projects. James takes the time to understand and contribute to our strategy and he guides the OneSeven team to meet our goals.

We use ClickUp as our primary project management tool which supports our Agile development process. ClickUp has all the features we need to collaborate on requirements, estimate work, and track progress. Other tools that we rely on to support our collaboration with OneSeven include Slack for real-time communications and Zoom for video meetings and screen sharing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

OneSeven excels in three important areas. The first is their technical competency in software development and in the technologies used by our Web applications, including the infrastructure and databases that run on AWS. UI/UX Designers work with us to develop intuitive user interfaces and also show competency in this area. The OneSeven team is skilled in software development and collaborative in their approach.

The second is flexibility in their process and delivery using Agile methods to work iteratively and deliver incrementally. This approach has allowed us to quickly address problems and to deliver new features as required by our clients. In this way, OneSeven has raised the bar on delivery.

And OneSeven’s third strength is an ability to field an end-to-end team of Software Developers, System Architects, UI/UX Designers, and Project Managers based on our needs. Along with their collaborative approach, these strengths set OneSeven apart from their competitors.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always opportunities to improve. I have an example of a significant improvement that OneSeven was able to make for us. They worked with us to shift a one month delivery process to every two weeks.

When we started working with OneSeven we were on a monthly delivery schedule which was a little too long in some cases to update our applications. We talked to James and our Project Managers about delivering at the end of each Sprint (ie, every two weeks) so we could release features more quickly. OneSeven took 1–2 months to revise their process and make scheduling adjustments so that the Software Developers could accommodate the more frequent delivery schedule we are using today.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to be collaborative. Partnerships are a two way street and OneSeven has proven to be a very collaborative software development partner. We don’t have a transactional relationship where we submit requirements and wait for results. We wanted a development partner that would be a contributing part of our product and we consider OneSeven to be part of our Team.

OneSeven contributes to the long term direction of our applications and I think anyone looking for software development assistance should value that type of collaboration.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the former VP of product management MyCarrier. We provided software solutions to the transportation industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with OneSeven Tech?

We had a website that essentially served as a proof of concept (POC). After it was put into production, we gained quite a bit of market traction — we had about 4,000 customers. However, the platform wasn’t built to scale. As a result, we needed OneSeven to help us redesign and refactor the website. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

OneSeven worked on the UI/UX design of the website, along with user workflows. For context, the website allowed end users to get quotes from multiple carriers as they tried to move freight. The engagement was divided into four phases. They initially did an internal discovery phase, and then they did an external discovery phase where they talked to our customers. 

From there, the third phase focused on iterative designs based on the discovery phases they did. The fourth phase was refinement and delivery; they refined the website based on the feedback we gave them, and they delivered a set of Figma-based, high-fidelity mock-ups. 

In terms of our requirements, we wanted the website to be intuitive. Our existing product required plenty of handholding for the end users. As a result, one of our major requirements was to limit the number of interactions that customers needed to have to discover the website’s value. Apart from that, we required a clean and modern design — we wanted the platform to be user-friendly, delightful, and visually appealing. Finally, the site needed to operate well with our backend constraints, which were plenty because of the integrations we had with providers. 

OneSeven provided additional services in the form of analysis. The team looked into analytics tools that we could potentially leverage for the website. We didn’t ask them to embed those analytics into the platform, but we asked them to make suggestions. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with their founder and CEO, who served as an executive sponsor for the project. Our team collaborated with two UX specialists. Overall, it was a lean team of three people. 

How did you come to work with OneSeven Tech?

We vetted multiple companies in the beginning, but we didn’t find what we wanted. Our team ended up searching on Google for companies. We interviewed 3–4 teams including  OneSeven, which turned out to be connected to our partner VC firm. 

How much have you invested with them?

Our investment was around $55,000–$58,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from January–April 2022. We originally planned to finish in March 2022, but we extended the project a bit because we needed to do additional work; we had a change in requirements in the middle of the engagement. 

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

We required high-fidelity designs to meet our Sprint deadlines, and we achieved 100% on-time deliveries for those. In other words, we never missed any deliveries during the engagement. That was the primary success metric I had. 

Since we didn’t set up analytics upfront, we couldn’t quantify the project’s impact on our business. However, we were able to launch our subscription product. We asked our existing 4,000 customers to start paying for the platform. We did see conversion numbers, and the success was directly attributed to the new design of the platform done by the OneSeven team. 

How did OneSeven Tech perform from a project management standpoint?

OneSeven’s communication was great. We had a Slack channel, weekly meetings, and ad hoc meetings — the team was truly embedded in our organization. They served as a true extension of our company at that time. To manage the engagement, we used Asana and Microsoft Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They quickly understood and embraced our main requirements. Within our first meetings, they got to our use cases and understood their permutations quickly. Their resources learned what our customers were trying to do and what we were trying to accomplish. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were some disagreements between our internal UX person and the OneSeven team. Things were sometimes escalated to me when I could’ve let my UX person solve them. In hindsight, we could’ve defined roles and responsibilities a bit more clearly. I could’ve also empowered my internal UX person and let OneSeven understand that she was the one who made decisions on UX-related issues and not me. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront with what your main priorities are. OneSeven will start working as soon as you sign the agreement, so you have to lay out your goals up front in your initial meetings. On top of that, you have to hear from the team and confirm that they understand your expectations. 

This way, they can come back to you with an honest picture of what they can do based on what you tell them and your timeframe. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a designer at a transportation and logistics company in Scottsdale, Arizona.

What challenge were you trying to address with OneSeven Technology?

We needed help with UI/UX design to improve the experience while onboarding people to our platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

OneSeven Technology assisted us with UI/UX design and did a tool kit that we could use going forward. Overall, the main task was to simplify our onboarding process because we had a lot of deserted users due to the confusion of the platform. In terms of technologies, we used Figma, and then we transitioned to the system we use internally.

What is the team composition?

We worked with James (Founder), Michelle (UX Designer), and an extra designer.

How did you come to work with OneSeven Technology?

They were already working with our company, and I took the lead on this project at some point.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent $50,000–$100,000 with them for this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2021–March 2022.

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

Thanks to their work, we now have responsive pages — I was very thankful for their proposal on making everything mobile-friendly to prepare us for the future.

How did OneSeven Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was great. After every meeting, they provided a bullet-point list of the work they did and the work they’d do, which was also always executed. In terms of tools, we used email, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very helpful and patient in understanding our wants and needs throughout the process. Other providers drive the project according to their initiatives, but OneSeven Technology’s team was attentive to our requirements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on — they were great.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a proptech startup headquartered in Detroit

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

We are rolling out the consumer-facing side of our renovation platform. We only have 1 engineer on the team, so it was a large undertaking for a single person. Additionally, our design was pretty outdated. We hired OneSeven to increase the speed at which we could build the MVP and revamp our design. Ultimately, our goal was to have the consumer side ready for a full MCP launch scheduled for March.

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

We partnered with another company that helps startups across core competencies utilizing free-lancers, agencies, and w2 employees with capacity. We were connected with OneSeven to assist in our MVP development.

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

We had a number of discovery calls to get aligned on the scope and deliverables. The scope was full MVP design, message & notifications, and Stripe payment integration. OneSeven requested any and all info that could help them understand our customer's journey. We sent over all personas, user stories, and real-time learnings from our pilot. OneSeven incorporated everything and would schedule additional calls if questions arose.

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

The owner of the company acted as our PM, so we really got the white glove treatment. Additionally, we were given a designer and developer to deliver the scope.

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

We are on target for our March launch. There's no way my team gets to this point without OneSeven.

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

The team was super easy to communicate with via Slack. Messages, questions and assignments/tasks are responded to in a timely fashion. Updates are also sent after each deliverable is completed.

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

OneSeven Technology felt like a part of my small team. They cared about the problem we are setting out to solve. They got excited with us for each new learning from our pilot and how it impacted our development.

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

No, I can honestly say it was a phenomenal experience and I wouldn't change anything.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Templa. A service for the self development industry, A tool that helps people visualize their goals using manifestation techniques.

What challenge were you trying to address with OneSeven Technology?

We hired OneSeven Technology to help us with the UX design for our prototype.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially when we partnered with OneSeventech we were in the conceptual phase of development.

OneSeventech led a very methodical two week strategy session in order to help us confirm our own research assumptions.

We had a few sessions of two-hour Zoom calls where they asked me questions about my project to see it from different angles. Based on these interviews, they created user avatars and developed a roadmap of how we could market our product. They developed three user personas that were in line with our own research. This was presented to us in a slideshow and has been very useful to use in further research work.

From this information they started developing the wireframes for the product using Figma.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with James (Founder & CEO) and Michelle (UX Designer), but there are a few more people supporting them.

How did you come to work with OneSeven Technology?

My business mentor recommended James so it gave me a lot of confidence to work with him. Above all, I felt at ease with James and his company’s expertise.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $12,000–$16,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2021, and we continue to collaborate.

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

They’re great designers, and I’m very happy with the work they’ve done for us. As to the impact of their designs, we haven’t started operating yet so we don’t have metrics. However, we’ve been able to secure some funds because we now have a prototype to showcase our product. On top of that, the UX design they’ve implemented has really helped us to see where we want our product to go.

How did OneSeven Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve collaborated very well together, and we’ve been able to share all of our ideas with them. Michelle has been very easy to work with, and with her expertise, we’ve been able to create a really amazing product. They send us Basecamp links, and we usually communicate via Whatsapp or email after that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This is my first time working with a vendor so I can’t compare them to anyone. I can say that they enabled us to secure funding with their creative UX design and professional service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have been great all round and the only thing I could give them feedback on is structuring the editing process to make it more streamlined.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give and share information as you can because James is very patient and is able to explain things in a way you can understand. As a team, they’re awesome at building prototypes so I‘d definitely recommend them to others.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a marketplace for micro licensing musical content. We also do digital asset management and storage. 

What challenge were you trying to address with OneSeven Technology?

We’re a startup, and our website does what it needs to do. However, it’s not scalable at all. We’ve had about 3,000 user backlogs that we can’t add to the site. As a result, OneSeven is helping us rebuild it from scratch and from the ground up.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first part of the engagement was creating a project roadmap in which OneSeven fleshed out everything the site needed, considering all of its moving pieces. They also determined the number of stages that the buildout was going to take, finding ones that were absolutely essential. Then, James (CEO & Head of Operations) looped in his teammates to answer the questions I had about the project roadmap.

Once we committed to this project roadmap, we provided their team with more details on what we needed. After giving them requirements, they started doing more research and gave us a quote for the project. This process lasted for three weeks. 

From there, our engagement’s next phase is the UI/UX design, which is much more intense; it’s where the actual work of building the website starts. At present, we’re in the middle of raising capital. Once we complete the fundraising effort, we’ll continue to the development phase. 

What is the team composition?

James is our main point of contact, but I also talk to Michelle (UX Designer). I’ve also talked to a couple of developers over the phone for their team to better understand our needs. 

How did you come to work with OneSeven Technology?

I was introduced to a person who helped startups connect the dots in business. While we were talking about my pain points, he said that I should meet James. That was how I met OneSeven. I did some research on them and checked if they were capable. Then, we did an introductory call. Apart from them, I also vetted other developers. James stood out as a great communicator; the difference between their communication skills was night and day.

On top of that, the OneSeven team had the best portfolio. Ensuring that they could build what we wanted to build, we also learned that they were truly forward-thinking. In fact, they already knew some of the things that we were talking about. By contrast, other companies were more archaic in terms of how they built things up.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent $4,000 on the project roadmap. We expect the next phase of the project to cost a bit more money. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the engagement in July 2021, and it’s ongoing. 

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

The project roadmap that OneSeven has built is truly useful. If we’re building a house, one can say that we already have a blueprint. As such, we can show our investors exactly how much material we need. With the roadmap, we also know if we have the vendors that can provide the materials and their costs. Further, it tells us how many hours it will take to finish the project. 

More importantly, the roadmap shows our investors that we’ve thought the project through. They understand why we’re asking for a specific amount of money from them. Rather than simply telling them that we need funds for the website, we can show them where we’re going to use the funding. This is truly important for us. Overall, the material that OneSeven has given us is helpful. 

How did OneSeven Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

OneSeven is always on the money when it comes to deadlines and communications. They’re exceptional. Even their printed materials are easy to understand. As a result, even though building this website is a huge undertaking, I don’t feel scared because I understand what their team is talking about and why we need to do certain things.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They do exceptional work — they also lead the pack in this aspect — but what truly stands out is how well they can communicate their ideas to us. I’m not a tech guy or a developer, so talking to developers is sometimes difficult; that’s a huge communication barrier. Luckily, James has a real gift in terms of communication. He can explain everything to me in a way that a layperson can understand. On top of that, he’s spent much time understanding our needs. He chimes in when he knows we should consider another way of doing something.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

James is good at making the most out of calls, so schedule a call with him. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the co-founder of a community based social network.

What challenge were you trying to address with 17 Web Dev?

We needed a partner to build our web application platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

17 Web App is in the process of developing our web application. We have an existing website, that they're using for reference, but this new platform will be built from scratch. They conducted user interviews to understand our vision and use cases and built some wireframes to come back and get our feedback. After, we provided feedback, we went and developed a mobile counterpart to the application as well. It's currently built on Julia and PHP. At some point, they'll be upgrading it to WordPress and PHP.

What is the team composition?

On the design, portion, I only worked with two points of contact. For the development, we have around three people, including a project manager and two developers.

How did you come to work with 17 Web Dev?

We did some research online and posted our requirements on some freelancing websites. We contacted three companies, and 17 Web Dev was the best fit.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in September 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

It's only been month one on the development side of things, but we've been pleased with how the design turned out.

How did 17 Web Dev perform from a project management standpoint?

They've delivered on time and within budget thus far. For development, we've been using a bi-weekly scrum methodology. Our communication is once every two weeks, and we'd like to turn that into once a week. From a team standpoint, it's helpful to see the progress they've made.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They definitely know what they're doing. From a design perspective, they've delivered and brought in a lot of good insight into the process. The cost also seems very reasonable and for our budget. Overall, they really understand startups and the things we go through. We bring back that aspect into how we engage and what our next steps should be.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be nice to have a different development cycle, wherein they involve and engage their customers more. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Platonic, a geolocation-based interest app to find real-time platonic relationships.

What challenge were you trying to address with 17 Web Dev?

Our in-house team handles the frontend work, so we hired 17 Web Dev to help with the iOS backend development of our app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

17 Web Dev created the backend of our app from scratch. We told them our ideas and recommendations for what it should look like, and they gave us potential designs to pick from.

Their team has helped us build several features so far, including a custom messaging interface and our tutorial. They’ve also created a social media request tool, allowing users to request, approve, and deny access to their profiles. Additionally, the app has a scrollable queue, showing people from closest to furthest. 

What is the team composition?

In total, around five people have been helping us from their team. They regularly provide a UX/UI designer, backend developer, project manager, and iOS developer. 

How did you come to work with 17 Web Dev?

We met them at an industry conference, and we hit it off with  James (CEO & Head of Operations, 17 Web Dev).

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $40,000 on their services. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in December 2018, and we’re continuing to work together. 

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

They’ve hit every goal that we’ve set for them, so far. We have no complaints about their delivery at this point. 

How did 17 Web Dev perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve set a list of goals, and use Teamwork to execute the project and achieve them. They’re very attentive and walk us through what needs to be done.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a very hands-on team and have a thorough process that we appreciate. Coming into the project not knowing much about app development, we've found it very helpful to have 17 Web Dev guide us through the work. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Since some employees are independently contracted, it has been slightly confusing at times when some employees join at different times. However, there’s been nothing else I can think of for them to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be involved in the process, because they truly want to make the right product for you and do it thoroughly. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director and founder of a nonprofit that uses a subscription model to negate carbon footprints.

What challenge were you trying to address with 17 Web Dev?

I contracted them to build our website. Rather than a tacky WordPress site with plug-ins, James (CEO & Head of Operations, 17 Web Dev) promised a robust system. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

17 Web Dev is building a web application with a React.js frontend, a Node.js backend, and a Google Firebase database for scaling. Beyond creating an ordinary page, they built a customer reward points system that integrates with our credit card processor and triggers points after confirming payment. 17 Web Dev basically created a subscription program.

They also integrated the system with the Shopify API. Using Webhooks, they added products to our rewards program, connected them to individual user profiles, and built a backend database for registered accounts. Our users can track how many trees we've planted for them and what carbon impact they’ve had. We’re launching in the next two or three months. They’ve finished the MVP and will keep it as robust as possible.

How did you come to work with 17 Web Dev?

I found James through a simple internet search. I had a limited budget, so I wanted an affordable, local partner who I could meet face-to-face. A local partnership was also a huge benefit for James because it helped him explain things better. A lot of people can say “yes” on the phone, but it’s hard to fake when you're sitting together.

James explained everything. I went through many developers to find someone who could do that. Even before we discussed pricing, he understood my goal. He wanted to give me the best representation, rather than wasting his time on a client who didn’t understand his services. That was refreshing.

Few entrepreneurs are successful, but James vets clients to determine that they’re serious. He ensured that I completely understood my plan. He didn't constantly sell himself; our conversation went both ways. He was willing to work with me and passionate about my idea. 

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve paid them $20,000 so far. I pay commission for the ongoing work, but set a minimum payment. Our payment schedule varies depending on how much work they do. We might work for a full month, then hold until we have more money. We paid for an extra two months of a la carte development, but I've never felt duped or misled.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project has evolved as we built and gone in a different direction than the original contract. The project is a long-term collaboration for updating the site, adding content, and tweaking the system. James is as fluid, amenable, and transparent as possible.

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

I’ve attempted other internet businesses in the past, but not at this scale. James is instrumental in identifying our limitations and horizons. We knew we’d encounter limitations, so I needed someone who could understand my idea and step back from the technological limitations I imposed on myself.

I thought we were going back to the drawing board at one point. We planned to use a Shopify site, but James exposed a monkey wrench. He handled things well, leaned on his developers, and delivered a working demo I didn’t expect for another three months.

How did 17 Web Dev perform from a project management standpoint?

They do everything they can, but I don't like their Teamwork project management software. I'm not enthusiastic about staying up to date with it, which is a pain for them. Our communication is still excellent, and I give them top marks for project management and teamwork. They invited us into the project and were totally transparent about development and deadlines.

James tackles all projects in the same way and always strives to do better. During whiteboarding sessions with his development team, they created a main solution and two backups to use when the first one inevitably failed. He lays everything out and makes it seem almost easy. It's a simple, robust approach.

What did you find most impressive about them?

James builds valuable products. He doesn't create as many websites as possible while outsourcing work to engineers in India. Instead, he pursues high-quality projects and fantastic ideas.

His transparency also eliminates huge issues. I entered this project with certain expectations and stated some preconceptions as facts. James didn’t realize how ignorant I was, but he dealt with it. 

I see James as my co-founder, but I couldn’t pay him his worth if he were an employee. We wouldn't have anything without the system and infrastructure he built. Trusting him was one of the best things I've ever done for my company. He’s a great partner at every step. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

My only comment is that his first facilities weren’t up to par. He opened his offices during my tenure, and they’re beautiful now.