Peakode

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of a technology company providing a B2B marketplace for social media influencers and brands, allowing them to communicate and collaborate with each other.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Peakode?

Micro-influencers in social media are not monetized, and we saw this as an opportunity for creating a platform that empowered them to become independent marketers. The challenge was allowing brands to reach out to them, which our platform has done. My partner and I are business people, so we’ve outsourced the technical development to Peakode.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Peakode listened to our idea and created a scope of work on Google Docs. There, we wrote our ideas, detailing what the future of the app should be. We were finally able to determine what was doable and what we should be moving forward with. Once that document was set, the development process started. At the moment, the platform is being developed only for iOS. They’ve shown us some designs for the frontend, including ones for our logo and branding. We are at the end of the coding stage, and they have started to integrate our payment solution. Peakode will also be helping us with the App Store submission process.

We have one point of contact from Peakode’s side, who is our project manager, as well as one frontend designer. I assume that there is also one backend developer involved. It’s a three- to four-person team.

How did you come to work with Peakode?

They came recommended by a friend of mine who had worked with Peakode for another app. We were looking to find developers outside of the US for cost-saving purposes, even though we’re located in San Francisco. We had one in-person meeting with Peakode. Based on their language skills, professionalism, and the savings they could facilitate for us, we realized they were the right fit.

How much have you invested with Peakode?

The cost of Peakode’s work has been $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Peakode in October 2015. We will be ready to test by the end of May 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t shared the app with many people so far. After the testing phase, we plan to get feedback from our circle.

How did Peakode perform from a project management standpoint?

Peakode’s communication is great. Everything has been done within budget. We have requested some changes that seemed small for us non-technical people but required additional months to code. We were a bit confused by this, but it may simply be because of our lack of knowledge. If we don’t know what takes how long, we’ll feel like each process takes a lot of time.

What did you find most impressive about Peakode?

We sometimes had new ideas and wanted to add them in. Peakode was able to suggest much more effective solutions that we couldn’t have come up with ourselves. Their inputs were very valuable. The communication was excellent, and the team’s language abilities were no different from those of a US firm. The response time was always less than 24 hours. Peakode was always available for a call or Skype session, though we mainly communicated through email. Peakode has also made introductions to other web developers and payment collectors, so they’ve gone above and beyond what was described as their role. They accommodated any request we had.

Are there any areas Peakode could improve?

Having a dedicated platform for our app screens, instead of having to go back-and-forth, would be good. I now know that there are tools through which we could share screens and make edits. Whenever we wanted to make simple changes, we had to take screenshots of the specific area, enter it into Photoshop, and outline what we wanted. I would have appreciated it if we had access to a dedicated platform on which every screen of the app could be viewed at once. It would have been a cost and time-saving approach. I receive many emails daily, and I can lose track of individual requests. Peakode introduced Trello to us, which was very helpful. Our change requests are no longer logged through email, and we can better see what has been done.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of DAM Startup Studio.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Peakode?

We had an idea for a mobile app focusing on pregnancy, and we needed to partner with an agency for design and development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We developed our business model and came up with a long list of user stories. We requested Peakode to develop the app based on this information. We asked them to design the screens as well. Their primary work is normally not designing apps, but developing them, but they agreed to do this work. The app is focused on the Apple App Store audience first, so they developed it in iOS. It is a native app, but I don’t remember if they developed it with the new Swift code or the previous one. It was not developed with a hybrid in mind. Peakode focused on developing the app, and my business was to market it.

How did you come to work with Peakode?

I have another startup, which is a web app for business owners. For that project, we launched a local event, and I met the guys at Peakode there. They were very enthusiastic and keen on focusing only on mobile app development. I suggested them to my co-founders, who agreed to give it a try. Since then, we’ve worked with Peakode for one-and-a-half years.

How much have you invested with Peakode?

We’ve invested around $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in June of 2015, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app launched more than six months ago. The name is ALLE Hamile. It has a 10% monthly growth rate, and it has become very popular in my country. The target audience was very attracted to our app. In monitoring the app, we’ve seen a weekly growth rate. Without spending anything on marketing, we’ve reached a weekly growth rate of 3% right now. The app has more than 45,000 downloads and around 39,000 registered users. It’s quite a successful ratio of download to subscribed user. We have more than 16,000 monthly active users.

This has all been done by organic growth, with no advertising budget yet. The app has three different monetization features. We have e-commerce features, and we lease different products. We will be releasing paid post-tests for pregnant women.

Peakode helped us to build a dynamic email marketing system combined with the app user database. We are selling advertisements in this as well. They haven’t only worked on mobile app development, but they also created a CMS [content management system] where we can input administrative content. We are sending more than 35,000 administrative emails a week from that CMS.

The collaboration has succeeded because Peakode was really helpful and proactive. They were not merely taking orders from us, but they were also adding their ideas while we were developing the app. They were collaborating with us on the user stories and the registration processes.

How did Peakode perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication is more than great. The project management isn’t as good, but Peakode's team was helpful and trying to push their limits to be punctual.

What did you find most impressive about Peakode?

I appreciate their focus. Peakode just wants to design and develop mobile apps, which is the highest ranked objective of mine. They don’t want to deal with diverse needs, like web apps, smart TV apps, or marketing campaigns. They just want to focus on mobile app design and development. They’re located in one of the biggest cities in Turkey, and they don’t want to move from there. They have a very nice office. The team foundation is also great.

Are there any areas Peakode could improve?

Peakode should invest more resources in business analysis and project management parts of their firm.