Railwaymen

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and former CEO of an online educational technology platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

We had a unique case. The quality of our previous third-party provider was slipping, and we needed a new vendor urgently. We had very little control over our infrastructure, and I didn’t trust the previous company to handle all of it any longer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Railwaymen went in immediately and got us sorted out before we even signed a contract. Our old platform was full of holes, and it crashed and broke all the time. The previous company provided almost no documentation, but Railwaymen worked through every issue. The platform runs on Ruby on Rails, and they did a lot of backend work to fix all the bad code. We’re currently working on web-responsive mobile development, and we’re moving more heavily into iOS development now.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with a developer at the beginning. Starting in April, we added a project manager as we moved them into iOS. We also have a designer working on the project.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

We found them through Clutch. When we first started, we considered two companies, but the company we chose underperformed, as I mentioned. Railwaymen contacted us just as we were considering a new partnership, and we decided to work with them instead.

How much have you invested with them?

Our total expense is somewhere between $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had no real uptime before they started working with us, so the improvements are on several orders of magnitude. Before, we were bleeding customers, but the infrastructure they put in place saved us. We’ve more or less doubled our userbase.

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

I can message them at any time, and they’re always available to make changes. Most of our communication is through Slack, and we speak with their developers on a daily basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They balance my needs but are willing to push back if they know an idea of mine won’t work properly. They have a good network, and they’ve added design resources and other team members that we needed. They put deadlines first, which we value.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their receipts come in different languages, which can be confusing. It would be helpful to have them just in English, but that’s really the only pain point I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We're an agency that is involved with anything regarding digitalization, strategy, concept, design, and development of digital products. We've been founded in 2017, we're around 15 people and my role is coordinating projects development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Railwaymen?

The challenge was building a learning platform that interacts with an existing Ruby on Rails app in a very short time. In a very agile way and with requirements not fully defined.

What were your goals for this project?

The solution was a service-oriented ruby on rails app that provides a CMS, user service, messaging service and notification service all managed via an admin panel that provides the user a learning journey. At the same time interacting with an existing platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended to us also the online reviews help make the decision.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project's requirements were documented in a very brief manner. As the requirements were very agile and shifting often. The project needed to provide a user service that handles participants in the program and also admins and editors for the content creation and program admin. The project gathers together users that participate in a learning program.

A CMS was built to provide content maintained by editors. The Admin panel allows the creation of a guided learning journey for the end-user. On the end-user side, the user receives an account sets a password and participates in the program. Which allows guided learning and interaction with other users in the program via the chat.

The team developed all functionality from scratch also using existing standards as example: the chat via XMPP.

What was the team composition?

The team size fluctuated from over 10 developers to 3 at times. Depending on the workload. The team consists of senior and junior developers that are willing to step over their comfort zone.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The project was very important for us, the start was bumpy due to many factors. One of time: the short time to develop a new solution and integrating it with an existing solution. However, since the beginning, we've come a long way and we're continuously improving.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

As the timeline was very short and the requirements flexible we had issues with meeting quality standards that were expected. The project's requirements were setup in Confluence. We worked with Jira for ticketing and Sprints. And direct communication via Slack.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

As our relationship evolved the team got more attached and involved in the project. They do care about quality however that requires time. Which, in an agile environment, is not always an asset you can rely on. The team has even worked in shifts to deliver features that were required.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As with any project and looking in the past you can find space for improvement. Would have been great to have a more realistic time estimation in the beginning and more consulting on what can be achieved in what period of time. Managing the expectations on what can be delivered would have released some stress we had along the way.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a media technology business. We analyze video and audio files.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

We needed to add a number of new features to our platform, but the developers we were working with didn’t have the capacity. We hired Railwaymen to help with this development, particularly with Ruby on Rails, to create a type of turnkey solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Railwaymen performed quite a bit of backend development for us, using Ruby on Rails. They also did frontend work on the platform. Their team handled a lot of the integration and project management tasks for the engagement. 

What is the team composition?

Three people from their team worked with us. 

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

After looking on Clutch, we found a number of potential companies with the proper skill set. We wanted the right size vendor that wasn’t too big or small as to stay in our budget. After interviewing each and considering recommendations, we chose Railwaymen. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between Feburary–April 2019. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Although I don’t have specific metrics, we were very happy with their work. 

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

They provided a high level of project management, which was exceptional. We used Slack and Jira. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a very friendly team to work with. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although there’s always room to improve, I’m happy with the services they provided. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the owner of Babysitters America, an online matching service that allows families to recruit and hire babysitters & nannies. It is also a job portal for babysitters and nannies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Railwaymen?

We hired Railwaymen to build a website from scratch.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a user-friendly website that provided detailed information that would fill user needs.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A friend spoke highly of Railwaymen and their experience. When we spoke with their team, the conversations were natural, and they clearly understood our goals.

Describe the project in detail.

We developed a concept and strategy together. Then, Railwaymen created mockups and wireframes of the website. A babysitter or nanny can list their profile with specific details and can correspond with potential families. Employers can also specify criteria and caretakers that matched would appear in their search.

What was the team composition?

We worked with Lukasz (CEO & Founder, Railwaymen) and other team members.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Visitors are using the completed site and its features. We instantly had families and caretakers registering and operating the matching platform.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our engagement was seamless. Talking with Railwaymen was easy. Their team made us a priority and strived to accomplish our goals. They provided thoughtful insight into how to handle various areas of the build. All communication, through meetings and calls, went excellently throughout the project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Railwaymen’s team displayed a tremendous amount of expertise. They explained concepts in layman’s terms, making them easy to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, there are none that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

When I employed Railwaymen, I had started a company called AppBistro.com.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

We secured some funding after launching our initial MVP at the first Techcrunch Disrupt in New York and were having a difficult time hiring engineers in the Bay Area. We needed an engineering team for coding, as well as architecture and backend development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We pivoted the project twice. The initial platform they built, per our initial requirements, was an app marketplace for small business on Facebook. At the time, Facebook had the concept of Pages and businesses were investing a lot in their Facebook Pages. Large companies were hiring agencies and investing hundreds of thousands of dollars to build their Facebook Page. Smaller locations and businesses couldn’t afford to do that, so we created a marketplace of small, less expensive apps for these businesses to install and configure.

For example, a coffee shop could install a Yelp and/or menu app; a band could install a YouTube app so that their videos would show on their Facebook Page. It was a two-sided marketplace where small businesses could better advertise themselves, and consumers could use our interface to quickly familiarize themselves with these businesses.

Our first pivot was toward more of an API showcase. Railwaymen built an entire platform that allowed users to submit applications as developers, enabling someone from an API site—like a developer relations manager—to approve apps to be listed in their showcase. We turned our initial, single instance platform into more of a white label SaaS product

For the second pivot, we applied the same concept to mobile apps and allowed traditional media publication to showcase apps relevant to their subject matter expertise for their consumers. We pitched this to several clients, and this platform is what ultimately led to our acquisition. The fact that Railwaymen was able to make those pivots efficiently and effectively, really speaks to the flexibility and adaptability of their design.

What is the team composition?

When we began working with Railwaymen, their team was composed of their co-founders, but as they grew, so did the development team we worked with. I think, when our project closed, they had grown to 15–20 FTEs.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

My co-founder knew a consultant from previous work with a social media website, and that consultant was our initial connection to Railwaymen. He was very comfortable with them and had previous success using them, so he recommended Railwaymen, we signed a year-long contract with them (through the consultant), and for the subsequent years, we worked more directly with them.

Instead of going through an arduous vetting process that we didn’t have the time or bandwidth for, we had an initial two-week trial with them to assess their efficiency and work quality. From the first day, they were adding value and fixing bugs, so we knew they would be a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a little over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from 2010­–2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can’t recall exact numbers, but as we worked with Railwaymen we were able to secure a second round of seed financing, and we ultimately got acquired.

Our first platform had roughly 500 apps, and at the time of acquisition, it was generating $10,000–$12,000 a month in revenue. Through the second platform we sold about $150,000 worth of software licensing, and Railwaymen was certainly instrumental in building both of those products. The final platform they developed is what ultimately led to us being acquired.

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve worked with outsourced engineering and IT companies for many years, and all around the globe. Railwaymen is by far the best in terms of quality and project management. They set deadlines and delivered on time. Especially Lukasz (Co-founder and CEO, Railwaymen) was very focused on the project management and excellent at estimating accurate timelines.

On occasion, things would run over, but it never presented a problem. I respected and appreciated that every day, every week, every month they delivered with the right pace. There wasn’t an ebb-and-flow in their productivity. It was consistent.

We used Skype for most of our communication, leveraging both chat and video calls. Beyond that, we used a pivotal tracker.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with Railwaymen’s consistency, test coverage, and how well they integrated into our team. Many times, when you work with a growing consulting shop, there is a lot of turnover in the roles and it’s difficult to maintain a level of quality and consistent productivity. Over the several years we worked with their team, beginning with two people and growing to include more, they provided consistent service.

The fact that our project pivoted twice in two different platforms, and we didn’t break the platform either time, is a huge testament to their good test coverage on the product.

Lastly, Railwaymen really felt like an extension of our team. They tried to understand the problems we wanted to solve, and challenged them when necessary. They asked the right questions to help us deliver the best product, and that’s something I haven’t found in my experience with many offshore consultancies. I will take any future chance I have to work with them again.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our engagement ended a few years ago, so they might have this available now, but the only place I could identify for them to augment their services would be through offering UI/UX design—becoming more full stack developers and designers.

It wasn’t something they offered when we worked together, so we had to work with somebody else on that front, and Railwaymen would implement their work. In regards to the services that we asked for, they did a great job; they excelled.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to communicate with them and remain open to back-and-forth discussion. They’re an agile team—meaning they operate in incremental sprints—so you can’t give them requirements, leave them alone, and then come back in three weeks. They want your input on their progress and recommendations on where to refine their deliverables. As long as you prefer that methodology, they’re a great fit.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I co-founded a startup that’s developing a SaaS product for the B2B market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Railwaymen?

We identified a niche market and came up with a product idea to cover that segment. We engaged Railwaymen to build an MVP.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted the product to meet customers’ needs. To be ready for market, the MVP had to have great UI/UX, stable functionality, and scalability.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We looked at review sites and subsequently interviewed 20 companies. We then narrowed our selection by considering team members, relevant case studies, and MVP development approaches. Railwaymen was the best fit according to these factors.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

Railwaymen is responsible for all technical aspects of the MVP build. The team also serves as our sparring partner when we need to resolve unexpected challenges.

What was the team composition?

We work with six people in total. The team includes a project manager, UI/UX designers, and backend and frontend developers. Our organization serves as the product owner.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The product is great. We’ve already received positive feedback from early adopters.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We have weekly follow-up meetings and communicate via Slack and Jira. The collaboration is seamless; there are no language barriers. Railwaymen stays on schedule, even during the summer holiday months.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team’s ability to align with our goals is outstanding. We needed a full-stack development partner and Railwaymen has delivered up to our expectations. They understand the product and what we want to achieve for our clients.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

No. We look forward to our continued collaboration with Railwaymen as we develop additional functionalities for our product.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the operations director of a multinational company that works with clients from all around the world. We have four different branches: telecommunications, fintech, finance, and smart-home solutions aimed at hotels. I work for the telecom branch.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

We primarily develop in Java and C++, and we didn’t have a specialist for Ruby on Rails. One of our clients asked us to help them with a project that required that technology.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our client had an existing solution that they wanted to expand by making changes to the core of the product. Railwaymen primarily managed the frontend processes, but they made some changes to make on the backend to speed up the platform as well. The service was growing tenfold, so this was the primary challenge to address. Since the end of the project, they’ve helped manage and display telecommunications data to keep our infrastructure up to date.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people from their team, including Lukasz (Co-Founder and CEO, Railwaymen), who was our main contact. We also worked directly with the developers.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

I know one of their founders personally, and I knew that they worked with Ruby on Rails. I needed to develop something quickly, and asked him if the team could help us with that. He told me that he was in the midst of a project, but that he would refer me to Lukasz. I got in touch with him, described the project, and he told me that it was easily doable.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with Railwaymen between July–December 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This was not a big project for us, and it was done on behalf of a client, so we didn’t track any key performance indicators. We simply needed to make it happen before the end of 2017, in accordance with our client’s timeline. We got positive feedback on the work we provided and reached out to Railwaymen again after that. We will be working together on other projects in the future.

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

It was a smooth development process. They were responsive and met with us whenever we needed to discuss an issue with the client’s application. Our developers were using Skype to communicate. Everything on our end is stored in Microsoft cloud. We can’t share that content easily with third-parties, so we’ve relied on tools like Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Based on my experience in the field, I’ve found Railwaymen to be especially agile and client-oriented. This is very important, and I’ve come to rely on this kind of behavior. I’m working for a large company, and I see the kind of inertia that can come with this. Working with smaller companies is much simpler, since they can work more flexibly. They’re really good at what they do. Railwaymen has been able to deliver fixes on small projects within an hour. They have very effective specialists that consistently meet expectations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not currently. The process was slightly complicated by the fact that they were working for our client and we had to serve as a proxy, but everything went well.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I think that clients simply have to keep their finger on the pulse of the project and stay in touch with Railwaymen. Their team knows what can be done.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the co-founder and CEO of an online platform that connected students interested in music and fine arts with available teachers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

We needed someone to help maintain our established app and platform after its launch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They acted as our engineering and software development team. Directly after the launch, they helped us with bug fixes, quick adjustments, and system optimization efforts. The continued to design, develop, implement, and test new features as our platform grew.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with a team of three. Railwaymen sent members of their broader engineering support staff for assistance on bigger tasks.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

A friend highly recommended their services because of their high-quality results and proficiency with Ruby on Rails. We had them design a small feature and we were so pleased that we moved all of our resources over to the Railwaymen team.

How much have you invested in them?

I don’t have an exact number, but we definitely spent tens of thousands of dollars throughout the engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from February—June 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The company grew and we ended up selling. The team also helped us with that process by briefing us about tech stacks and preparing us for other technical conversations.

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

Though we were based in entirely different time-zones, communication was consistent and easy. A team member was always available to answer questions and meeting and discussion schedules were planned in our favor. They were extremely understanding and collaborative throughout the engagement.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Not only can Railwaymen provide results, but they can talk you through the business principles behind their strategies. It never felt like we were working with an out-sourced coder, they became part of our team and worked to develop our app in the best possible way. The work they provided for the price they charged was exceptional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was some difficulty in learning our entire code base from scratch, but they picked it up quickly and continued to progress with the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It is really important that the client is clear on how the engagement model is going to work. Structure is extremely important when communicating and scheduling with a company based in a different time zone.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the cofounders for an e-learning video site for sports. We are an online academy for sports coaching and education.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

Our site already existed, but we wanted to add new features for our second version launch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Everything is built in Ruby on Rails, but we also use Java, HTML, and React Native. We used a layered, tiered approach to organize video tags and add subcategories to our playlists. We improved the look and feel of our homepage and boosted our SEO. We wanted an easier onboarding process for our users and a better backend. We also wanted features like marking a video as viewed. We wanted to organize our media into a clear curriculum.

We already had our key features sketched out in InDesign, so we pushed through modifications and templates in both InDesign and through Skype screensharing. They made changes and sent regular progress reports.

What is the team composition?

I work with a team of three, including a backend developer, frontend developer, and a project manager. They’re talented and fixed all the bugs right away. We emailed each week and they completed tests quickly. They had a good synergy and were always very accommodating.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

We needs someone with a bigger team that could finish the project quickly. We had worked with developers around our area but needed more flexibility with the team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2018. They worked on development for two or three weeks before we launched phase 2. They’ll be working on additional features for that. We’re in constant communication and get reports from them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All of the features work well. Our users enjoy the features and don’t have any issues. Their work is good on both the front- and backend.

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very timely and are quick to respond. They always got back to us within 10–12 hours. They’ve provided good changes and feel like part of the team. Most of our conversations happened early in the morning and we didn’t have any difficulty communicating with anyone we interfaced with. We’ve given them more tasks and features and plan on using them until we’re big enough to have an in-house team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re highly skilled in Ruby. Our site was advanced when they joined us. They understood it, made changes, and added features within a week.  I’m impressed by how quickly they diagnose bugs and issues. We often have solutions within a day.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had a little bit of a learning curve as we toggled between InDesign and Skype. There was one small misunderstanding with a feature and how it worked on the frontend. The issue was on both sides and we should have had a better system of checks and balances. Once we resolved that, the work went smoothly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

There isn’t anything to look out for. They’re extremely good coders and very resourceful. I highly recommend their work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of TherapyfindR, an online marketplace for speech-language therapists.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

Because our service essentially derived from an online search model, we needed resources to build a website with functions that allowed us to run our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, they leveraged their graphic design team to provide a couple of site design options. Once we approved this, they proceeded to develop our basic site using Ruby on Rails while also incorporating certain features that we requested.

One of the key functions involved a location-based search. Users could input their zip code to set the search radius. At the time, we had difficulties defining the default settings, especially if the results fell outside of the designated radius. Railwaymen’s team addressed the issues and resolved the problem.

What is the team composition?

At the time, we worked directly with their founder, but we also occasionally spoke with one of their designers and a developer.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

A trusted colleague had worked with them previously and recommended them to us. At the time, we were looking at multiple off-shore developers and felt that Railywaymen was the most trustworthy and capable. Our internal coder also felt very comfortable with their team, so we decided to go with them after a few conversations.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $10,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work lasted from October 2012–January 2014. However, the bulk of the work finished earlier than the end date; we just had a few tweaks here and there.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Back in 2011, it was harder to build a website compared to now, but they did a fantastic job. Speech pathologists who used our platform loved the new site, and we were completely satisfied with their work.

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

They were fantastic. We scheduled weekly calls to go over the project and address any inquiries, and they were totally amenable to our timelines. For all of our implementations, they gave us an outline or snapshot of how the page would look and then go over the functionalities.

We primarily communicated through email and Skype. Although collaborating with an overseas agency can raise some complications, they were always available. If we said we needed to talk the next day, then they would block off the time. On this front, they couldn’t have done anything better.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated how honest they were, and they consistently remained true to their word. They also worked at an exceptionally high level. Over the last six years, they’ve continued to grow, becoming more advanced than before. While we never went with a mobile application, I’m confident that they would have been competent enough to make it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s not reflective of Railwaymen if the customer constantly changes the design and project scope, so know what you want to do beforehand. Furthermore, it’s tremendous to work with the people you trust because you know that they’re going to build a functional product as promised.