Railwaymen

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.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a partner and managing director of a medium-sized law firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

We were looking to have a webpage built from scratch, as well as an application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our webpage is an ordinary landing page for our business, containing the information about what we do, as well as our contact information and maps. Railwaymen took care of the technical side, working with the different people involved in the project. They did most of the backend development and collaborated with the designers at the frontend.

The mobile application was a digital added-value project developed for both Android and iOS and created for clients and public use. The main goal was to put in process functionality. Within the business of law, there are different standard templates, contracts, or agreements used for trades like carpentry, as well as other typical construction projects. We wanted to make those available in digital format, so they developed the technology of producing a document onsite when working on projects, as well as making it easy to go through the different questions to be answered. We put in the important parts of ordinary paper-based documents, which can then be sent to predefined or added-in email addresses.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

We met them in Oslo at an event. I got the impression they were skilled and had capable IT engineers. When we had the idea regarding the app and webpage, we contacted them to try them out, which has worked out well for us.

How much have you invested in them?

We've spent between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2013, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They do all the configuration based on Ruby on Rails, the projects are well-managed, and they are skilled people. There have been some challenges, like with any developer, but the projects have gone well. They are good with timelines, deliver in accordance with the estimates given, and are loyal and reliable when it comes to milestones and estimates.

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

In general, it's been good. We usually communicate through email, phone, and Skype. We mainly use cloud services and also share information using Dropbox.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are good at using efficient and relevant technology to satisfy their customer’s needs and the project they're running. They have advised us on different technologies and how to run the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It hasn’t really been a problem, but you could consider the coordination between the timing, communication, and so forth when using different suppliers as an issue. We've had a multi-sourcing approach to these services. This isn't something we can blame them for, however, as it's more of a general challenge in projects when using more than one supplier.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of ProTenders, a construction platform. We help companies from hundreds of countries connect, get more opportunities, find people to work with, and then streamline the whole bidding process.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

Based on a customer request, we needed someone to revamp a 4-year-old application by completely rewriting the whole frontend side to make it more in line with the rest of the app. We had an existing in-house solution built on Ruby on Rails. Railwaymen’s job was to work with our team to expand it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The old site's backend base used regular CSS and HTML. The first task was to revamp its look and feel and have it match the new site, on both sides and with a new foundation. The second task was to develop a survey module with various types of questions and formats of answers and points of validation.

With that finished, they've now been helping with data-driven analysis of bids and figuring out which ones are below market prices, above market prices, and other things we do.

What is the team dynamic?

They built the team around our needs, with about 10 people. We have the CTO, their project managers, and several backend and frontend developers. We've been very fortunate to have always had the same people.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

They came highly recommended by people we were already collaborating with. We gave them a small job at first, and they did very well, so we hired them for the whole project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together November of last year, and the work is ongoing. Once this project is completed, we might continue with other projects because they’ve been so good.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Overall, it’s been accepted by the customer who requested the actual feature. We will be rolling it out next month after fixing up little bugs.

There's been a low number of customer tickets. We don't have any major issues.

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

In the beginning, we spent a week in their office making sure they understood the product, the process, the application, and the domain. Since then, communication's mostly through Jira, HipChat, and Slack. Daily calls are no longer needed.

When they commit to something, they deliver it. If they can’t do something on time, they tell us. It’s the first time in a long while that I don’t feel taken advantage of by a company. They’ve been very effective with the payment terms and the amount of work coming in. They adjust the team size according to our needs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're not like many teams I’ve worked with, where you tell them to do A and they just do it. They take the time to think about what A means and how to integrate it with the application. They do more than just code, they've become part of the team. They always try and find the best solution for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of itsashort.com, an online platform for award-winning and award-nominated short films, videos, and web series.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

We needed to have a site that worked. We had used three different technology providers, but they built sites that didn’t work. That was our consistent experience. Every time we went to a new firm, they would design the site, tell us it was ready, and it wouldn’t work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our original site was built in one language which was not Railwaymen's specialty, but they said they could help us. The technical side of our site is not complicated, but how the site works is. I used the old site as a way of gauging whether or not they could understand what we were building; what we wanted to design, how it needed to work, how the pieces needed to fit together, and the kind of customer experience we wanted our subscriber base to have. They fixed it and then I hired them to build me the second site.

I asked them to develop every single aspect of our website. Our site is built from the ground-up, so it’s a native site using Ruby on Rails. We worked through the UI/UX [user interface/user experience], which has been refined. Then they built the architecture. They selected our vendors. Amazon and AWS [Amazon Web Services] is our server. We use Telestream and they did all the coding. They didn't do the design, however. I had another woman do our design who was pretty amazing. They worked seamlessly with her, and vice versa. Despite geographical distance, it was a great collaboration.

We did split the testing because it made sense to not have them be solely responsible for the testing. You need independent, objective third party people to push the testing, to make sure all the aspects of the site work. I think that’s good practice. They were fine with it, and so we did that. Any adjustments that needed to be made, they made.

The building of the site took much longer than they had originally intended and thought. That did not deter them at all. I wanted it to be a responsive site because we don’t have a mobile platform. There were things on the responsive side that they recommended that we took advantage of. They also did our backend SEO.

What is the team dynamic? 

The project grew and involved different people depending on what’s going on. They have a marketing person, a UI/UX person, and then they have a couple of people who are more junior who do little projects. I don’t talk to them at all.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

I wanted the site to be in Rails. Marcin [co-founder and CIO, Railwaymen] had been doing some consulting work in San Francisco and came to Austin for a festival where we met. He told me who he was and who he worked for. I asked him what technology they use, and he told me they were a Rails firm but could do PHP too. I got his number and told him I wanted to set up a call.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000 over the course of our relationship.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2012 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

First of all, my site works. When people are logging in now, it works. When people register, it works. When people click play, they can actually watch a video. Their job is to make sure that the experience is seamless. Most of our users fall in the 18 to 45 age range and they are used to using technology all day long for everything. We have to achieve that level of performance, and we do.

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

The first deadline they did not stick to because the amount of work involved was way more than anybody knew. We had integration issues with our API due to our use of PayPal - that was the most significant issue we had.

We communicate through MeisterTask which they suggested. I’m in Chicago and they’re in Krakow, so there’s a six or seven-hour difference. When you factor that in, they are very responsive. I hear from them within 24 hours, if not sooner. I principally reach out to Łukasz [co-founder and CEO] and Tomek [senior Ruby on Rails developer], because they’re both on the daily technology side.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are total geniuses and they can figure out anything. They figured out how to enable us to post our videos on Facebook, because Facebook only allowed Vimeo, YouTube, and another company. If you just wanted to post some video from your phone, you’d have to upload it to YouTube first. They figured out the workaround on that. They can figure out any kind of workaround you need for anything. They’re amazing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re a B2B and a B2C platform. On the B2B side, how our filmmakers interface with our site is very understandable. But in terms of how consumers interface with our site, we have to explain to them about the U.S. market. It’s not a big deal, it’s just something that you have to do if you’re in the consumer space. If you’re not doing anything that’s consumer-related, then this will never come up.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We develop cost-estimating software for the construction industry. I am the president and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

We had a legacy software product that’s been on a client-server type of a framework. We needed to move to a full cloud environment and we didn’t have the expertise in-house to do so.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They started with a full evaluation of our legacy product. It utilized a Microsoft SQL database and it was developed with Visual Basic. Not only is it a database that handles costing for the construction industry, but a graphical component also allows for measurements of blueprints. They evaluated it and came back with recommendations for the best platform to build our new cloud version on and what tools they would use.

The platform is commercially sold. It’s used to put together sales proposals for construction companies for the projects they’re building or quoting on. It also allows them to measure the blueprints to come up with quantities so they can justify a cost.

We’ve had multiple releases of our product. We’re already up to version seven of the product that they developed for us. We put out updates approximately every 60 days.

What is the team dynamic?

Right now we have five developers and one project manager. Our team has gone up to eight or nine people at one point.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

Once we knew we were making a move to the cloud, we did research for a particular platform. They were one of the 30 companies that we interviewed worldwide to help us with this project. Being a relatively small business with fewer than 100 employees, we wanted to have direct contact with the ownership of their company as well. They were the most enthusiastic about the new project. They had the most experience in the platform we were looking for. The communication was easy. Within an hour or two, we were on a Skype call discussing it. That’s the hands-on approach that we are familiar with and were looking for.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested $700,000–$800,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2015 and the work is ongoing. We’ll be working with them forever.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had a large opportunity available to us if our product was a cloud-based product. With Railwaymen’s help, within four or five months, we were able to create the first generation of the product on the cloud. It helped us to win a multi-million dollar contract.

With revenue generating, we’ve gone into different market segments that we weren’t in before. Now we’re able to reach clientele in the construction world that have multiple offices in multiple cities, states, and countries. It’s opened up a whole new world for us.

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

Our prior development shop that worked with our legacy product was based in India. It’s a different culture working with Railwaymen in Poland because we have certain deadlines, and if they need to be met, they’re all hands on deck to make sure they are met. We didn’t have that with our last developer. We needed that. They’re on board to make sure that deadlines are met. If they need to go the extra mile, they do that. We have daily stand-ups. We use Pivotal to manage our projects. We have daily feedback from them and send it back and forth. It’s been very easy to manage.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There’s a pride of ownership. They know that their name is on this and they are going the extra mile no matter what the situation is. That started with Lukasz [Co-Founder & CEO, Railwaymen] from the top. He was involved as our project manager for the first year. Having the CEO of the company make sure that he was involved in our project on a daily basis made us feel important as a client.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We didn’t start with the Pivotal project manager right from day one. Any new client should start with some type of a base project management system to start with. It took us a couple of months to get that set up. Once we did that, things started to go really smoothly. It just helps with ease of communication.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I co-founded a business called Cookthink, which started in 2006. We thought that a database of good recipes, ones which worked, made sense, and were well written, would create a superior way for people to find recipes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

Of our two co-founders, I was more technically-inclined, but not to the level of the search and refined algorithms we needed. We knew what we wanted, and we had models for it, so we began to look around for someone to help us do it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we started working with Railwaymen on the search tool, they didn’t only listen to the instructions we gave them, but also read a lot of what we’d already done, saw who we were and who our audience was, and helped make a tool which would both appeal to them, as well as to a broader audience.

We knew how to talk about what we wanted from the perspective of a future user, but not in terms of how the site would operate and how we could deliver it. One of the many things I liked about Railwaymen was that they were able to articulate options for what we wanted to deliver and coach us on what they thought the best option was for running the site and what experience the user should have.

What is the team dynamic? 

Łukasz Młynek, their CEO, has remained my main point of contact over the years. From early on, we began to think about them as a third partner, and this deepened over time.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

When prototyping, we initially worked with someone else, and we left that experience feeling that we wouldn’t be able to articulate the concept in a way which would help someone make what we envisioned. In the process, we found a graphic design firm in New York, called OrangeYouGlad. We liked some of their work, and the mix of things they’d done. 

We went through the initial design phase, and it turned out that they had worked on some projects with the personnel of Railwaymen, doing everything from brochure sites to banking systems. They introduced us to Railwaymen, and we liked their approach. Our previous experience with an outside programmer was more of a for-hire relationship, but our initial impression of Railwaymen was that they were all-in, like partners.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost of the work with Railwaymen, since 2009, has been between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with personnel who are now a part of Railwaymen in 2007, but who were with a different company then. We decided to switch to Railwaymen when they started in 2009 because we liked working with them. They were the people who made the experience of working with the other company a good one, and they were the ones who understood the real nuts and bolts of how the site worked. They helped us envision and build it.

We continue to work together on an ad-hoc basis. We had a performance issue recently, and Railwaymen dipped in and fixed it. I’ve also been talking with them over the past one or two years about a possible next life for Cookthink.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve let the site languish in the last few years, and haven’t updated it much. It now needs a refresh and some performance upgrades, but this is on us. Railwaymen encouraged us to keep the site up when we were thinking of pulling down the site since we’d both moved on to other things. While it doesn’t look great, seeing it operate shows that some real thought and muscle went into it.

It’s hard to quantify the results as they would be zero without Railwaymen. Every bit of traffic the site has had has been because of them. We had an idea and vision, but those are useless without execution. Railwaymen was able to remarkably see what we wanted to do, and turn it into something usable. Everything which worked about Cookthink was due to their involvement with the project on a more committed level than what a contractor would have.  

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

Early on, we used Basecamp in the development phase and moved over to Google Drive, email, and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing about them, outside of their technical prowess (which I consider a prerequisite), was their commitment to not only seeing the project through, but continuing to be involved in the project well after its completion for improvements. They were also always thinking about ways in which the site could exist elsewhere; for example, new platforms, new ways to drive people to the site, and new features which may interest users of the site. Railwaymen remained committed to the project as if they are a partner.

Often, their proposals were not ones which would have awarded them higher fees, and this is why I began to think of Railwaymen as a third partner, instead of a firm we’d hired to help us with the buildout. This has remained true to this day. Railwaymen invested in the project from early on, not just because we were paying them, but because they wanted it to be great as much as we did. They are responsible for everything that has been good about Cookthink.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Early on, there was a bit of a language barrier, but this is not an issue anymore. Their English is much better than my Polish.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO and co-founder of a digital lending platform that white labels to mortgage lenders across the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

In the US, the mortgage process is painful, outdated, and paper-based. All of the documentation involved in the process is very confusing. Most people we talk to don’t really understand what the mortgage process is all about, they just respond to requests from their lenders throughout the 45-day process of getting a mortgage. We wanted to address this problem from a digital standpoint and bring simplicity, transparency, and efficiency to the mortgage process for consumers.

We wanted a web solution and needed both the marketing website and web-based application developed. We had a very basic platform, but we got rid of it and started from scratch with Railwaymen.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The process was very interactive. Railwaymen asked questions to help us refine our concept to help determine what they were going to build. They worked to understand the different features that we wanted and the UI/UX experience we wanted for the borrowers. They were very helpful guiding us through the process. We did weekly calls to refine anything that needed to be refined and to make changes.

Part of the mortgage process is going through an interview, and that was the way we structured our platform. They developed a dynamic, intelligent interview process. Railwaymen helped us lay the foundation for a smart decision tree, that sends the user down one path or another depending on how they answer a question; that interview process was the main thing that we worked with them on.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with one project manager and one lead developer. Sometimes, a second developer was involved.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

They were recommended to us by another entrepreneur who had used them and spoke very highly of them. We had worked with another company and it was a nightmare, and so we were a little bit apprehensive because we had had a really bad experience. We looked at Railwaymen’s past work, but the fact that they were recommended by someone we trust was the most important factor. We interviewed Railwaymen and they were very professional and knowledgeable, both of which were very important to us.

How much have you invested with them?

Between $10,000 and $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2013. Their work ended in May 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They made the MVP that we went to market with. We received a lot of traffic and the solution was able to support all of that traffic. We also received great feedback about the user experience because the interview process was very intelligently designed.

Railwaymen never had an issue delivering things on time or within budget.

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

Our main project manager at Railwaymen was great. Their team was very responsive, and the time difference was never an issue. At the time, we were already using Basecamp internally. Railwaymen accommodated us and used Basecamp as well; they were very flexible with how we communicated.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing was their professionalism - they were incredibly professional throughout the whole process. At the time, it was just my co-founder and me, and neither of us are technical people. Working with somebody who really took the time and the care to explain things in a way that we would understand them was very important, and Railwaymen did that. They were patient with us and helped us along the way. The experience we had with a previous technology company was horrible because it felt more like they just wanted to make a quick buck and to do low-quality work just be done with it. with Working with Railwaymen was much more of a collaborative process; it felt like they were part of our team. They gave us suggestions and ideas, which was very cool.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. We have referred several customers to them and we've never had anything negative to say about them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of BookWhiz Media, Inc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Railwaymen?

We worked with Railwaymen to create a fun iPad iOS app to encourage kids to read more. The app is intended for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Railwaymen was the one and only development company that we used from the very beginning. We spoke with them about our vision, and they worked with us side-by-side the entire time until it was complete. We consider them part of our team. They helped us develop our strategy. They also helped us with launching the application in the App Store.

They integrated the Amazon API so that kids could scan in books that they have on their bookshelves and easily create a virtual library of all their hard copy books. Although they can't read the book online, kids and their parents can see what books they have and track what kids are reading. The app also has a timer so that kids can keep track of how much time they've spent reading a book. It helps mark where they left off and when they finish a book. On the parents’ side, it lets parents create rewards for their kids once they've earned points for reading books.

It was originally created as a consumer app for parents and their kids, and then we got some feedback from teachers and we went ahead and worked with Lukasz [CEO and Founder, Railwaymen] to create a teacher version of the same app, so there are two versions of the app.

How did you come to work with Railwaymen?

They were the first and only company we reached out to. We knew this was whom we wanted to work with because my husband had previous experience with them and found out about them from a friend of his.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested close to $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them in May of 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

People love how the app is really easy for kids to use. The feedback from parents is that they love it, and their kids love it. The teachers that were using the consumer version said it was a great idea and they're very happy to have a teacher version that really translates well to a classroom. We got a really nice review on GeekWire back when it launched.

The biggest issues we ran into were external factors related to the API that we used or Apple changing things, which had nothing to do with their work.

How did Railwaymen perform from a project management standpoint?

I'm very positive about the way that they deal with everything. I worked with Lukasz one-on-one. He was always on top of things and very responsive. If we had an issue, we would work together to resolve it. Most of our communication was via e-mail directly with Lukasz. When we were creating it, we had weekly phone calls as well.

When they were building the app, we used iOS tools so we could see what they were doing and comment. Once the app was ready to go in for submission, we reviewed everything and checked for QA using TestFlight.

What did you find most impressive about them?

He really believed in what we were doing. He put everything into creating what we wanted and what he thought was going to be successful. I really appreciated his personal approach.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always some challenges when you're working with somebody overseas. That would be the only issue. I don't know if they can do anything about that, but sometimes time is an issue – if it’s a real emergency, there's always a little bit of a delay. Lukasz was really good about getting back to us in a timely manner.