Sophilabs

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CTO of an on-demand translation company for humanitarian workers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sophilabs?

We were expanding our engineering efforts and needed to release our mobile application on a shorter timeline than initially planned. We wanted to grow our team but didn’t have the capacity to go out and recruit, so we hired Sophilabs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

 They mostly did development on our mobile application. Basically, they were assigned to write code and also make sure that things were delivered on time from their end.

What is the team composition?

They dedicated a full-time engineer from their side and a project manager. Overall, it was five people that shifted throughout the engagements.

How did you come to work with Sophilabs?

They were referred to us by a friend of ours that had worked with them directly.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $5,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2019, and we finished as of June 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was particularly impressed by the level of quality in their engineering. Their attention to detail was also quite impressive. We work with a lot of different engineers, but it was comforting that these resources had the necessary skills to do the work, the right attention to detail, and were invested in our end goal of trying to improve. They became our thought partners in assessing how to grow our product to the benefit of our users. It was a pleasant outcome.

How did  Sophilabs perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very flexible and were able to use my Slack and our other meeting tools. From my side, they worked just like any other team member. I managed the cadence and how often we needed to communicate. They were extremely responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They showed investment in the overall success of the project, rather than just meeting their engineering objectives. They evolved to be a sort of partner and helped figure out what was best for the user, which was refreshing to see.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their resources changed at times, which impacted our project. Turnover is understandable, though, and it only happened once in four months. They handled it smoothly and provided discounts and reduced hours to make sure the transition was seamless. It’s wasn’t as good as the same person remaining on the project, but that was out of their control.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very explicit about what needs to be achieved, and develop your own timeline for it. It saves a lot of time since no one knows your needs better than you. If you have a very clear understanding of what needs to be achieved, it’ll be much easier for all parties to get on board.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Jared Chung, I'm the CEO of a career advice platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sophilabs?

We crowdsource career advice for underrepresented youth. Sophilabs provides software development to support this goal.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Referral

Describe the project in detail.

Sophilabs does everything software-development-related for our team, including front-end development, back-end development, system administration, and infrastructure / architecture design.

What was the team composition?

Typically 2 staff engineers at a time, plus one manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sophilabs has been our core engineering team for over 5 years.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We integrated Sophilabs into our day-to-day engineering workflow. They integrated seamlessly and the quality and reliability of their work have always been phenomenal.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They care about what we care about: the end user’s experience and business priorities. I love how they make helpful suggestions in the service of our students and surge when needed to meet critical business deadlines and needs. They’re invested in our organization’s success! And of course their engineering is fantastic as well.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Is there something the partner could have done better or differently? Not that I’m aware of.

What advice would you give to someone else considering to work with this company?

Give the Sophilabs room to shine – they can work across the whole stack, so I recommend embedding them deeply into your normal workflow.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We run a nonprofit arts foundation called the SmallsLIVE Foundation for Jazz, Arts, and Educations. We represent several jazz clubs in the New York City area the and artists that perform there.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sophilabs?

We were building a website that was quite complicated.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a massive audio-video archive of past performances, and they integrated it with a membership supporter system where people will be able to register as supporters and make tax-deductible donations to access our archive.

There was a previous site that was cruder than this one, so we built the entire thing from scratch. They used Python to build the site. We had a third-party designer do the look and graphics for the site, and they built underneath that.

We provided wireframes ahead of time. One of my staff worked alongside Martin (Co-Founder & CCO, Sophilabs) throughout the whole thing. My resource had enough knowledge to communicate my design and what we needed to them.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Martin directly. He worked with us nearly exclusively on the entire project and did a fantastic job.

How did you come to work with Sophilabs?

Another partner in my business found them. They worked together at a previous company.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve definitely spent over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since January 2019. The site launched a few days ago and Martin is helping us with all the post-launch issues.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re a very small company, and we’re only just getting this thing launched, but I’ve had some experience with other developers, and Sophilabs is by far the best I’ve ever worked with in terms of communication ability and quality of work.

How did Sophilabs perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very responsive, easy to work with, and attentive to our needs. We used Jira for our communication, as well as general emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve offered a very personal kind of support, and I think that’s rare in these days where everything is so virtual. They really went above and beyond. They’re very amenable to ideas and flexible as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. It’s all been very, very good.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go ahead and let them know what you want. Be as clear as possible. Have someone who knows to code or knows how websites are developed so that you can translate your needs into their language.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a company that provides inventory management and warehousing software for small- and medium-sized retailers. We handle everything from tracking physical inventory to getting products listed and managing sales and ordering information across e-commerce platforms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sophilabs?

We were working on streamlining our onboarding process to try to simplify and gather all the information our new users would need to get up and running with our services more quickly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project started with a very clear vision for what we needed, so we gave them detailed specifications of what we were asking them to do and then let them run with it from there. We had check-ins at least once a day, and any time issues came up or they had questions or concerns for us, they would reach out to us to get those handled so that they could continue.

How did you come to work with Sophilabs?

We did a lot of searching around to find the right service provider, and one thing that attracted us to them was that they’re based in Brooklyn like we are. Being able to do our initial meetings in person was a huge bonus for us, not only to be able to hit the ground running faster but having that ability at any point in what we hope will be a long-term engagement was very enticing to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $5,000-$10,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

That particular project ran from September–October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any specific metrics around onboarding time, but I know that their work has significantly increased the overall speed of that process. It has made things significantly easier in terms of both getting clients up and running as well as determining if we are the right fit for potential clients and if they’re a good fit for us.

How did Sophilabs perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very timely in all of the work and were always good about communicating their progress and any delays that came up. Their team was able to follow all of our instructions perfectly and delivered everything fully on time in the end.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Communication with them definitely set the experience head and shoulders above what a lot of other service providers are able to deliver. There wasn’t a lot of time wasted in the process going back and forth over various decisions we needed to make, if any, which was really impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It took a little bit of time at the beginning of the project to narrow down their focus from the scale of our entire platform to the specific piece that we were looking for them to help us improve, so that could probably have been handled better. I would say, though, that it might have been an issue with our communication as much as it was with theirs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We offer a visibility platform for transportation management systems, specifically in the intermodal drayage space. We optimize everything in the daily interactions between drivers and the digital life of shipping containers, including pickup and drop-off. I’m the chief commercial officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sophilabs?

We wanted a fresh perspective from a team outside the transportation space. We needed to rethink our UI/UX and wanted a team to act as an extension to our company in this project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They are our UX/UI point team. We established a contract model with them, but consider them a part of our team. They are a part of all our internal communication channels, and they assisted us with building the platform up from scratch.

We gave them guardrails, but offered them some autonomy to be free thinkers. We had to build an open platform that allowed us to utilize other APIs to pull in data and have a bi-directional relationship with whoever we chose to work with.

We’re about to go live with one of our products. They’re instrumental in pulling in additional features and functionality, and they make helpful suggestions for changes to our original builds. We have two-week sprints with them, and they always hit the mark.

What is the team composition?

We have a dedicated team of four, and we can flex up or down as needed for various projects or sprints.

How did you come to work with Sophilabs?

We wanted to outsource a company that was familiar with the technologies we use, including Slack and Trello. We also wanted to contract a company that was in or near our time zone to improve communication and collaboration. Sophilabs is only an hour different from us, and everyone on their team speaks fluent English. We decided they were a good fit, and we’ve worked together for years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started about three years ago and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re excellent partners, and they help us stay lean and mean. We aggressively pursue quality, and are leapfrogging over anything else available in the market today. From a UI perspective, the product is intuitive and easy to use.

How did Sophilabs perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very responsive, and we have different layers of connectivity. I either speak directly with the CEO or another team member at regular intervals, and we have quarterly calls to review our teams. We also meet quarterly to plan out the next quarter or two and find new ways to push the envelope. Our teams communicate daily through Slack or email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very progressive, and they always bring fresh ideas. I wish more teams attacked the market the way they do. We never have any surprises, and get alerts immediately whenever there is a change in personnel. We know how every team member is doing, and know that our companies mesh well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had a bit of a slow start, but that’s to be expected. We didn’t have a purely defined plan, so it took seven or eight months to gain traction and communicate properly. Once we figured out what we were doing, the product started to evolve and develop. It’s a brand-new product in the market, and the speed was mostly on us. As soon as we had a clear direction, they picked it up immediately.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be prepared and have a clear roadmap of what you want. The more you can give them, the better they will do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the data science lead for a multinational biotech company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sophilabs?

We hired Sophilabs to develop our internal iOS chatbot application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve relied on Sophilabs for all design and development aspects of the iOS chatbot. We presented them with our idea of what we were looking for conceptually. A previous vendor developed a rough prototype, so we tasked Sophilabs with building it out.

What is the team composition?

Our core team started off with a product manager supported by two developers and now consists of 3 developers, a data engineer, and other part-time members as necessary.

How did you come to work with Sophilabs?

Initially, I looked for Python developers for an internal application, and a previous firm I have worked with recommended Sophilabs. They presented their thoughts for that project, and, even though I thought they could have done a good job, other internal stakeholders were not ready to give them the chance. However, based on that meeting, I thought they were better suited for our internal iOS application project.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in October 2018 and remains ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We reached our first milestone—introducing a pilot phase to a few users—in January 2019. Using their feedback and some other ideas, we’re further developing the application and preparing to scale it for use by hundreds of users.

How did Sophilabs perform from a project management standpoint?

Based on agile methods used by other companies, I expected to be in daily scrum meetings, but Sophilabs proved early on that they work well with little supervision. It was evident that I didn’t have to be that involved, which allowed me to tend to other tasks. If Sophilabs ran into any issues, they communicated those to us. We still meet weekly and provide feedback. I’d say we have an appropriate amount of touchpoints.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Halfway through our engagement with the vendor that made our prototype, I was convinced that the firm was not going to be able to deliver what we needed. That’s when I engaged with Sophilabs, and within 6–8 weeks, they delivered a version that was already superior to the first vendor’s. Sophilabs presented us with a product that we were proud to show people.

Sophilabs showcases increased attention to user experience and usability. They’ve identified elements that we hadn’t thought about. They think through features end-to-end. They’re also unafraid to push back when they feel they need to. Our team entered with preconceived notions of how the app should function, but they made a strong case for why it wouldn’t work that way. They’ve challenged us to think about problems in a different way.

Further, I appreciate how well Sophilabs handles their business. I’m impressed by how they manage internal processes, onboard staff, and gather information. Other firms talk about their success in those areas, but it’s just lip service. Sophilabs delivers on what they say.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Most software developers will have an inception workshop, and I believe the best ones are held over multiple sessions with different stakeholders. Sophilabs’ workshop was two sessions and didn’t allow us to be as in-depth as we would have liked.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think there’s definite value in selecting the right developer. Future clients should evaluate the maturity of an offshore developer—the amount of rework necessary and the gaps in communication will end up making offshore resources costlier unless the partner has good internal processes and a mature software development lifecycle. Sophilabs is mindful of doing things well the first time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Managing Director, Product Development of OneGoal

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Non profit education

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sophilabs to accomplish?

• Maintenance

SOLUTION

How did you find Sophilabs?

Referral

Why did you select Sophilabs over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from Sophilabs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Maintenance of frontend, backend, and reporting

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Accuracy was improved with our API

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes. Very responsive.

What was your primary form of communication with Sophilabs?

Virtual Meeting

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

The team does not require a lot of hand holding, partially due to the team already having worked on the platform but I felt like I can trust them.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Commercial Officer of Fierce Whiskers Distillery

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We create Texas Straight Rye and Bourbon Whiskey! 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sophilabs to accomplish?

• Create a more SEO optimized website
• Launch e-commerce capabilities
• Deliver an improved UX design

SOLUTION

How did you find Sophilabs?

Referral

Why did you select Sophilabs over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Sophilabs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We partnered to develop a revised Shopify template that improved our ability to showcase and sell whiskey on our site. This included adding whiskey for e-commerce, developing a lighter, simpler layout and updating links for our brand. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Website launch!

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes everything was timely, thorough, and the team was super easy to work with. 

What was your primary form of communication with Sophilabs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Sophilabs is a great partner in taking us through a specific process with steps, tools and communication that made the website and easy launch. 

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

No, they were wonderful to work with!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-founder and Head of Product of Masterworks

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Stock market for fine art

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sophilabs to accomplish?

• Rapid responde engineer team to deal with priority issues and fixes

SOLUTION

How did you find Sophilabs?

• worked with them before

Why did you select Sophilabs over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Sophilabs were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We have a platform that requires fixing on a priority basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

features released and bugs fixed

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

really well and always on time

What was your primary form of communication with Sophilabs?

• Virtual Meeting

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

flexibility and communication style

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

none, working with them was a great experience!